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A 200-Year-Old Hotel Built on a Roman Villa in Sorrento

Perched on the tufa cliffs above the Bay of Naples, on the ruins of a Roman villa once inhabited by the emperor Augustus's exiled nephew, Bellevue Syrene has been welcoming guests since 1820 — making it one of the oldest hotels in Sorrento. Now the only Relais & Châteaux property in the area, it is a place where classical elegance and contemporary design coexist in a way that feels less like a decorating scheme than an accumulation of two centuries of taste, art, and history.

Bellevue Syrene occupies one of the more remarkable sites in Italian hospitality. The hotel sits on the ruins of a Roman villa where, according to legend, the emperor Augustus exiled his troublesome nephew, and where the Counts of Mastrobuono later built a holiday residence in 1750 — a building that became a hotel in 1820, during the heyday of the Grand Tour. Two centuries on, it has hosted an improbable roster of European royalty, artists, and writers, and remains the only Relais & Châteaux property in Sorrento. What sets it apart, though, isn't merely its longevity but the way that longevity is visible in the design: the hotel wears its layered history openly rather than smoothing it into a single period style.

The interiors are the clearest expression of that philosophy. Frescoed ceilings, marble floors, and antique statues coexist with bold modern art, colorful furniture, and unexpected flourishes — the result of the current owners' decision, after taking over roughly three decades ago, to treat the hotel as a living collection rather than a museum. Antique Italian furnishings sit alongside Scandinavian modernist pieces and works by contemporary design masters such as Gaetano Pesce, Philippe Starck, and Marcel Wanders, while art by regional figures like Mimmo Jodice and Riccardo Dalisi brings the past into dialogue with the present. As the owner has put it, the art here isn't meant to show off — a sensibility that gives the hotel its distinctive, slightly eccentric warmth.

That approach extends to the guest rooms and suites, of which there are around 70. Each is designed individually, combining modern and antique elements to create spaces with distinct personalities, from frescoed walls and panoramic terraces to separate living areas and whirlpool baths. The most singular of these is the Suite Roccia, carved directly out of the tufa rock of the cliff and fitted with a hydrotherapy pool, while the Villa Pompeiana — an early 20th-century reproduction of Pompeii's House of the Vettii, commissioned by the English collector William Waldorf Astor — now serves as the atmospheric setting for breakfast and events.