Italian Coast and Lake Resorts
Positano, Ravello, Capri, Portofino, Lake Como, Sardinia and the Sicilian coast, judged as places to stay rather than as postcards. Most of these were family houses before they were hotels, which is why the good ones have forty rooms instead of four hundred and why the same head waiter has worked the terrace since the 1990s. We look at the walk: how many steps down to the water, whether the shuttle runs, what the coast road is like in August. We look hard at the terrace, because on this coast the terrace is the hotel. Room categories vary enormously inside one building, so we say which jump is worth paying for and which view you are really buying.
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A sprawling palace hotel in Anacapri set around a central courtyard garden, where the service anticipates every preference and the spa and restaurants define a full Italian coastal experience.
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A clifftop palace hotel in Portofino that dominates the harbor from above, with a terrace restaurant that holds the best table in the town and rooms ranged in strict hierarchy from modest to palatial.
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A clifftop hotel in Ravello built around Moorish architecture, where the terraces wrap the property and the pool sits at the edge of the vertical drop. Most rooms are suites with sea-facing balconies and private service.
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An icon of Italian coastal hospitality, opened in 1951 and still run by the Sersale family. Roughly forty rooms set into the cliffside above Positano's beach, with a terrace that defines the hotel.
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A sixteenth-century lakeside palace on Como with 151 rooms split between the Cardinal's Building and Queen's Pavilion, plus four private villas nested in centuries-old gardens where service reads as European tradition at its most practiced.
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A cliffside luxury hotel in Positano with each room and suite built into or directly atop the rock, private terraces facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, and a beach cove carved from the cliff base.
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A 49-suite clifftop hotel between Positano and Amalfi, with suites that have private pools, panoramic terraces, and a rare private beach accessed by elevator.
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A century-old Belle Époque hotel facing Bellagio across Lake Como, with terraced gardens, rooftop suites with private pools, and the Michelin-trained Da Giacomo al Lago restaurant.
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A 121-room Aga Khan-era Porto Cervo landmark in a cove of clear green water, now Marriott-operated, where the terrace is the hotel and the rooms are where you sleep between courses.
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A 12th-century palace in Ravello with 43 rooms, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a private seaside club reached by shuttle fifteen minutes away. The terrace is the heart of the hotel, and the shuttle runs.
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A cliffside family hotel perched above Amalfi since 1880, with 66 luminous rooms opening onto sea views and a private beach club carved into the rocks below.
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A 230-hectare Rocco Forte flagship resort on Sicily's southwest coast near Sciacca with championship golf, private beach, multiple restaurants, and the scale to offer both intimate suites and sprawling villas on grounds where you might not see another guest.
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A 1965 clifftop hideaway at Porto Ercole overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea with individual suites and villas distributed through bougainvillea-draped terraces, pitched as slow and creative rather than ambitious or large.
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Minimalist luxury perched on Capri's cliffs with a private sunbathing platform cut into the rock and a design aesthetic that strips away ornament to leave only light, stone, and the sea.
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A 17th-century Dominican monastery converted to a twenty-room resort between Amalfi and Positano. The monastic layout means intimate guest rooms on two levels, a Michelin-starred kitchen, and deliberate seclusion from the coastal road.
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An 18th-century lakeside villa transformed into 24 suites at Moltrasio on Lake Como, retaining its original architecture and gardens while operating as an intimate hotel.
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A small luxury hotel in Positano that was the private residence of film director Franco Zeffirelli, set high on the cliff with a private beach access and gardens descending toward the water.
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A five-star boutique property in Positano with five room categories, each featuring large sea-view terraces and access to a private cove beach via a stone staircase through Mediterranean gardens.
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A 1960s modernist villa hotel wrapped around a rocky point with direct access to one of Capri's most photographed sea stacks, minimalist interiors, and a restaurant focused on simplicity.