WINDING UP THE CLIFFS OF THE AMALFI COAST, mesmerizing views of lemon groves and vineyards tumbling to the shimmering sea take your breath away. Then you arrive above it all, in Ravello. A quiet path from the piazza of this romantic village opens to the fairytale Villa Cimbrone gardens.

You’re drawn like a magnet down a shaded path to a statue of Ceres, Goddess of the Harvest, and then onto the Belvedere of Infinity. On the sheer cliff of this terrace it feels like you’re floating in paradise.

Behind you, the terraced gardens are a bewitching mix of umbrella and cypress tree-lined paths, manicured lawns, arbors dripping with wisteria, nooks of purple petunias and daisies, a rose garden, and a tearoom. Sculptures of smiling cherubs and a curvy Eve in a cave add to the enchantment.

All this was created under the direction of Lord Grimthorpe (aka Ernest William Beckett), who came through Ravello on the Grand Tour, and fell in love with this spot that had been abandoned. In 1904 he transformed it into what it is today, blending Moorish and Renaissance designs with the remains of the Roman villa it once was. His guest list included Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, and T. S. Eliot, whom I imagine must have had a grand old time here.

But the guest who came after Grimthorpe’s reign, who I’m most intrigued by, is Greta Garbo. A plaque commemorates her famous month-long visit. In translation it reads: “Here in the spring of 1938, the divine Greta Garbo, fleeing the clamor of Hollywood, spent with Leopold Stokowski hours of Secret Happiness.”

If you’d like to believe that read no further.

The true story starts off like the ideal romance. Garbo, the thirty-two-year-old glamour queen of Hollywood got wooed by Stokowski, a flamboyant fifty-five-year-old conductor. She thought “Stoki” would be the great love of her life. He invited her to meet him in Ravello, where he rented out the Villa Cimbrone just for the two of them.

According to a Swiss maid, Garbo arrived with one battered suitcase. All she’d packed were blue espadrilles, a bathing suit, lots of sunglasses, jars of jam, and a pair of pajamas, which the maid had to wash, iron and place at Garbo’s bedside every evening.

Garbo’s routine was morning calisthenics on the terrace, followed by a pool swim and strict vegetarian meals, except for the slathering of jam on her teatime cakes. She was in bed every night by eight.

Stoki had leaked to the press that Garbo was meeting him at the villa and hordes of paparazzi showed up, perching in trees, hoping to get shots of what could be the wedding of the decade. Garbo hired policemen and guard dogs to keep them out.

As for the grand love story, in Garbo, Her Story, Greta says she was happy to be there at first and learn all about Italian art from Stoki. But when he talked about his plans for the future things took a nosedive. Stoki proposed they make a movie together—he’d do the music, star opposite her and they’d finance the movie with their own money. That last part of his proposal was the straw that broke the affair for Garbo, who was a notorious tightwad.

She says Stoki attempted to woo her back in Capri’s Blue Grotto, but his sexual advance was unsuccessful; he got nervous and cried. Unbeknownst to the reporters, the love affair was finished. Stoki confessed to Garbo that he’d told the reporters they were going to get married. Graciously Garbo agreed to meet the press in the Villa library, if they’d agree to then go away. True to form, she played the interview close to the vest. When questioned about the relationship, she shocked the reporters with: “I have never had an impulse to go to the altar.”

Years later, Stoki married the twenty-one-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt, heiress to a 20-million-dollar fortune.

Though Garbo didn’t actually have “hours of secret happiness” here, this is undeniably a romantic place.

Villa Cimbrone: Via Santa Chiara 26, daily 9 until sunset, www.villacimbrone.com.

Golden Day: Visit the Gardens, stopping at their caffe for a prosecco break. Eat at Villa Maria (Via Trinita, 089 857255), and sleep at Villa Cimbrone (www.hotelvillacimbrone.com). The Vuilleumiers, a Swiss family who lived there for many years, now run it as a hotel, with ten luxurious rooms, a swimming pool, and the gardens to yourself after visiting hours.

TIP: While in Ravello, also visit the Villa Rufolo gardens (www.villarufolo.it). If you’ll be there in summer, get tickets for the Ravello Music Festival, held in this splendid setting. www.ravellofestival.com