Hotel Santa Caterina – Amalfi's Two-Key villa on the cliff

Santa Caterina occupies a Liberty-style villa that climbs a cliff on the Amalfi Drive, its terraced gardens of citrus and bougainvillea dropping all the way to a private jetty and a heated seawater pool at the Beach Club below. Accounts differ on exactly when the house was first built – Forbes dates the original residence to 1850, other sources to 1880 – but every record agrees that in 1904 Dr Giuseppe Gambardella, helped by his wife and son Crescenzo, turned it into a six-room hotel, a generation after he had tested the business with a smaller inn down the road. Four generations later, the Gambardella family still run the hotel themselves, now grown to 66 rooms and suites in the main house, plus a separate annexe, Casa Marchesa, along the same coast road. The MICHELIN Guide awards Hotel Santa Caterina Two Keys, and its restaurant Glicine, led by chef Giuseppe Stanzione, holds one MICHELIN star.

01The house

The villa still greets guests through a traditional revolving door and a vintage wood-panelled reception, details that carry the hotel's Belle Époque grandeur back to the early 1900s, when it first opened its doors. Three generations of the Gambardella family have since expanded and refurbished the property, built as a private residence before being transformed into a hotel with six rooms in 1904 by Dr Giuseppe Gambardella, a local landowner on the coast. The Liberty-style property keeps its open-air verandas above gardens where bougainvillea blooms adorn corners of the mansion and terraced grounds teem with citrus trees and vine-covered pergolas.

Today the family's fourth generation, sisters Giusi and Ninni Gambardella, manage daily life at the hotel together with their children, Crescenzo Gargano and Alessandro and Beatrice Camera, continuing a line of hospitality that has never left the family's hands since that first six-room opening.

02Rooms and suites

The 66 rooms and suites of the main house are spread across the original villa and two adjoining buildings, Villa Santa Caterina and Villa il Rosso, and every one has a balcony or terrace with a sea view. Early twentieth-century family furniture sits beside hand-painted Vietri ceramic floor tiles, so that no two rooms are quite alike, while bathrooms are stocked with Bulgari toiletries. The most romantic category is the honeymoon suites: cliff-perched chalets and private garden retreats with their own infinity pools and uninterrupted views across the bay.

Insider tip

On the coast road toward Positano, about 700 metres from Amalfi's cathedral square; a hotel shuttle runs into town.

A short walk along the same coast road, the hotel's recently acquired annexe Casa Marchesa adds a further 12 suites and rooms set around a 36-metre outdoor lap pool and solarium, bringing the property's full count to 78 rooms and suites in total.

03Where to eat

Dinner at Glicine, the hotel's one-MICHELIN-starred restaurant, is served on a panoramic veranda above the gardens, where chef Giuseppe Stanzione's seasonal, Mediterranean-leaning menu is offered à la carte or as a tasting journey, with vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options available. By day the kitchen moves down to the Beach Club, where Restaurant Al Mare sits on a stone terrace with views over the Tyrrhenian Sea, built around the traditional, seafood-led flavours of the region.

Rounding out the choices are The Grottino, the Wine Cellar and the breakfast room, and, since 2025, a new rooftop restaurant, Senzafine, which debuted alongside seven newly built suites as part of the hotel's latest expansion.

04Spa and the Beach Club

The wellness centre's facial and body treatments use products from a well-known French house together with fruit and herbs grown in the hotel's own botanical garden inside St Catherine's Park, and the centre is equipped with a steam bath, sauna and Scottish shower. Its signature ritual remains the Oro di Amalfi lemon massage, made with a lemon-based oil from the estate's own groves.

Below the gardens, the Beach Club is cut directly into the rock, with a heated seawater pool and private solarium at sea level; Casa Marchesa guests have their own 36-metre lap pool and solarium a short walk away. Reaching the water from the main house means taking the hotel's own cliff lift, a shaft cut through solid stone with windows that frame the sea as it drops.

05The neighbourhood

Santa Caterina sits around 700 metres from the centre of Amalfi, on the road toward Positano, built into the cliffside and close enough to reach on the hotel's complimentary shuttle while keeping its own quiet. From here, Positano, Ravello, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples are all within easy reach for a day out. Amalfi itself, smaller and less photographed than Positano, carries far more maritime history in its cathedral square and old paper mills; ask the hotel to arrange a walking tour and request local guide Michelangelo, who knows the town's alleys.

06Making the most of a stay

The concierge desk can arrange private transfers, excursions, private boat and yacht rentals, cooking classes and hiking routes along the coast. Guests arriving by sea can book a private boat transfer directly to the hotel's own jetty from Naples or other towns along the coast, while public ferries connect Amalfi with Sorrento, Capri and Salerno through the summer months. Inside the hotel, the Beach Club runs from mid-April to October, and Glicine opens for dinner only, so lunch is best taken down at Al Mare or beside the pool.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.