Ravello, Italy

Ravello is a perfect mix of culture and class-there are spectacular churches, villas,  delicious food and luxurious hotels with amazing views! Driving into Ravello was breathtaking and during the summer months (not sure about winter) there are lemon groves lining all of the streets.  The air smells so sweet from all of the lemons and flowers, it's wonderful.

Sweet smelling lemon groves

We stayed at the beautiful and famous Palazzo Avino hotel.  In the 1700's the hotel was the home of the Sasso family, only to be abandoned about 50 years after later until the beginning of the 19th century.  The hotel is so beautiful and the grounds are very tranquil.

                                             

Our breakfast at the hotel was amazing.  During our stay we spent two days at the Avino's Clubhouse by the Sea located in the small town of Marmortata (complimentary shuttle service provided by the hotel).  The beach club is terraced into a cliff, one level had changing area restaurant and pool, the next had a pool, and on the lowest level there are lounge chairs overlooking the water.

Beautiful views

The service was spectacular and we had everything provided for us-from sunscreen to goggles and floaties.  We jumped into the water and swim around to rock formations that Jordan enjoyed jumping off.  It was lots of fun, and we enjoyed a delicious pizza for lunch with no cheese only olives and anchovies (sound gross but it was good).

Enjoying the good life

The weather in the late afternoons by the water turns very quickly from warm to cold and windy so we headed back to the hotel to relax and check out the spa.  We used the Spas hot tub and beautiful mosaic steam room before visiting our room to get ready to feed our appetites.  Our hotel room was very beautiful, and we enjoyed the views.  We liked the added features of being able to pick out what scent we wanted our shower towels to be!

The view of the Mediterranean sea from our room was breathtaking! 

We strolled through the town when we were hungry for dinner.  We came across beautiful private  gardens.  We even found a dental office, and marveled how the doctors office hours were only from 4-8pm...Sounds like the life!

Jordan contemplated applying to be an associate, his hours were from 4-8PM

There are so many good restaurants in this area that we decided to try a little something from a few restaurants just so that we could say we had tried them all.  We had a prosciutto pizza from Mimis Bar Pizzeria.  We strolled into a very authentic family run Italian restaurant, called Cumpa' Cosimo, for our main course.  We walked into the busy dimly lit restaurant and were greeted by an Italian babushka that everyone calls "Mama".  She ran the restaurant in typical Italian fashion, she was extremely bossy, generous (free limoncello) and opinionated.  and she took care of us!  She makes wonderful homemade pasta, and we tried a dish of homemade arbiata and meat cannelloni.

Mama in all her beauty is very proud of her homemade meat cannelloni

Before ending our night in Ravello we played a few games chess. Can you guess who won?

Who got the checkmate

The hotel was very accommodating to us leaving bright and early, and upon our departure they sent a wonderful spread of breakfast to our room for us to enjoy.

Breakfast of champions 

We loved Ravello, and we hope to be back very soon.  What a special place!