Parco Dei Principi
Perched on top of the steep cliffs just north of Sorrento, the hotel offers a spectacular view of the town, often referred to as “the gateway to the Amalfi coast”. Below the cliffs, the hotel has a private beach with a generous solarium.
Category: Hotels
Location: Sorrento, Italy
When entering the hotel gates from the street, the white, modernist hotel building, designed by Gio Ponti, is at first invisible, hidden deep inside a three-hectare botanical garden.
Parts of this garden date back to the time when the friars of the Order of Jesuits lived here.
Perched on top of the steep cliffs just north of Sorrento, the hotel offers a spectacular view of the town, which is often referred to as “the gateway to the Amalfi coast”.
Below the cliffs, the hotel has a private beach with a generous solarium, as well as the marina restaurant Poggio Siracusa, complete with a wood-fire pizza oven.
The only way to reach the beach area is through an elevator, hidden deep inside the mountain, or via the outdoors stairs, making it a strangely secluded and almost private experience, despite Sorrento being a hotspot for tourists.
For those who prefer swimming pools to the ocean, Ponti designed a salt-water piscine, complete with a diving board suspended over turquoise water.
The pool is placed in a rather remote part of the botanical garden, and comes with its own outdoor café and bar. In the evenings, the adjacent terrace, overlooking the sea and the island of Capri, is perfect for an aperitivo ordered at the Blu Bar, before dinner at the hotel restaurant.
For those not accustomed to modernist aesthetics, the interiors may appear bordering the austere, but this lack of visual distractions can also feel refreshing, as it brings focus to the spectacular views of the Bay of Naples.
Being nestled in a garden, on the top of dramatic cliffs seemingly dropping into the ocean, the hotel is so comfortable that many unexpectedly find themselves staying at the hotel instead of exploring the town or even traveling to nearby Capri.
The site of the hotel has an illustrious past, as the land was once acquired by the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV of Bourbon.
The king then offered it as a gift to his cousin, the Count of Syracuse.
In the lush greenery of the botanical garden, the Count constructed Villa Poggio Siracusa in 1792.
A few centuries later, in 1885, it was purchased by the Russian family Cortchacow, who began constructing a dacha in the English Gothic style, intended as a summer retreat for their cousins, the Imperial family of Russia.
Due to the Russian revolution, the dacha was never completed, and in 1959, Gio Ponti was assigned to design a hotel next to where the dacha originally was supposed to have been.
The building is defined by the many geometrical patterns in white and blue, designed by Ponti and sculptor Fausto Melotti and intricately placed throughout the hotel; a reflection of the colours of the ocean and the sky.
It is considered a modernist masterpiece and is officially part of the Italian cultural heritage, while also being as comfortable as it is elegant. It is recommended to rent a room overlooking the sea. A suite is not necessarily more extravagant than an ordinary double room.
The hotel is ideal for those seeking a quiet retreat away from the crowds, as it is just far enough from the town of Sorrento that a trip to the many restaurants and shops is possible, but also secluded enough that one’s stay will be marked by a relaxed sense of tranquillity.
