RAVELLO
Villa Cimbrone.
There is a garden in Ravello, a Paradise if you visit early in the morning. It is the Garden of Villa Cimbrone.
The story of this place I love to tell is the one of Ernest William Beckett, English Lord that came to Ravello to find peace after the death of his wife. He found the Villa with its garden in ruins and he bought a part of it.
He renovated the garden, maintaining some of its features. Paths that run through every corner of the garden were created and it was decorated with fountains, marble and bronze statues, little temples.
One of the features he maintained was the main promenade, that leads the visitor and lets their curiosity and expectation grow, in an increasing pathos that culminate in the Balcony on Infinity.
I still remember the first time I walked on the balcony, I remember feeling my stomach clench for the sight before me. The horizon and the coast line were surrounding my eyes.
I walked every single path of this garden, looking for corners I had never seen before. I find myself in silence everytime and looking around, I can clearly understand the care of every detail, everything is perfect, in an obsessive attempt to find some clarity among the pain of the heart.
My favourite corner is a stony bench that looks towards Pontone, in the direction of Amalfi, near a young and pensive Mercury. Above the bench there are a fiew lines that express all the pain of the emptiness left by the loss of the beloved:
Lost to a world in which I crave no part
I sit alone and commune with my heart
Pleased with my little corner of the Earth
Glad that I came, not sorry to depart.
