Explore 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.

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.

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.