Caruso is the old palazzo of the d'Afflitto family at the top of Ravello, 350 metres above the sea. The hotel tells it the family were Roman patricians who landed here after a shipwreck on the way to Constantinople and built the first palace in the 11th century; it fell into ruin and was rebuilt by the 16th century. In 1893 Pantaleone Caruso and his wife Emilia Cicalese opened the Pensione Belvedere in five rooms; the family later ran the whole palazzo as the Hotel Caruso Belvedere, host to Greta Garbo and Jackie Kennedy. Orient-Express, now Belmond, bought it in 2000 and reopened it in July 2005 after a restoration that uncovered frescoes whitewashed in the 19th century. Its 50 rooms and suites open from mid-April to mid-October.
The entry Superior Rooms with Garden, 42 to 48 m², are on the ground floor of the Garden Wing, most with a private garden or terrace, over the gardens or the village. The Deluxe Sea View Rooms, 40 to 50 m², are the first with the sea, from a balcony or terrace. The Junior Suites, 45 to 60 m², all face the sea, from a private garden, a balcony or a furnished terrace, and the suites run to 65 m². At the top sit the Divina Signature Suites in the gardens, 90 to 95 m², and Villa Margherita, a villa of two suites. Every category has a marble bathroom with a bathtub and a separate walk-in rain shower.
It is chosen as the grand one, and the palace is why. Two medieval stone lions, brought from the family's church of Sant'Eustachio in Scala, guard the entrance, and inside are vaulted halls, stone arches and 18th-century frescoes, now around the Adagio Bar. Steps under a rose colonnade climb the terraced gardens to the top of the property, where the heated infinity pool, built in 2005, hangs over the Gulf of Salerno. Il Pantaleone serves dinner nightly on a terrace above the coast, and Caruso Grill serves wood-fired dishes by the pool. Villa Rufolo and the Duomo are a five-minute walk, and the hotel holds a MICHELIN Key.
The trade is the sea. The entry rooms look over the garden or the village, so the famous view starts a rung or two up, at about €200 to €900 a night more. There is no beach: the coast is 350 metres below, reached by the hotel's free shuttle to Amalfi, a taxi or a long stepped path, and the prices sit at the top of the coast's range. Book it for the palace, the pool and Ravello's quiet rather than the sea, and take a Superior Sea View Junior Suite with Garden.
