12 romantic hotels in Italy
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Across Italy, these are the most romantic hotels – the centuries-old palazzos to hide out at in Venice, the cliff-front villas with the best views on the Amalfi Coast and the cave hotels built into the rocks in Matera.
SANTA CATERINA
AMALFI
The best bit of this old-school favourite – run by the fourth generation of the family that founded it – is the beach club deck, where sunbeds sit right on the water's edge. With views straight out to sea and around to the town of Amalfi, this is up there as one of the most outstanding locations on this stretch of coast. Back at the top of the rock face, there are more dazzling panoramas from the breakfast table, and from the bedroom balconies of the 19th-century villa, which is set in gracious grounds planted with citrus, bougainvillaea and olives. Read the full review of Hotel Santa Caterina.
@sextantioSextantio Le Grotte della Civita
MATERA
The Sassi of Matera in southern Italy are an extraordinary labyrinth of cave dwellings that date back to prehistoric times. It's here, in the soft tufa stone, that Swedish-Italian hotelier Daniele Kihlgren has fashioned a beautifully judged hotel of 18 spacious rooms and suites sparsely furnished in antique linens, upcycled rustic antiques, freestanding tubs and candles. The same group runs the Albergo Diffuso village-hotel in Santo Stefano di Sessanio in the Appennines, which is equally, exquisitely minimalist and authentic.
Franziska UnterholznerOttmanngut
SOUTH TYROL
This family-owned boutique hotel at the foot of the Alps feels more like a beautiful home. The green-shuttered house is enrobed in tall palm trees and other tropical plants – courtesy of Merano's Alpine-Mediterranean microclimate. Breakfast feels like a time warp of silverware, crisp tablecloths and traditional Black Forest cake with fresh orange juice. Rooms are at once pared down and ornate, with parquet floors, elaborate mahogany headboards and chests nodding to the house’s grand heritage. Dotted with terracotta pots and white umbrellas, the courtyard blends two worlds of imposing mountain backdrops and brilliant sunlight, lizards and pine-infused air more often associated with the coast. By Rosalyn Wikeley
Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli
LAKE GARDA
From 1943 to 1954, this 19th-century crenellated extravaganza on Italy's largest lake was home to Mussolini. Today it's the European hotel of choice of many a high-end traveller, with two members of staff for every guest and a Michelin-starred restaurant overseen by Stefano Baiocco. There are 13 suites in the main building, which has a magnificent staircase with stone-mullioned, stained-glass windows, and a further eight in three guest houses and a boathouse. It's all set in a peachy-pink-and-cream neo-Gothic villa on a shore of Lake Garda, just outside the pretty port town of Gargnano.
Natasha LeeLe Sirenuse
POSTIANO
John Steinbeck described Le Sirenuse as 'an old family house converted into a first-class hotel’ when he stayed here in the 1950s, and it is still the height of low-key sophistication. This in no small part thanks to second-generation owner Antonio Sersale, who runs the place with effortless grace and humour. The Pompeii-style red and white building in the centre of this pretty town has 58 bedrooms, most with sea-facing balconies, and one of the prettiest restaurants in Italy. La Sponda’s white walls crawl with vines and through the window are views of Positano’s yellow majolica mosaic cathedral dome. Read the full review of Le Sirenuse.
Borgo Santo Pietro
TUSCANY
Claus Thottrup bought this 13th-century villa near the beautiful roofless abbey of San Galgano as a wedding present for his wife Jeannette; 15 years later it's the ultimate honeymoon retreat. The 15 classic rooms and suites - some with open fires, frescoed walls and claw-foot baths - are insanely pretty, and the 13 acres of grounds include a freeform pool, a spa, a rose walk, and organic gardens that grow produce for the Michelin-starred restaurant and Treehouse Bar.
CASA PRIVATA
PRAIANO
A small hotel by Amalfi Coast standards, with just seven bedrooms, this really is a private option perfect for couples. Beneath the old fisherman’s house are four steep terraced levels. First is the canopied restaurant; then the gardens with their tinkling water feature; next, a pool, each pair of sunbeds enclosed in a box hedge; and closer to the water’s edge, past lemon trees, is a rocky outcrop with more white sunbeds and steep steps down to the sea. Halfway between Amalfi and Positano, this is a brilliant location from which to explore the Amalfi Coast, or to hide out instead. Read the full review of Casa Privata.
Monteverdi
TUSCANY
Landscaped in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Val d'Orcia has a unique aesthetic that was immortalised in Renaissance painting and has captivated many a visitor since, not least Anglo-Italian lawyer Michael Cioffi. His response has been to take on the restoration of an entire hilltop village, with a 12-room hotel at its heart, a Tuscan restaurant, a swimming pool, an art gallery and a concert venue in the Romanesque Sant' Andrea church.
Palazzo Margherita
BERNALDA
One of five resorts owned by Francis Ford Coppola, this 19th-century palazzo is in the southern Italian town of Bernalda, the birthplace of the filmmaker's grandfather. There are six grand apartments on the piano nobile and three in a former outhouse, all designed by Jacques Grange, and dining is wherever guests so choose, from the luxuriant gardens to the Cinecittà bar or in front of an Italian film in the salone/screening room, with a bottle of wine from Coppola's Californian winery.
Residenza Napoleone III
ROME
This three-room, one-bedroom suite near the Spanish Steps is named after the Emperor of France (and nephew of Napoleon I), who stayed here, and housed on the piano nobile of a palazzo that belongs to Principessa Letizia Ruspoli. It's suitably grand and decadent, with chandeliers, gilded busts, heirloom antiques, and oil paintings that swing back to reveal a plasma TV and a tiny bathroom. A separate Roof Garden Suite is shrouded in greenery and offers 360-degree views over the rooftops of Rome.
Ca Maria Adele
VENICE
This 12-room, 16th-century palazzo has an enviable location in the peaceful Dorsodoro quarter, just behind the Salute church, mere steps from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and with its own entrance on the Grand Canal. It combines opulent concept rooms (like the crimson damask Sala del Doge and black and gold-flock Sala dei Mori) with a more contemporary-feel terrace and living room with a view.
Kate MartinIl Pellicano
PORTO ERCOLE
This jet-set favourite on the rocky Argentario coast offers the best of both worlds: the medieval villages of the Maremma to the left and right and, straight in front of you, the blue-blue Tryrrhenian sea. Dating from the 1960s, Il Pellicano exudes old-school glamour, with a sunbathing terrace on the water, a heated saltwater pool, a Michelin-starred restaurant and 50 rooms - distributed between the main house and more private villas - with classic, slightly unexciting, interiors.
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