Street in Ravello: A Resident's Vegetable Garden behind the Gate

The beautiful town of Ravello on the Amalfi Coast was founded as a place for vacation homes for families from across the valley at Scala, where nobles who had fled the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, settled. And if there's anything nobility likes, it's promenading through gardens.

Artists like D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and Richard Wagner have been drawn to this town, and Gore Vidal made his home here for part of the year. He wrote: "Certainly the gardens, the setting, the architecture of this ancient city have a magical influence." For garden lovers, the town itself is a wonderland of rustic terraced edible plots with their specialty lemons trees, Sfusato, trellised on pergolas. Botanical gardens like Villa Rufolo host classical concerts are throughout the summer. The Villa Cimbrone , offers Medieval architecture and panoramic views of the sea from the Terrace of Infinity. One of the most impressive gardens in Ravello is at Hotel Caruso, an 11th century palace renovated into a luxury hotel. The gardens are set among a steeply terraced cliff, and while ornamental, have lots of edibles, from pomegranate to chestnut trees. They grounds are manicured, but still have a lush feel and heady fragrance.

An edible herb garden, used by the chef Mimmo Di Raffaele also has strawberries planted through it that the bar uses for cocktails--muddling them with Prosecco for a twist on the Bellini.

The gardens are cut in to a steep incline, and each level hold a surprise, from roses and lavenders, to olive tree groves and citrus and fig trees.

While renovating, they cleared an old vineyard and found Medieval ruins. They were preserved and included in the garden design.

This pergola is an elegant mix of white star jasmine and white hydrangea. The jasmine and linden trees were in full bloom and the air so sweet from their fragrances it almost made you dizzy.

This is the promenade at the Hotel Caruso Belvedere, once used by the ladies in the Caruso family, so they could get a little exercise, but be shielded from public view. Now it's the walk to the infinity pool overlooking the ocean.