Ravello

Ravello sits on top of a mountain and there were dozens of narrow roads and switch backs to get there. I was certainly glad that someone else was doing the driving. One thing I can say about Ravello was that it was a very expensive day for all of us other than Janice. Her expensive day came later. We all bought Ceramics. All the owner of the shop had to say was free shipping over $200 euros and all bets were off.

This is our guide in front of the Ceramics shop. He is looking a little sick of waiting for us.

The black ceramics is what I bought to go with my black and yellow sunflower dishes. My only goal had been to buy an olive oil cruet because the one I bought in Siena 10 years ago got lost in the move. I bought a lot more than 1 olive oil cruet. The pretty lady is the owner’s wife and I took her picture because she matched my new purchases. Can’t wait to entertain with my new dishes and all the great food I have stashed away in my suitcases.

Teri bought that huge pomegranate bowl that is sitting in the middle of the table.

After we left with overworked credit cards we moved on to the real purpose of our visit to Ravello, to visit the restored, 13th century Villa Rufolo. As I mentioned previously, today was Republic Day in Italy so they had a band concert at the Villa. I didn’t except much because the band reminded me of volunteer fireman playing instruments in a parade. Boy was I surprised! They started out playing the Italian version of our Star Spangled Banner and everyone stood and sang. The concert went on for about 45 minutes and they were very good.

The gardens of the Villa were beautiful. A lot of young people doing photo shoots for their Instagram accounts kind of got in the way of us taking pictures of the scenery.

We left Ravello and drove to another little town called Scala that was directly across the valley from Ravello. We had a wonderful lunch with a fabulous view of the valley and the Bay of Salerno.