THE AMALFI COAST
Hotel Santa Caterina in the Amalfi Coast is difficult to put into words.
From the moment you drive up, Hotel Santa Caterina is something out of a dream. My mom and I have been fantasizing about staying here for some time now. The Mediterranean views, extraordinary service and attention to every detail exceeded our expectations. Upon arrival, you are greeted by the kindest concierge who makes you feel at home. The all-white interiors and colorful flooring gives you the ultimate coastal Italian charm.
This hotel has been owned by the Gambardella family for the past four generations. We would see guests leave throughout the week who clearly come back time and time again and know the staff well. You become more than just a guest, you are part of a family here.
The photo on the lower left is off the lobby. At night, they light dozens of candles in this room and you can enjoy a drink while listening to a live, classical pianist. The photo on the lower right is as you are walking down to sea level. There are multiple private terraces around the hotel at various levels to enjoy the views.
Here we are on our private balcony right off our room. The views went on forever.
We were lucky to have a front sea view room and I would say it is 100% worth it. I still remember how I felt when I first stepped out onto our balcony. I felt pure joy and pure gratitude. We had back-to-back rooms with my parents, but we did not mind because we were in AMALFI! The rooms have blue tiled floors, bright orange accents and a jacuzzi tub you could live in. We unpacked our bags, grabbed our swimsuits and headed down to the water for lunch and an afternoon swim.
We could see the town of Amalfi from our balcony, which was just a short six-minute drive or a twenty-minute walk away. This view is even more breathtaking lit up at night. I could have stayed here for weeks, but we felt fortunate to even have three nights here.
We grabbed lunch at the Al Mare, one of the hotels three restaurants. This restaurant is meant to be Santa Caterina’s casual, seaside dining. We had the freshest mozzarella and fish you could ask for. It was on the level overlooking the Tiranian Sea. On the level right below, you can go swimming in the sea or in the heated hotel pool.
There is an outdoor elevator that takes you down to the water. It had some of the best views of the entire property. The elevator offered practically floor to ceiling views and was memorizing to watch as you went down.
The view from the sea looking up the hillside with the lemon groves peaking out is still my favorite view of the entire Amalfi Coast.
Apertivo snacks, drinks and water are plentiful when you are by the water and the exceptional service is really noted here. Cameron, to no surprise, quickly found the special iced, limoncello cocktail made with fresh Amalfi grown lemons. It was so delicious that it became our go-to drink by the water.
That evening, we took the hotel shuttle service down to the town of Amalfi to explore. Amalfi is known for Saint Andrew’s Duomo at the top of the stairs. This overlooks Piazza Duomo, the heart of Amalfi.
We ventured throughout the town, which does not take long. Cameron found some Peroni’s to walk and sip and my mom and I found the most exquisite limoncello dessert shop. We bought treats to take home to our friends and then found an old paper shop called Tabula. We bought a print of Amalfi and my mom bought personal stationery for the fam.
Hannah and Aaron were in Italy just a couple of months prior. They started in Firenze with Aaron’s family for his parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. Then, just the two of them headed south for an extended stay in Amalfi. Lucky for us, Hanna and Aaron know their food and we must say they were right. Their top recommendation for Amalfi was a restaurant tucked away off the beaten path. Nearly at the top of the hills of Amalfi is Taverna Buonvicino. It was perfect and the grilled octopus truly was to die for.
Hotel Santa Caterina really comes alive at night. The lobby turns into a candlelit masterpiece and is a great place for a nightcap. We headed up to bed and stepped out onto our balcony to look at the moonlight over the water and SURPRISE, there are my parents on the balcony next door. Naturally, we cheers to the wonderful day we had one last time.
My dad can be a man of many words. Sometimes too many words, especially when trying to communicate with someone that speaks minimal English. As we are enjoying our drinks in the lounge, John asks the waiter for some ice to bring up to the room for our second nightcap. He specifically requests, “I need a small bucket. Not a big bucket.” He continues to add, “I just need some ice in a small bucket…nothing too big, like not a full ice bucket, just a small one.” Well, out comes the biggest ice bucket we had seen the whole trip!
A memorable experience at Santa Caterina is the morning breakfast. They had everything you could think of and it was buffet style. Top of the line pastries, cheeses and custom omelette stations were plentiful. Normally at a hotel buffet (aka a hotel that is not Santa Caterina), when you go to bring your plate to your table they do not chase after you to say, “oh no let us carry that for you!” At the Santa Caterina they insist on bringing your plate to the table. The views from breakfast were of the town of Amalfi and, of course, stunning.
Cameron and I visited the hotel spa and got to have another afternoon by the sea while my parents explored Ravello on their own. We wanted the Amalfi leg of the trip to be very relaxing since Rome and Florence are non-stop moving about. Relaxing is quite easy in the Amalfi and we do it well.
On October 20, our 1-year wedding anniversary, we ventured to Positano! We made reservations at La Sponda at the famous hotel, Le Sirenuse, for the big celebration. My parents also came with us to Positano, but they had dinner elsewhere. It was a romantic date night all around. Before we shuttled down to Amalfi to hop on the ferry to Positano, we enjoyed cocktails on the lobby terrace and took sunset photos.
Now off to catch the ferry!
The ferry system in Amalfi was a fun and great way to jump from to to town, plus, the bar on board was a nice touch.
Positano is unique and has a different vibe from Amalfi. This town is full of brightly colored buildings stacked on top of each other all the way up the mountain. You get a nice workout climbing the hilly, winding streets. We arrived early enough to watch the sun quickly escape the town and see Positano illuminate with the lights of the night from the sea. My dad can be a bit weepy at times and I still remember looking at him and seeing tears in his eyes as we boated up to Positano and saw all of the beautiful lights in the hillside.
The bright red building in the middle was our anniversary destination. A 5-star dinner awaited us.
We made our way up the steep hills to Le Sirenuse. We had some magnificent champagne cocktails with my parents and reminisced on our wedding day and first year of marriage.
My parents headed out and accidentally climbed even more hills to dine at Il Tridente Restaurant at Hotel Poseidon. They said it was wonderful. Cameron and I headed into La Sponda for what would be a first wedding anniversary to remember. We had a 5-course meal with amazing service. 400+ candles and greenery lined the archways and ceilings, creating an unforgettable atmosphere and a romantic backdrop. An Italian guitarist, strolled from table to table, serenaded each of us with an Italian ballad.
This was the view from our table, right into the heart of the town. Felt like a literal postcard!
The tricky part of venturing to Positano at night when you are staying in Amalfi is how to get home…The ferries stop once the sun goes down so we hired a car service. The ride takes about an hour at night and that is an hour spent on very windy, narrow roads. So be prepared to not be car sick. Luckily, we had entertainment because Cameron was in the front seat and became fast friends with our driver. Turns out, our driver has always wanted to travel to Indianapolis because he is a big race car fan. Cameron gave him his phone number and hugged him goodbye so we could hook him up with tickets when he visits.
The next morning we woke up early, had another perfect breakfast and headed to Capri! Do not let these photos of Cameron fool you — just before he was unwell due to the amount of fun we had the night before, but nothing like a quick “puke and rally” and a beer cannot fix.
It took an hour and 15 minute ferry ride to get from Amalfi to Capri. We basked in the sun, had a drink, met some cool travelers from Australia and got excited for our day ahead.
Once arriving at Marina Grande in Capri, we hopped on the Funicolare. A funicular is a slow ram that brings you up the mountain to the main square of Capri.
The view from the upper square of Capri is amazing.
The shop, Capri Object, became a special store to us. The store owner’s name is Stephi, a bubbly, charismatic British woman who moved to Capri where she met husband to start over. Within the first ten minutes in the store, my mom had her opening up about the immense grief she was feeling over losing her father recently to cancer. We learned of her previous life in Manchester, England and how her had was a chef. She shared the semi-humorous family dynamics of the funeral with a positive, up-beat spin on every story. I purchased a beautiful wrap and my dad bought a colorful belt. We left Stephi with hugs and promises to send her resources to help her with her grief. Sadly, there is very little mental care on the island of Capri. My mom still connects with her periodically.
After we walked around we took the funicular back down to the Marina Grande. We had a fun day of boating ahead of us!
Hannah and Aaron, doing a cameo feature on the blog, recommended to us the best way to see Capri. We knew we wanted to do a boat, but as you can imagine, there are a lot of options. Hannah and Aaron had a wonderful time on Gianni’s Boat. So, we booked the same boat and it did not disappoint.
The boat tour lasted three hours. Since we were nearing the end of the season, most of the boat tours were done and we essentially had a wide-open sea to explore. Usually, there are so many boats it is nearly impossible to get as close to the caves and to the blue grottos as we did. My dad and Cameron had their matching terry cloth jackets - how Capri of them!
It was the most relaxing, breath-taking day of the trip.
We had perfect weather. High 70’s and pure sunshine. Here we are in front of Faraglioni, Capri’s kissing rock. When you pass under the archway you kiss for good luck!
We finished our boat tour of Capri, said goodbye to our favorite captain and headed over to the ferry for the last boat back to Amalfi. What a magnificent day on the water and a spectacular little island.
The benefit of taking the ferry to each town is you get to stop along the way in each town. Here we are pulling up to Positano, but to be honest, we were happy we were heading back to Amalfi because we felt a deeper connection there than we did to Positano.
Our last night in Amalfi, we dined at Santa Caterina’s Michelin-starred restaurant, Glicine. We were essentially the only patrons there and they treated us to an intimate evening with the most incredible tasting menu. Including fresh lobster and truffle mashed potatoes, spectacular views into the heart of Amalfi and the absolute perfect service.
It was the perfect last evening in Amalfi.
We woke up super early by accident to watch the sunrise over the sea and we are so happy we did. It looked like heaven on earth. It was hard to imagine leaving this place, but we knew we would be back here one day. We had one last fabulous Santa Caterina breakfast. It is not a vacation if Cameron is not eating sugary cereal since we do not eat this at home. We did one last stroll of the lemon groves and said our goodbyes.
We only had one hiccup on our way out of Amalfi. We were supposed to take a car to Solerno to catch a train to Firenze (it was too early in the morning to get to Solerno by ferry). Since we were in Amalfi just as the city was preparing for their “off-season,” there was a road closed for maintenance. This made it impossible to drive to Solerno. Santa Caterina was eager to help us come up with a solution and got us new transportation to take us to Naples where we would meet up with our train. We took the high speed train between Naples and Firenze and it took us three hours. The trains in Italy are clean, spacious and an ease to navigate.
Next stop, Firenze!