Reveling in Ravello

Today we discovered Ravello, the favorite Italian town of Greta Garbo, Richard Wagner, and D. H. Lawrence.

It’s a hill town that perches high above the Amalfi Coast and serves as a focal point for music.

We’re here for a piano concert tonight after a full afternoon of exploring the town and the gardens.

We went together with our traveling companions to buy a case of wine, which will be shipped home. The wine shop was called “Wine and Drugs.” When I asked why drugs, he produced a 24-year-old bottle of the best Balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted. We now own that too.

We spent hours exploring the gardens of the Villa Cimprone, which offers the finest view of the coast around.



We arrived back at the piazza to find an Italian wedding just finished.


Dinner was at Cumpa’ Cosimo, where Netta Bottone has been serving up pasta for the past 45 years. She just kept bringing food we didn’t even order.

I’m sitting out in the piazza writing as we wait for the 9:30 p.m. concert to begin. It’s a pianist playing Shubert, Chopin, and Liszt. It doesn’t get much better than that.