Explorer Ravello

Villa Rufolo stands beside Ravello's cathedral square and dates from the 13th century, when it belonged to the merchant Rufolo family. The Scot Francis Neville Reid restored it in the mid-19th century. Visitors see the Torre Maggiore, which houses a small museum, a cloister-like courtyard and terraced gardens over the Gulf of Salerno, where the Ravello Festival holds concerts.

Villa Cimbrone is a villa on a rocky spur at the southern edge of Ravello, recorded since the 11th century. Ernest Beckett, later Lord Grimthorpe, bought it in 1904 and rebuilt the house and gardens with salvaged architectural pieces. The gardens end at the Terrace of Infinity, a belvedere lined with marble busts above the Gulf of Salerno; the villa itself is a hotel.

The Diocesan Museum of Amalfi occupies the Basilica of the Crucifix, the town's first cathedral, beside the present Duomo. Restored to its medieval form in 1994 and opened as a museum in 1996, it shows the cathedral treasury, frescoes and sculpture. The visit includes the Cloister of Paradise, built in 1266–1268 with interlaced Arab-Norman arches, and Roman sarcophagi.

Amalfi Cathedral is the cathedral of Saint Andrew on Piazza del Duomo, reached by a wide flight of steps. Begun in the 9th–10th centuries, it combines Arab-Norman, Gothic and Baroque work; the striped facade was rebuilt by Errico Alvino after a collapse in 1861. The crypt holds relics of Saint Andrew brought from Constantinople in 1206.

Minerva's Garden is a terraced botanical garden in Salerno's old town, on the slope below Arechi Castle. In the early 14th century the physician Matteo Silvatico grew medicinal plants here for teaching at the Salerno Medical School. Restored by the city from 2000, it arranges plants by the medieval classification, and a long stair runs under a pergola on cruciform pillars.

Arechi Castle stands about 300 metres above Salerno on the Bonadies hill. Begun under Byzantine rule in the 6th century, it was strengthened by the Lombard duke Arechis II in the 8th century and later altered by the Normans and Aragonese. Restored by the Province of Salerno from the 1960s, it has a museum of ceramics, glass and coins found in excavations on the site.

Salerno Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Matthew, was founded in 1076 under Robert Guiscard and consecrated by Pope Gregory VII in 1084. Visitors enter through the arcaded atrium beside the 12th-century bell tower; the bronze doors were cast in Constantinople. The crypt holds the relics of Saint Matthew, and the tomb of Gregory VII is in the right apse.

The Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei is a basilica in the modern town of Pompei, begun in 1876 by Bartolo Longo and consecrated in 1891. Its two-storey facade of 1901 is crowned by a marble statue of the Virgin, the 80-metre bell tower was added in 1925, and the high altar holds the painting of Our Lady of the Rosary.