Ravello was founded by a colony of Patrician noblemen during the sixth century AD and was also known to Boccaccio who described the beauty of its arts and landscape in the Decameron. In this novel he immortalized a wealthy merchant from Ravello by the name of Landolfo Rufolo. Ravello is one of the most famous tourist areas in the world, and is full of marvels, such as its houses built in Arabic/Sicilian style, the prestigious twelfth-century Cathedral, the spectacular thirteenth-century Villa Rufolo, the magnificent lookout at Villa Cimbrone and the hotels that are set in breathtaking surroundings -- some of them are real Patrician villas. In the summer, the "Ravello festival" takes place on the terrace of the Villa Rufolo's garden that inspired Richard Wagner to compose the part of the Klingsor's gardens in Parsifal; Scheduled for the summer of 2003 in the enchanting Villa Eva "La festa dell'uva" (the grape festival) will take place, a traditional event organized by Prof. Vincenzo Palumbo.
After the Second World War, many artists and men of letters stayed in Ravello, as the writer Gore Vidal, and politicians as the French President Mitterrand or the American one J. F. Kennedy. Other famous guests are: V. Woolf, J. M. Keynes, A. Gide, E. Grieg, D. H. Lawrence, M. C. Escher, P. Valery, L. Stokowsky, G. Garbo, I. Strawinsky, G. Greene, E. de Filippo, T. Capote, J. Huston, H. Bogart, G. Sanders, M. Rostand, C. Malaparte, W. Churchill, Ingrid Bergman, R. Rossellini, E. Vedova, Totò, F. Fellini, V. Gassman, R. Schneider, C. Alvaro, B. Streisand, U. Ughi, L. Bernstein, G. Spadolini, D. Rea, Z. Metha, P. O'Toole.