Sitting high atop a promontory that offers stunning views of the Mediterranean and the dramatic coastline below, the Villa Cimbrone is the crown laurel of Ravello.
Villa Cimbrones origins are very old, dating back to the eleventh century. The villa and its gardens were strongly innovated only later, precisely at the beginning of the twentieth century, by the English nobleman Lord Grimthorpe.
Being now privately owned – Villa Cimbrone is one of the most luxurious hotels in the Mediterranean – it can only be visited in part. The rich garden is open to the public: it is possible to go along Viale dell’Immenso, shaded by a dense wisteria cover, from which you can see the figures of the Four Dancers, behind colored hydrangeas and cherry trees.
Viale dell’Immenso ends with the Statue of Cerere, which introduces the visitor to the Belvedere Terrace or Infinity Terrace: an incomparable natural balcony, adorned with marble busts from the 1700s. The view overlooks the crystalline sea of the Amalfi Coast, from the Cilento mountains to the tip of Licosa. Inside the park there is a natural cave, called Grotta di Eva, in which there is a statue of the goddess.
A ladder, covered by a wisteria trellis, leads to the Terrace of Roses, where beautiful and fragrant varieties flourish. At the centre there is a sundial in light stone, while on the sides there are four ornamental statues: Flora (Goddess of flowers and Spring), Leda with Swan and two fighters: Damosseno and Greucante. The Cloister of Villa Cimbrone, Arab-Sicilian-Norman style, is characterized by mullioned windows framed by pointed arches resting on spiral columns; the walls are decorated with bas-reliefs and ancient terracotta.
The Crypt presents massive columns and a shaded interior from which you can see wide views of the Mediterranean Sea. Very special is the Tea-room, a place conceived as a living space in close communion with the surrounding nature. It is in fact a building with a rectangular plan, with a long side open on the rose garden, through arches supported by slender twisted pillars, decorated with majolica tiles.
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“Twenty five years ago I was asked by an American magazine what was the most beautiful place that I had ever seen in all my travels and I said the view from the belvedere of the Villa Cimbrone on a bright winter’s day when the sky and the sea were each so vividly blue that it was not possible to tell one from the other.”
Gore Vidal