Loading…

Ravello, a Delightful Place with Charming People

Excerpts from "The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories" (1912)

By E.M. Forster*


Ravello is a delightful place with a delightful little hotel in which we met some charming people. … Our room was on the first floor, looking out on to the garden—or terrace, it was rather: a wedge-shaped block of ground covered with roses and vines, and intersected with little asphalt paths. It was bounded on the small side by the house; round the two long sides ran a wall, only three feet above the terrace level, but with a good twenty feet drop over it into the olive yards, for the ground fell very precipitously away. … I have visited a good deal of fine scenery before and since, but have found little that has pleased me more. The valley ended in a vast hollow, shaped like a cup, into which radiated ravines from the precipitous hills around. Both the valley and the ravines and the ribs of hill that divided the ravines were covered with leafy, chestnut, so that the general appearance was that of a many fingered green hand, palm upwards, which was clutching, convulsively to keep us in its grasp. Far down the valley we could see Ravello and the sea, but that was the only sign of another world.

"Oh, what a perfectly lovely place," said my daughter Rose. "What a picture it would make!" "Yes," said Mr. Sandbach. "Many a famous European gallery would be proud to have a landscape a tithe as beautiful as this upon its walls."

* Edward Morgan Forster was an English novelist and essayist. He wrote A Room with a View (1908), and A Passage to India (1924).

The Amalfi Coast’s most well-known towns are Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, three jewels, each with its own unique character and beauty and all world renowned. But at the heart of the Costiera is a fourth jewel, Praiano, a less hectic and more authentic town, where many discerning tourists have begun to stay, using it as a base for their Amalfi Coasting. Try Praiano, trust us!

Ravello, High Above the Amalfi Coast

An article by Rosemary Zibart published on May 19th, 2002 by the Santa Fe New Mexican

Our Insider Guide to Ravello

Literary figures have been attracted to this town on the Amalfi Coast since Boccaccio visited it in the 13th century

Where to Eat on the Amalfi Coast: Ravello

Local gourmand and restaurant owner Baldassare Fiorentino gives his suggestions

The Best Pizzas on the Amalfi Coast - Ravello

A local gourmand suggests where to go to eat pizza

Ravello According to the Guidebooks

What travel guides say about the town of Wagner and Vidal