Sorrento, Italy

I just got back from a twelve day trip to Italy. Go ahead and hate me. Though we called it a vacation, let’s be honest. A vacation is sitting on a beach somewhere with a trashy novel in one hand and a fruity cocktail in the other. This was traveling. There were days my husband and I plotted each other’s deaths, and incomparable days like the ones we spent at the Hotel Bellevue Syrene in Sorrento near the Amalfi Coast. This now ranks as one of my all time favorite hotels and best places on earth to ignore the sands of time. If only you didn’t have to catch a taxi to a train to a plane to a bus to a taxi to get there. Whew! Now, where’s my shot of Limoncello?…

Hotel Bellevue Syrene is a paradox of intimate grandeur.The sweeping views are why you come here. The impeccable service and attention to every detail are why you’ll want to come back. With only 48 rooms, this is luxury, boutique hotel living at its best.

The entrance, draped in shades of blue, mimicked the Gulf of Naples and Vesuvius in the background.

Sorrento makes the perfect home base for visiting the Amalfi Coast. Ferries run every hour to Capri, while Naples, Positano and Pompeii are easy day trips.

French by design, even in its opulence, the hotel evoked a coziness…as if you were hanging out at a friend’s chateau (what…don’t all your friends have French chateaus? ;)).

Nothing like a little whimsy to balance rich sophistication.

One of the very special “extras” was the complimentary wine, champagne and canapes served from 10am-8pm every day in the Club Lounge. Italians believe in a long lunch. They don’t believe in late afternoon snacks, so finding an open restaurant that served wine/beer and a little something to tide us over until dinner proved to be a challenge each place we went. Having this at the hotel not only solved that very first world problem, but saved us a lot of moolah (good LORD the exchange rate…).

Most late afternoons you could find me here. With an empty coffee cup. What IS it about the coffee in Italy that makes it so much better? And the coffee was readily available and complimentary round the  clock. (As were the buffet breakfast and WiFi by the way.)

Ciao, bello

The last time I visited Sorrento, I was fourteen and on a school trip. And I’m pretty sure our hotel (er, motel?) was located somewhere between the 7th and 8th circle of Hell. There were gunshots, it was hot, loud and definitely haunted. Or at least that’s how my young, homesick and impressionable mind remembers it (I’d give anything to find that travel journal). I swore I would never return to this God-forsaken city until I could rest my hard to please head at a place of my choosing.

 I’d say history has been more than redeemed.

Hotel Bellevue Syrene. P.zza della Vittoria 5, 80067. Sorrento, Italy. +39 081 8781024

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