The Hotel Where Rooms Cost Pounds 1/2m ; It Was Where Garbo Went to Be Alone and Graham Greene Wrote the Third Man. Now the Hotel Caruso On Italy's Amalfi Coast Is Nearing the End of a Sumptuous and Staggeringly Expensive Facelift That Will Make It ...

Summary

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AS A SEASIDE resort, the striking thing about Ravello is that it is nowhere near the sea.

You can certainly see the sea from here it wraps around you as a permanent, unavoidable, breathtaking panorama but if you wanted to dip a toe into it, you'd face a brisk 45-minute hike down stairways so sheer they occasionally have the vertiginous feel of the north face of the Eiger. But it's being away from the sea that has proved to be the secret of Ravello's success.

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Extract

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The Hotel Where Rooms Cost Pounds 1/2m ; It Was Where Garbo Went to Be Alone and Graham Greene Wrote the Third Man. Now the Hotel Caruso On Italy's Amalfi Coast Is Nearing the End of a Sumptuous and Staggeringly Expensive Facelift That Will Make It ...

Amalfi, on the coast far beneath Ravello, became a hugely wealthy trading republic in the 11th Century. A medieval thriving sea port, however, lacks style and elegance.

Anxious to escape the non-congenial company of rough, tough seafaring types and the occasional unwelcome visit from pirates, the richer families decamped up the hill and settled in Ravello, building themselves palaces and pleasure gardens.

By the late 18th and 19th Centuries, when the British and other European Grand Tourists arrived, and liked what the...

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