Directly off Ravello's main piazza is the Villa Rufolo, which—if the master storyteller Boccaccio is to be believed—was built in the 13th century by Landolfo Rufolo, whose immense fortune stemmed from trade with Moors and Saracens. Within is a scene from the earliest days of the Crusades. Norman and Arab architecture mingle in profusion in a welter of color-filled gardens so lush that composer Richard Wagner used them as his inspiration for the home of the Flower Maidens in his opera Parsifal. Beyond the Arab-Sicilian cloister and the Norman tower are two flower-bedded terraces that offer a splendid vista of the Bay of Salerno; the lower "Wagner Terrace" is the major site for the yearlong Festival Musicale di Ravello (089/858149. www.ravelloarts.org).
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