Ravello Sits 365 Metres Above Amalfi, and Only Seven Kilometres of Hairpins Lead There: the Place the Crowd Never Found

The Amalfi Coast has a problem few places in the world would call a problem: too many people want to see it. Amalfi, Positano, Maiori and Minori are down at the water's edge, linked by a narrow road where buses pass each other with centimetres to spare, and in July you can see neither the sea nor the village there - you can see people. And then there is Ravello.

Ravello sits 365 metres above the coast, hidden in Mediterranean vegetation. It is only seven kilometres up from below, but those seven kilometres are twisting, narrow and full of hairpins, and that is exactly why there is no crowd. The density of tourists is lower than on the rest of the coast, and what they describe as the essence of everyday Amalfi life is still there, untouched.

From village to city of music. Ravello joined the Duchy of Amalfi in the ninth century, but it truly grew when it became a bishop's seat in 1086. That is when the cathedral was built, and wealthy merchant and wool families began raising palaces. Villa Rufolo, with Arab-Norman architecture and hanging gardens. Palazzo Avino and Palazzo Confalone, both luxury hotels today.

In 1880 Richard Wagner came here. He was so taken with it that he wrote the second act of his opera "Parsifal" inspired by the gardens of Villa Rufolo. Since 1953 a festival dedicated to his legacy has been held there, one of the most important musical events in Italy. Which is why Ravello carries the nickname "the city of music". In 2011 the Oscar Niemeyer auditorium opened among those narrow streets, named after the architect who designed it.

The terrace that matters more than the rest. Villa Cimbrone has the famous Terrace of Infinity, and Villa Rufolo has the gardens everyone who has seen them remembers. From up there, the blue breaks into ten shades - from deep sea to pearl - and all of it works best in late afternoon, when the sun drops behind the horizon and reflects off the water. They describe it as the finest sunset over the Sorrento peninsula.

The Hotel Caruso, part of the Belmond group, has a pool with a view of that same sunset, and you do not have to stay the night to get in - there is a day pass. The restaurant "Il Pantaleone" is run by chef Armando Aristarco.

What is worth remembering about Ravello is not the hotel price list, but the mechanism. One place stayed quiet not because somebody protected it, but because the road to it is a shade harder than the road to the one next door. Seven kilometres of hairpins did what no tourism regulation managed to do down on the coast.