Italy

Villa Cimbrone

Posted May 6, 2013 by hil

At the seaward end of the buttress or cliffs you can see sticking out above the hills in this photo is the site of Villa Cimbrone, an historic house and garden estate in Ravello. The house, some of which dates from the 11th century is now an eyebrow hotel. Their site has details of the history and descriptions of the garden. The gardens were redone extensively in the early 1900’s, and are open to the public. I was interested in seeing them because, among other famous people, the Bloomsbury Group used to hang out there, and yes, it was quite possible to imagine them there. The gardens are extensive, and a mixture of very formal and ‘pretty little wildernesses’.

Looking back to the entrance tower.

The beautiful flowering wisteria along the Avenue of Immensity.

The belvedere on the Terrace of Infinity.

The famous view out to sea and the horizon (in the opposite direction to the one above!) is indeed as beautiful as reputed, but I only seemed to get good photos of the view down, which was also amazing!

Hotel guests having tea – or is it coffee – and newspapers.

For some reason these rose gardens were where I imagined the Bloomsbury’s hanging out.

There were many sculptures, including one in a grotto. I liked this one of David best. We read it was a Donatello, but googling suggests otherwise, that it’s by Neapolitan sculptor Gioacchino Varlese.

Ravello

Posted May 6, 2013 by hil

I’d thought of the Amalfi coast as a collection of quite distinct individual towns strung out along a coastline, but it is more of an entity than that. They tend to blend into one another as much as the landscape allows, and together occupy a relatively small area. The hill towns are not inland but high up, overlooking the coastal towns. By chance we stayed in one of them, Ravello, and it was lovely!

This seemed the iconic photo of the place for me. The hills are beautiful, steep, heavily terraced and gardened, and everywhere there are lemons!

The roads are narrow and windy. The locals and the buses have negotiating the hairpin bends down to a fine art, using a language of toots to communicate and choreograph the traffic. This is an example of how cars are garaged. Just along the road I saw a couple of ponies being tethered in a similar but more open area.

Michael going up the steps to the place we stayed.

Our B&B had a very pretty terrace where we had breakfast when the weather was warm.

Looking out from there, down toward Minori, there was always a different sky and mood.

Early morning.

Amusing water fountains

Posted May 5, 2013 by hil

This amusing water fountain is on the main street in Amalfi. Here’s a close up so you can see how busy it is, even under the water!

And this one was in the main square:

Decorative wall ceramics in Amalfi

Posted May 5, 2013 by hil

Here are some of the decorative wall ceramics in the towns of the Amalfi coast. The photo above is a favourite, of a lovely ceramic on an abandoned factory wall on our walk from Ravello to Atrani and Amalfi, through the Valle del Dragone. The following ones were in Amalfi itself.

A modern abstract one:

The story of making bread:

Outside a fishmonger’s shop:

Another favourite – a religious procession:

Duomo, Salerno

Posted May 4, 2013 by hil

We came across the Duomo in Salerno, too. The portico looked more like a relic than that of a active church. There are very old sarcophagi, frescos and bass reliefs so worn away they were mere suggestions.

Inside were beautifully intricate decorative mosaics pulpits.

I’d forgotten how there are separate shrines along the side aisles of Catholic churches, and how ornate and graphically macabre the imagery tends to be. I found myself thinking how appropriate the imagery in the climactic scene of Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet was.

Carotenuto’s Painted Presepe

Posted May 4, 2013 by hil

In Salerno, after exploring the Duomo, we found an exhibition of the Painted Presepe by Salerno artist Mario Carotenuto in a dark room open to the street. We just chanced to look in and see that we could enter. It was eerie – a nativity scene made with 157 life-size cut-outs of people – religious staples, historical people and everyday people – painted on really thick plywood.