Travel Reports
Amalfi
An hour away from Italy’s most polluted city I am listening to a chorus of church bells. I am in Ravello, a picture postcard village at the top of a hill just outside of Naples. I love Naples. I love its sweat and grime. I love the sound of a thousand Vespas revving to trounce the traffic lights or the clatter of a rusting Fiat 500 on tattered cobbled streets. I love the dripping clothes that hang high above your head and dispense a soapy glob of effluence. I even love the beggars who stick their grubby hands in your gratis basket of biscotti as you try to drink an espresso al fresco on a street that has a million times more traffic than it was ever designed for.
But I know that sometimes you have to get out of town. And out of town Naples-style happens to be one of the most beautiful coastlines in Europe, if not the world. Those who have come before have said as much, and who am I to disagree?
Please forgive me if I’m grinning like a kid in a sweet shop, but I’ve never had a hotel room with two floors before, never mind a huge porthole window that overlooks the gleaming jewel that is the Mediterranean, or one whose pillows may have nursed the fevered brows of Barbara Streisand, Truman Capote and Jacqueline Kennedy (though not all at the same time, of course). It’s hard to imagine a place more serene or exquisite. Hard to imagine too that through the haze of a late Sunday afternoon and over the ruins of Pompeii and the archaeological area of Paestum, awash with tourists, is that heaving, sweltering beast called Naples.
The Amalfi Coast is a world apart, albeit one accessible by hire car for those with the muscles of Martina Navratilova or (alternatively) the stomach to take an ancient battleship grey bus around hairy hairpin bends that defy all laws of gravity. I chose the easiest and most comfortable option and got a chauffeur driven transfer from the airport to the Palumbo (about 80 minutes). If there is a time to indulge, then this was it!
And indulge is what I did, starting with a glass of the local brew, an overly sweet liqueur called Limoncello, made by fermenting the skins of lemons in pure alcohol. Although opinions differ as to its origins - some say it comes from Sicily, others from nearby Capri - I don’t much care! It tastes divine. However, it should be drunk with caution. Too much will bring on a bad case of Ravello Belly, but with a healthy helping of ice (I’m positive, sacrilege to the locals) I think it’s the perfect accompaniment to a languidly fading sunset.
According to the hotel’s owner, Marco Vuilleumier (it’s been in his family since 1875 and the days of his great-grandfather) past guests at the Palumbo, apart from those already mentioned, these include Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, Federico Fellini, Richard Wagner and Igor Stravinsky. Another, Gore Vidal, liked it so much he bought a villa in the town.
And it’s not hard to see why. My visit coincides with the tail end of the annual Festival Musicale di Villa Rufolo, the most magnificent of all Ravello’s festivals. Although there is music here all year round this is the biggest crystal in the chandelier; one that drips with style as Neapolitans escape the heat of the city and the well-to-do bustle over in boats from Capri. If you are lucky you can catch a dawn chorus of Concerto all’alba (when an orchestra announces the sunrise around 4am) or a free cinema screening in the small town piazza, as Ravello residents, dressed in their Sunday best, nibble on pistachios and beer.
I opt for the pistachios and beer and Maria Callas crooning in Callas Forever before a midnight stroll around the deserted 14th century streets where, if I close my eyes, I can imagine myself as a medieval merchant carrying parchment papers or heaving incense towards the magnificent Duomo, restored to its 13th century glory in 1980.
The town remains virtually car free and compared to its neighbours, Positano (where backpackers rub shoulders with the jet-set in a scramble for pottery trinkets) and Amalfi itself (where I stumble on an odd beauty pageant run by elderly Englishmen) it’s a quiet oasis of refined living.
True, if you are feeling energetic you can take any of the boats that ply back and forth along the coastline or between the mainland and the Islands of Capri and Ischia, but if you are looking to lay your head down against a backdrop of stunning beauty then the Palumbo is just for you.
easyJet fly to Naples from Stansted and tickets cost from £40.98 return. Book online at www.easyjet.com or call 0870 600 0000
Room rates at Hotel Palumbo, Ravello start at 330 euros (approx. £425) per double room per night on a half-board basis. Tel: +39 089 857 244 or visit www.hotelpalumbo.it
Italian State Tourist Board: www.enit.it
Travel advice: www.fco.gov.uk
Andrew Copestake
