Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria Spa

Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria Spa

A stone passage cut through volcanic tufa rock leads from the garden down to the old harbor at Marina Piccola, the Crypta Romana, carved when this cliff above the Bay of Naples was linked, by local tradition, to Emperor Augustus. Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria has stood on that promontory since 1834, run by the same Fiorentino family for five generations, and the passage is still there, still walkable, a detail no other hotel on this coast can match. The hotel opens directly onto Piazza Tasso in central Sorrento, yet the two-hectare historic park behind it, citrus trees, olive groves, shaded avenues, keeps the town's noise at a distance. Eighty-one rooms spread across six floors, many facing the sea toward Vesuvius, sit inside a member of Leading Hotels of the World. Terrazza Bosquet, the Michelin-starred restaurant, serves dinner with that same view, while La Serra spa occupies a restored nineteenth-century greenhouse in the garden. There is a heated outdoor pool, a fitness center, a private beach, and a frescoed 240-square-meter ballroom used for weddings and conferences, part of six meeting rooms built for groups up to 250. None of this comes cheap by the coast's ordinary standards: an extra bed runs 198 euros a night, an airport transfer 180 euros one way, parking 35 euros a day. Couples marking an anniversary, travelers who want Capri and Pompeii within reach but prefer to sleep somewhere with its own history, and anyone drawn to a hotel that has hosted Caruso, Pavarotti and Marilyn Monroe will find it earns the fuss. Families traveling light, or anyone counting euros closely, might look elsewhere on the peninsula. Family-owned since 1834, this cliffside hotel above the Bay of Naples still holds the Roman-era passage that once linked it to the harbor. Eighty-one rooms, a Michelin-starred terrace restaurant, and a two-hectare garden sit steps from Piazza Tasso, better suited to those chasing history than those minding the euros.