Villa Rufolo

Villa Rufolo Review

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 lie the two spectacular terrace gardens, with the lower one, the "Wagner Terrace," often the site for concerts, with the orchestra perched on a precarious-looking platform constructed over the precipice.