I’d been to the Amalfi Coast before, and to the paradisiacal hilltop town of Ravello, but it took a friend to drag me to do a self-tour of Villa Cimbrone—we arrived minutes before the entrance was closed to visitors. But once we made it through the gates, we knew exactly where to go: Terrazzo dell’Infinito (the Terrace of Infinity).
Author Gore Vidal, who made his home in Ravello for years, had this to say about the site: “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.”
Summer isn’t too shabby, either, plus you can swim off Amalfi’s pebbly spiaggia (beach) below. Or dive into the spectacular infinity pool when you book a stay at Caruso, a Belmond Hotel, which dates from the 11th century and ranks as one of Italy’s most legendary and luxurious hotels.
