Caruso Ravello
In 1893, Pantaleone Caruso, (who already owned a vineyard and produced an excellent wine), and his wife, Emilia Cicalese, rented 5 rooms in one of the wings of the Marquis D’Afflitto’s eleventh century palace and open the “Pensione Belvedere”. He chose this name because of the hanging garden facing the mountains and plunging down to the sea. Getting there was not an easy thing, but the efforts of the first daring tourists were paid off by the splendid view: blooming lemon groves and lush vineyards stippled by white roofs against the blue of the sea and of the sky.
The guests were simply fascinated: glorious food, glorious home made wine and glorious view. The Hotel served as a favourite haunt of the Bloomsbury Group, Virginia Woolf and Lord Keynes among others, and it also helped Graham Green and William Styron to find the way, respectively, to The Third Man and Set This House On Fire. Last but not least to fall to Ravello’s charms is Gore Vidal who, brought to Ravello for the first time by Tennessee Williams, wrote, while staying at room n° 9, his Myra Breckinridge. He will leave Ravello no more, becoming a freeman of this corner of paradise.
The Belvedere In 1903 a journalist guest in love with the Hotel, wrote a long article on the New York Times and the Caruso suddenly became very famous across the Atlantic.
Back to the Amalfi scene, under the wings of history hotels specialist Orient Express. Recently reopened, the legendary hotel is a most welcome Select Member of The Most Famous Hotels in the World! (read more under >>>history).
Google Map
History in Brief In 1893, Pantaleone Caruso, (who already owned a vineyard and produced an excellent wine), and his wife, Emilia Cicalese, rented 5 rooms in one of the wings of the Marquis D’Afflitto’s eleventh century palace and open the "Pensione Belvedere". He chose this name because of the hanging garden facing the mountains and plunging down to the sea. Getting there was not an easy thing, but the efforts of the first daring tourists were paid off by the splendid view: blooming lemon groves and lush vineyards stippled by white roofs against the blue of the sea and of the sky.
The guests were simply fascinated: glorious food, glorious home made wine and glorious view. The Hotel served as a favourite haunt of the Bloomsbury Group, Virginia Woolf and Lord Keynes among others, and it also helped Graham Green and William Styron to find the way, respectively, to The Third Man and Set This House On Fire. Last but not least to fall to Ravello’s charms is Gore Vidal who, brought to Ravello for the first time by Tennessee Williams, wrote, while staying at room n° 9, his Myra Breckinridge. He will leave Ravello no more, becoming a freeman of this corner of paradise.
The Belvedere In 1903 a journalist guest in love with the Hotel, wrote a long article on the New York Times and the Caruso suddenly became very famous across the Atlantic. Wealthy Americans, who wintered on the European rivieras and sought charming places in which to stay, immediately adopted that remote little hideaway which, when its five rooms soon became twenty-four, was transformed into a hotel occupying the entire palazzo, and the owner’s name was added to the original "Belvedere". Pantaleone was the first Caruso to become famous. When the tenor Enrico Caruso landed in New York to make his debut at the Metropolitan and needed to sign a promissory note, the singer was asked if he was a relative of Caruso from Ravello, he said yes.
Many personalities signed the Golden Book of the Hotel Caruso Belvedere: Umberto of Savoy, Anne of France, Filippo of Assia visited the Caruso in 1926; King Farouk and Arturo Toscanini in 1929. In the next years the Hungarian Royal Family, the soprano Toti Dal Monte, the Savoy Family, the Italian playwright Eduardo De’ Filippo, Rosalind Russel, Max Reinhart, the Nobel prize winner Alexander Fleming, John Huston, Margot Fonteyn, Gina Lollobrigida, Humphrey Bogart, Jackie Kennedy; and any number of prominent personalities between the First and Second World Wars. However these are not the only names that made history at the Hotel. Just a glance to the golden book reveals the tracks of another kind of past: Royal Scots Grey, 113th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery, Queen’s Royal Regiment.
It was 1943 and the Allies could rest at last at the Caruso after the landing in Salerno. Once the war was over, the celebrities returned. The hotel was now managed by Paolo and Gino Caruso, Pantaleone’s sons. Guest were welcomed by the same enormous fireplace, the eighteenth –century frescoes, the terrace framed by Norman arches, the park filled with pergolas, oleanders, wisteria, the two stone lions "guarding" the entrance and, in the distance, the Belvedere that made the hotel such a success.
26 Rooms
24 Suites