Ever impressed by amazing Amalfi

The Amalfi coast has been adored by emperors and celebrities alike

The occasion calls for シャンペン酒, and luckily, I have some.

I am, you see, sitting in a Jacuzzi that 誇るs the best 見解（をとる） of any I have known. This Jacuzzi, in my bathroom in Positano's Le Sirenuse hotel, is the eighth wonder of the world. I wonder if I can take it home.

Around me are the emerald hills of Positano, south-west Italy, its little houses gleaming like gems in a necklace 始める，決める in the silver of the sea below. The caressing 泡s in the Jacuzzi seem to mimic its gentle lapping. In the distance, a sinuous island rises from the water 似ているing a woman with three nipples.

What's a girl like me doing in a Jacuzzi like this? 研究ing the cultural 遺産／遺物 of the Amalfi coast, that's what.

Forget five-星／主役にする hotels, home-made tagliolini and all those beautiful people - 含むing Jackie Kennedy, Paul Newman and Sophia Loren (who still has a 郊外住宅 here) - who have walked the cobbled streets. What 利益／興味s me is why such diverse artistes as Wagner, Edvard Grieg, J. M. W. Turner and D. H. Lawrence were drawn here like アイロンをかける filings to a magnet. It can't have been a Jacuzzi.

About ten miles to the left of me are the gardens of the 郊外住宅 Rufolo in Ravello. Wagner said he would never have composed Parsifal had he not been 奮起させるd by its 絡まるd beauty.

Without Positano's bay we would have より小数の Turner seascapes. Tennessee Williams penned Cat On A Hot Tin Roof after 審理，公聴会 the story of a dysfunctional 地元の family. 血の塊／突き刺す Vidal said the majesty of the 見解（をとる） from his house in Ravello spurred him to 令状 Lincoln.

Moreover, without the coast's amethyst sunsets, a 地元の songwriter called Eduardo di Capua would never have composed O 単独の Mio. Where would Cornetto ice cream 広告s and Pavarotti have been without that?

So, reader, this is not an article about hedonistic trivia.

I 現れる from the Jacuzzi, slip into something いっそう少なく comfortable and leave my room with its marbled 床に打ち倒すs and Medici-esque antiques to catch the evening bus to Ravello.

The weeks of autumn and 早期に winter are ideal for the southern Amalfi coast, as are those of February until the start of the high season in July.

There are no large groups of tourists, and the sun 向こうずねs every day, warm enough for sunbathing and even a 下落する in （疑いを）晴らす, blue-green sea.

Ravello is 400 metres above sea level, and many of its houses are built into the hills, punctuated by breathtaking ravines 明らかにする／漏らすing secret coves once used by 著作権侵害者s.

Every year there is a famous music festival which 公式に finishes at the end of November but, in reality, carries on 井戸／弁護士席 into the New Year.

初めは 献身的な to the 作品 of Wagner, the festival is Italy's oldest. Musicians and performers have 含むd Herbert 出身の Karajan, Leonard Bernstein and Rudolf Nureyev, who once appeared on the 行う／開催する／段階 above the sea to 成し遂げる an impromptu 一連の leaps.

会社／堅い favourite: Sophia Lauren is still a big fan of the Amalfi Coast

The main 行う／開催する／段階 is in the Rufolo gardens. I wander around the remains of its 13th-century 城.

The garden is in sections linked by 石／投石する arches. In the centre is an 開始 which 明らかにする／漏らすs plinths and columns; it is overgrown with wildflowers seemingly guarding a majestic 井戸／弁護士席. In 1880, when Wagner saw the 井戸／弁護士席, which appears to lean に向かって the sea, he wrote: 'The enchanted garden of Klingsor has been 設立する at last' - a 言及／関連 to the wizard's 魔法 garden in Parsifal.

I walk to the nearby 郊外住宅 Cimbrone to stand on its famous 'terrace of infinity'. It stretches above the sea with Roman 破産した／（警察が）手入れするs in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動, like sentinels. It is a 見解（をとる） seemingly without beginning or end. I wonder if Le Sirenuse might move my Jacuzzi here?

The glory of this coast is its dualism. When the sun 始める，決めるs and the 星／主役にするs stand out 有望な and （疑いを）晴らす, high-mindedness gives way to hedonism.

Tiberius liked to swim in circles, while teenage boys and girls paddled beside him massaging his 脚s. Was this the first Jacuzzi?

An Italian friend who knows the area 井戸／弁護士席 says that Romanesque partying has been 生き返らせるd by the more louche inhabitants of the coast once the foreigners are out of the way. I hear tales of wild toga evenings given by counts.

I decide to look for some wild parties. To my delight, I 秘かに調査する a very louche English peer and former Tory 大臣 outside a restaurant. I ask him if he has been to any toga parties. He says, repressively, that he is here for the culture.

The next day, I take a 20-minute 旅行 to the village of Amalfi. The American author John Steinbeck liked Amalfi so much he stayed there for two years. I am staying at the Santa Caterina hotel which, like Le Sirenuse, is family-owned. It is run by the Gambardellas.

Built in 1880, it nestles in an arboretum. The Santa Caterina grows its own fruit and vegetables, and is one of the few hotels on the coast to have a 私的な beach.

Signora Ninni Gambardella is like a mother-女／おっせかい屋. Worried by my 欠如（する） of a wedding （犯罪の）一味, she takes me to see the honeymoon 控訴.

But this is 現実に a little 一連の会議、交渉／完成する house of infinite fancy, 始める，決める apart from the 残り／休憩（する） of the hotel. It has a charming 一連の会議、交渉／完成する sitting room, a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する bed and its own garden with an infinity pool.

Even the treadmills in the gym have 見解（をとる）s. I don't know why all the 失望させるd, vista- 奪うd characters in E. M. Forster's A Room With A 見解（をとる） didn't come here instead of Tuscany.

In fact, it is impossible to 避ける a 見解（をとる）. My breakfast is so placed that it has a 見解（をとる） of half of Italy, 同様に as the sea.

The Jacuzzi has an indoor 見解（をとる）: the bathroom has no windows, but is painted with 入り口ing frescoes.

In Amalfi itself, the tiled cathedral lends an almost Moorish feel. In the torpor of the midmorning a dog lies on its steps. There is a palpable sense of wellbeing, as if nothing bad can happen here.

支援する admiring the frescoes in my bathroom, I begin to sneeze.

The 冷淡な water in the Jacuzzi has given me a 冷気／寒がらせる. For the 残り／休憩（する） of my stay the 見解（をとる） is おもに of my hanky.

This has a 肯定的な result.

I get out a 調書をとる／予約する on the life of Wagner with a CD, and return to London able to hum the 予備交渉 to Tristan und Isolde.

Travel Facts

A four-night trip starts at £1,644 pp based on two 株ing. This 含むs return flights to Naples, two nights' B&B at the Hotel Santa Caterina, two nights' B&B at Le Sirenuse and 私的な 移転s. Abercrombie & Kent (0845 618 2213, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk.