Hotel Le Sirenuse ★★

A legendary hotel in the Amalfi Coast town of Positano

In the heart of Positano lies the Amalfi Coast's most storied luxury hotel, Le Sirenuse, an 18th century villa with Pompeii-red walls, antique furnishings, and elegant, refined appointments run since 1951 by now three generations of the Sersale family.

The San Pietro, outside of town, may have more celebrity cachet at the moment, but Le Sirenuse has the Jet Set pedigree, which runs through an A-list guest book of notable guests over the decades and dating back to John Steinbeck's early endorsement of it as "an old family house converted into a first class hotel."

Like most larger hotels on the coast, the rooms are squirreled throughout several long, low buildings that stair-step down the steep hillside of the village, rimmed with tiny garden terraces and hiding an outdoor swimming pool in their midst (if you happened to see the silly but fun 1990s Marisa Tomei/Robert Downey, Jr. rom-com Only You, several scenes took place here).

Beyond Pompeii red walls, the rooms in this 18th century villa—cool white ceilings vaulted over museum-quality antiques resting on floors of hand-painted ceramic tiles—nearly all have a balcony or private terrace overlooking the bay.

Rooms above the pool offer great people watching and supermodel spotting, but for more quiet and privacy book a room at a lower level.

Penny-pinching luxury lovers would find no shame (and some €200 in savings on the nightly room rate) by downgrading from a room with a full sea view to one with a partial sea view.

There's a champagne and oyster bar on a shaded terrace, a narrow pool surrounded by potted lemon plants, and an exercise room and modern AVEDA spa.

Neapolitan cuisine and stratospheric prices reign at its La Sponda restaurant, lit by hundreds of candles in the evening, where the menu was devised by Don Alfonso, the first chef in Southern Italy to garner three Michelin stars (for his restaurant in nearby Sant'Agata Sui Due Golfi).

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