Palazzo Avino

Via San Giovanni del Toro climbs along the ridge of Ravello past a Romanesque church and three of the town's historic houses. Palazzo Avino is the pink one. Built as a villa in the 12th century for one of the town's patrician families, it opened as a hotel in 1997 under the name Palazzo Sasso and took the name of its owners, the Avino family, in 2014. From its terraces the view drops some 350 metres to the sea at Minori and Maiori and runs along the coast towards Salerno.

History

Ravello grew rich on trade with the Levant in the Middle Ages, and the palazzo belongs to that period, when the town's merchant families built in the Arab-Norman manner they had seen in Sicily and across the sea. The Avino family restored the building in the 1990s and opened it as Palazzo Sasso in 1997, when Ravello already drew visitors to the Villa Rufolo and the Villa Cimbrone. The renaming in 2014 put the owners' name on the door. Mariella Avino runs it for the family.

Architecture and design

The façade is painted pink, which gives the hotel its nickname on the coast, and the architecture is the Ravello mixture of pointed arches, marble columns, majolica floors and a court open to the sky. The interiors keep antiques and frescoes alongside contemporary pieces, and the terraces are planted with lemon trees and bougainvillea. The Pink Closet, a fashion and homeware boutique inside the hotel, is run by the family.

Rooms and suites

There are 33 rooms and suites. Those on the upper floors and at the front look to the sea; the few at the back face the garden and the hill. The suites have terraces, and the largest have room for a family. Floors are tiled, bathrooms are marble, and the furniture is mostly antique.

Dining

Rossellinis, the fine-dining restaurant, serves dinner on the terrace with the coast lit below. It held two Michelin stars under chef Pino Lavarra in the 2000s and has kept a star since. Lunch is on the terrace, and the Lobster & Martini Bar does what its name says. Down on the shore at Marmorata, the Clubhouse by the Sea is the hotel's beach club, with a saltwater pool, sunbeds on the rocks and a casual restaurant, reached by the hotel shuttle.

Wellness

The spa has treatment rooms and a Turkish bath, and the outdoor pool is heated and set on a terrace above the drop. Guests who want the sea use the beach club.

Weddings and events

Ravello is a wedding town, and Palazzo Avino hosts ceremonies and receptions on its terraces. Civil ceremonies in Ravello take place at the Giardini della Principessa di Piemonte, the municipal gardens a short walk away, with the reception back at the hotel on the terrace and in the restaurant. Large weddings take the whole house. Meetings are small and use the lounges.

Location

Ravello sits 365 metres above the coast, 7 km of hairpins from Amalfi. Villa Rufolo, where Wagner found the garden of Klingsor in 1880, and Villa Cimbrone with its Terrace of Infinity are both within walking distance, and the Ravello Festival, founded in 1953, fills the summer with concerts. Naples airport is about 75 km away, 90 minutes or more by road; Salerno station, on the high-speed line, is about 45 minutes. Boats from Salerno and Positano call at Amalfi, where the hotel can arrange a car up the hill. For a luxury hotel in Ravello the setting is the whole argument.