Walking the Path From Ravello

We’d taken the bus in the morning up from Amalfi to Ravello, perched on a cliff 1000 feet above the Mediterranean, but decided to take the stairway-path back in the afternoon, not to be reminded of how old we are but rather to take advantage of the temporary good weather and enjoy the vistas promised on the climb down. But of course, despite the spectacular vistas, terraced gardens and orchards, stuccoed houses balanced on the rock cliffs, and centuries-old walls and staircases, we couldn’t help but be regularly reminded that we probably were too old to be doing this shit. Our Rick Steves’ Naples & the Amalfi Coast guidebook said that it would take 40 minutes from Ravello to Atrani (and then 15 minutes more to Amalfi). The young woman at the Tourist Information office in Ravello, where we got a map, pointed our way and said that it would take 30 minutes. It took us 90 minutes to get to Atrani. Of course, we did pause numerous times to take in and take pictures of the views, and we stopped a couple of times on well-placed benches. But mostly we were just slow. A couple of younger couples passed us on their way down, no doubt making the 30-40 minute time. And we met another young couple near Atrani just starting their way up. I joked, “You’re going the wrong way,” but they said they’d walked down that morning and were on their way back up to their hotel. Try that again in 40 years, I considered warning them. But while it took us longer than we’d thought, we weren’t in any hurry, there wasn’t any pain involved, there were no falls, and the views were impressive. And we rewarded ourselves with gelato in Atrani’s quiet, cool piazza. With age comes time to dawdle.

The Terrace of Infinity

Atop a rocky bluff 1000 feet above the Amalfi Coast sits the Villa Cimbrone, and at the far south end of “The Avenue of Immensity,” the path that runs from the cloister through the gardens and to the bluff’s edge, perches “The Terrace of Infinity.” The hyperbolic labels – “immensity,” “infinity” – turn out not to be hyperbolic after all as you walk through the gardens of century-old oak, alder, chestnut, and cypress trees; rhododendron and spiraea bushes; cacti, wild orchids, roses, peonies, oleanders, and other exotic plants; statues, pavilions, a well, a sun dial, and temples. And finally to “The Terrace of Infinity,” which Gore Vidal has described as “the most beautiful view in the world.”

He might have said “views,” as the terrace has a 240° span from the Cilento Mountains and the town of Minori to the west, the Gulf of Salerno out the south and the Mediterranean beyond, and Atrani and the mountains to the east. And all around the small white-washed houses clinging to the hills, the terraced gardens, lemon groves, grape vines, olive trees. There might be a more impressive place to gaze out over the Earth, but I’ve yet to see it.