NITP: Historic Hotels in Southern Italy

Hotel Luna Convento
33 Via Pantaleone Comite, Amalfi 84011

If it�s location-location-location then the Hotel Luna Convento is in the first-division of European coastal accommodation premises. Centred around a cloister founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1222 (beat that for history), the present day hotel is very much the romantic retreat. The Torre Suite (in an ancient guard tower) was frequented by such Hollywood luminaries as Humphrey Bogart abd Ingrid Bergman.

But if its sheer age isn�t enough to impress, then its hypothetical guestbook should be: the names of Wagner, Ibsen, Bismark and a certain Benito Mussolini would be found there.

Grand Hotel Parker�s
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 135, Naples 80121

Recently restored, The Grand Hotel Parkers is a building dating back to only the late 1800�s. However, despite its relative lack of age in Nights In The Past terms, it has managed to attract some extremely high profile guests in its century-old existence -.and given its position overlooking the Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in the background it�s easy to understand why. Today, the hotel features over 70 bedrooms, 9 suites and a �Presidential Suite.

Creative-types seem to have a particular association with the hotel: George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde among them. A certain Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, also stayed here.

Hotel Vesuvio
Via Partenope 45, Naples 80121

Unquestionably a premiere hotel of its time, The Grand Vesuvio began to attract famous late-nineteenth century figures almost from the monent the paint had dried. In fact, it has remained popular with celebrities ever since.

Early icons to check in included Oscar Wilde and Guy de Maupassant, with the former recalling the view from the balcony as the most pleasant memory of his stay in the city. However, the hotel�s most enduring historical connection is to the great tenor Enrico Caruso who made the hotel his casa napoletano (Neopolitan home). In fact, it would be in his suite at the Hotel de Vesuve in which he would prematurely die aged 48 from peritonitis on August 2, 1921.

Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria
34 Piazza Tasso, Sorrento 80067

Small wonder that the hotel attracted, and continues to attract, the rich & famous: few have such magnificent views over the Bay of Naples as the Excelsior Vittoria � Marilyn Monroes, Jack Lemmon and Sophia Loren all stayed here during the fifties and sixties. From a more historic perspective, though, there is a distinctively musical theme, with the hotel having played host to both Enrico Caruso and Richard Wagner.

Built in 1834, the hotel has been owned and managed by the Fiorentino family - one of very few founding hotelier families remaining in Italy today.

Hotel Palumbo
16 Via San Giovanni del Toro, Ravello 84010

Named after its founder, Pasquale Palumbo, who, together with his wife, opened the very first Hotel Palumbo in Ravello in 1875, the hotel has attracted numerous Hollywood celebrities in its time: Gina Lollobrigida and Ingrid Bergman to name but two.

However, the most historic figure to have sojourned at the then Villa Episcopio is undoubtedly Richard Wagner. Indeed, the piano upon which he would compose new works while staying at the hotel is still very much in use.

Imperial Hotel
Via Vittorio 1, Sorrento 8006

There�s a strong literary theme to the list of great names to have rested at The Imperial Hotel. In fact, the west wing of the building is itself said to be the birthplace of the celebrated Italian poet Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544).

One can almost overlook the fact that the hotel has played host to numerous monarchs, Edward VII and Queen Wilhelmena of Holland among them. It is, after all, the impressive array of poets and authors which catches the eye. James Fenimore Cooper lived here while writing his famous work The Water Witch, as did Harriet Beecher Stowe who was moved to write Agnes of Sorrento. It was also the place in which Henrik Ibsen completed his great play Ghosts in 1881.

Then there are the great poets: John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sir Walter Scott, Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Musset.

And if that were not impressive enough, it is even said that John Milton visited while travelling through Italy during the seventeenth century.