Palazzo Pascal

Palazzo Pascal stands on the small piazza of Minuta, a hamlet of Scala, the village that tradition calls the oldest on the Amalfi Coast, looking across the Valle del Dragone to Ravello. The hotel traces its origins to the 11th century, when the building was part of the complex of the Church of the Annunziata next door and housed the priests who served it; in the 18th century it became a noble house with terraced gardens of medicinal herbs. The family behind Pascal art ceramics restored it as what the hotel calls the first five-star albergo diffuso on the coast, with 13 rooms and suites, and it opens from March to the end of October.

Seven suites are in the palazzo itself, served by a lift to the first floor. Two Courtyard Suites with their own entrance sit in a courtyard a few steps from the lobby, and four rooms are in the Dependance, a house renovated in 2024 about 50 metres away in a 10,000 m² garden of olive trees and vines, with its own heated hydromassage pool. The Dependance rooms run from about 18 to 25 m², the entry Classic Room with a window and the Deluxe Rooms with terraces; the suites run up to 50 m², several with private terraces of 6 to 50 m² and two with full kitchens. Every room has Pascal ceramics and a bathroom with a shower.

It is chosen as the find: a family-run house of 13 rooms that the MICHELIN Guide gives a Key, in a quiet village above Amalfi. The pool sits in the garden facing Ravello and the sea, open in spring and summer, with sun loungers, umbrellas and the Berry Bar beside it for drinks as the evening light falls on Ravello. Breakfast is à la carte, inside or out, and dinner at Gli Ulivi, under chef Ciro Accardo, uses herbs and produce from the hotel's own garden, served on Pascal ceramics. There are cooking classes, tastings in the wine cellar and walks through the vineyard, and Scala's Duomo is 14 minutes away on foot.

The trade is getting about. The hotel is about 40 steps from the road, there is no beach (Castiglione and Amalfi are 7 and 8 km away by road), and the nearest buses are few, so most days start with a taxi, a bus or a steep stepped path down to Amalfi. The entry room is a small annex room with a window rather than a terrace. Book it for the quiet, the view across to Ravello and a family welcome rather than a beach, and take the Deluxe Suite Edera.