Hotel of the Week: Hotel Caruso, Amalfi Coast

Above and Beyond

Hotel Caruso’s location is utterly ravishing: it is one of the most dreamily filmic settings of any hotel in Italy. Perched proudly yet discreetly at the highest point of the Amalfi village of Ravello, Hotel Caruso is loftily aloof from the day trippers, yet it’s a mere three-minute stroll to Ravello’s beautiful Cathedral that shades its piazza.

A storied grande dame, Hotel Caruso has hosted the most glittering guests from Jackie Kennedy to Humphrey Bogart and Greta Garbo, and imparts something of that old school glamour to every guest. I really felt almost like a movie star, grinning with joy, as I wafted through the hotel appreciating its restrained elegance and quiet, non-showy magnificence.

Its history is enthralling: the original ivy-clad building dates to the 11th century when it was bought as a palazzo for a wealthy family who were shipwrecked in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Pantaleone Caruso ran it as a pensione, enticing The Bloomsbury Group - particularly Virginia Woolf - and many other luminaries.

Hotel Caruso remains relatively small with only 49 rooms and suites, meaning guests are quietly immersed in its beauty. It never feels crowded or noisy.

Most mesmerising of all are the vast, terraced gardens with fragrant pergolas of jasmine, honeysuckle, climbing roses and bougainvillea and paths meandering off to secret spaces with hidden seating areas for romantic trysts, all looking over the cerulean Tyrrhenian Sea. 

Service is utterly impeccable yet surprisingly informal, with the mostly Southern Italian staff friendly, whilst remaining respectful. One’s every need is anticipated, whether it be iced Amalfi lemonade on tap just before reaching the pool or backgammon to play should one tire of reading and admiring the views.

A Suspension of Time

The sublime infinity pool is where sea and sky merge so seamlessly under the Italian sun that it is hard to see where one starts and another finishes. Guests feel serenely immersed in the stupendous landscape. 

An honorable mention must also be made of the gym, hidden beneath the pool in an outdoor room with state-of-the-art machines and weights and the most glorious uninterrupted views of the craggy Amalfi coastline and the shimmering azure sea. 

A sneaky third unique feature: the Pucci boutique is in a splendid vaulted room of original frescoes.

New and Noteworthy

Hotel Caruso has a new pool club concept, ‘Piscina dawn to dusk’, the first luxury pool club of its kind on the Amalfi Coast. The whole fabled pool terrace has been given a glamorous new look, channeling 1960s Jackie Kennedy era Riviera elegance using the most gorgeous vibrant fabrics. There are daily activities from sunrise yoga to sight-jogging around Ravello; complimentary shuttle services to Amalfi and Positano, sun loungers and parasols at a private beach club in Amalfi; cookery classes for all ages at the hotel, as well as regular stargazing events. There’s even a daily morning boat tour around otherwise inaccessible coves along the Amalfi coast as far as Cetara with a stop to visit the town where Colatura d’Alici, the anchovy dripping sauce similar to Roman garum, is handmade in time honoured fashion. You can then choose to swim off the boat, or perhaps enjoy an outdoor cinema night, or one of the quarterly ‘meet the producer parties’ with live music.

Under a pistachio canvas loggia with gorgeous tiled tables, Caruso Grill and Bar serves delectable light meals using impeccably sourced local ingredients. There’s local bread toasted with Amalfi lemon gel; there are sublime menaica anchovies and carefully composed salads; and, of course, there are pizzas – made in a wood-fired oven whose smoke puffs gently – which are, naturally, to die for. 

There are also two new private cabanas set in the gardens with butler service for intimate meals al fresco.

Villa Margherita is the recently added standalone guesthouse with its own extensive private terrace overlooking the sea and its own private chef on speed dial. 

Acqua di Parma now radiates Italian style and fragrance in all rooms.

Living to Eat

Breakfast is wondrous: both the huge and enticing sheer choice and the stupendous, uplifting views of the sea.

There are tables devoted to fresh buffalo mozzarella (made at Azienda Agricola Barlotti on the Cilento coast) and local salumeria, alongside an astonishing choice of breads, fruits, juices and a feast of exquisite pastries including mini Amalfi lemon tarts and pistachio cakes. Choosing from the
à la carte is de rigeur too. The buffalo milk muesli is wonderfully rich and different, as are the most decadent egg and caviar dishes.

There’s a large informal bar with arched windows open to the elements, a grand salon lounge with banquettes, tables, glorious frescoes and a magnificent statement Murano glass chandelier. The cosy wood-panelled piano bar is where head barman Carlo mixes his world-renowned lemon gimlets, and leads onto the elegant Belvedere restaurant which surely boasts one of the best views in Italy.

Executive chef Armando Aristarco - who is originally from Naples - has come full circle, as he started his culinary career at Hotel Caruso. This only intensifies his charming passion for ingredients local to the Amalfi and Cilantro coasts, cooked slowly and touched as little as possible. His cooking is elevated Mediterranean Diet cuisine, and includes an exquisite risotto with buffalo mozzarella, almonds, tomato and basil, exceptional seafood and sea bass aquapazza. Fully committed to serving ultra-local ingredients, many with Slow Food accreditation, Aristarco delights in enhancing traditional dishes – the most surprising of which is his Caprese salad reinterpreted as dessert!

Such is Aristarco’s passion for sourcing the best producers that Hotel Caruso now stages a quarterly meet-the-producer ‘agora’ event – complementary for guests – featuring food, wine and music.

In the pool club restaurant, the most remarkable pizza is finished with rare sweet, plump menaica anchovies. Added after the pizza comes out of the wood-fired oven, the anchovies are sizzling, a little crisp, and utterly irresistible.

An Eye for Detail

The Belmond Group (who took over Hotel Caruso in 2000) have used art historians and archeologists to sensitively restore Hotel Caruso, enhancing its splendour and original features.  

Bedrooms are vast, elegantly Riviera with domed ceilings, gorgeous Italian tiled floors, Frette linens and supremely luxurious in every little detail with plenty of space to write and read and make cocktails. Many have separate dressing rooms.

Even the most minute details are refined: the coffee machine is covered in leather, there’s a Japanese-style kettle on its own heat stand (so no pesky too-short wires), and even the loo roll has a linen cover. The in-room cocktail bar wouldn’t look out of place in a palazzo – well actually it is one.

In the opulently spacious marble bathroom there are fresh plants and Aqua di Parma toiletries; some are contained in rather special painted local ceramics.

The generous terrace in my room has its own lemon tree, three different areas of seating at different heights, a beautiful tiled table and views that are transfixing and uplifting in their beauty. 

Each afternoon, I would find a surprise pastry delivered to my room such as a classic sfogliatelle filled with lemon cream.

Hidden treasures

Within Ravello, Villa Cimbrone is an absolute must for garden lovers. Its ‘Terrace of Infinity’ featured in John Huston’s 1954 film ‘Beat the Devil’ with Humphrey Bogart, and it is said that Stephen Sondheim worked as a clapper boy on the film. 

Villa Rufolo - with its Moorish cloisters, towers and exceptional gardens - is where Wagner got the inspiration for his opera Parsifel. Over the summer, alfresco classical concerts are held in Ravello, where the music is made ever more spectacular by the stage jutting out over the rugged Amalfi coastline out to sea.

Wellness Wonders

The spa - accessible from inside the hotel, or next to the gym below the astonishing infinity pool - is small and perfectly formed. Some treatments use buffalo milk products sourced from the same Barlotti family as produce the buffalo mozzarella used in the hotel’s Belvedere Restaurant. Snacks in the spa are from trusted producers, so whether it is hazelnuts or herb teas every offering adds to a surprisingly familial and local connectivity, unusual in such a grand hotel. Spa treatments can also be taken in the two tented cabanas in the gardens.

The best walking route is the moderately challenging 'Path of Lemons', a trail which runs from Ravello to Maiori and Minori. Involving descending lots of Escher-esque little staircases known as scalinatelle, the reward is a sensorial walk through gorgeous scented lemon groves. Alongside terraced vines with chestnut trees for shade, you can pause to take in the heart thumping views over the magnificent coast.

Who’s Who

Glamorous General Manager Iolande Mansi is always in an immaculate white trouser suit and purrs with pleasure and genuine charm at every request. As she started out on reception at Hotel Caruso before travelling the world to further her career, she is fun, very efficient and vastly knowledgeable. Hotel Caruso is clearly her first love.

Hotel Caruso is simply sublime, attracting chic and quiet guests, and affording much privacy and relaxation whilst being indulgently caressed in splendour. 

I only wish I could live there as both Gore Vidal and Tennesse Williams did!

Lead-in rate: €900,00 + VAT 10% for a Double Room - including breakfast, complimentary daily boat tour and complimentary daily activities by the pool  

Rooms in high season can be E2,000+++ 

belmond.com