Amalfi, Italy
Le Sirenuse opened in 1951, when four Neapolitan siblings, the Marchesi Aldo, Paolo, Anna and Franco Sersale turned their summer house in Positano into a charming hotel, overlooking the bay of Positano. Today the 58-room resort is considered one of Italy’s leading seaside luxury hotels, though it still retains the intimate, cultured atmosphere of a private home. Le Sirenuse is open seasonally from April thru October. Children under the age of six are not allowed at Le Sirenuse.
In 2023, Le Sirenuse Hotel took the twentieth place in the list of "The World’s 50 Best Hotels".
The distance from Naples International Airport (NAP) to Positano is 60 km, the journey takes about 1.5 hours.
Chilling and recharging one’s energy reserves doesn’t mean sitting still. That’s why we’ve put together a weekly calendar of activities that take place in and around the hotel and are all entirely free of charge to our guests. Among them are a wine tasting with the sommelier, a pre-breakfast pilates workout, a cocktail-mixing lesson and a short but testing trek up 1,865 steps to Nocelle, a ‘perched’ village with stunning views down the coast.
The Amalfi Coast takes on an entirely different aspect when seen from the sea, and it’s no surprise that one of the most perennially popular activities is an excursion on the Sant’Antonio, a glorious old fishing boat that used to belong to bon viveur of an uncle, Aldo Sersale. Another evergreen classic is the boat ride to lunch at Nerano, a seaside village whose stellar restaurants and trattorias are well-known to Amalfi Coast insiders. Last but very much not least, our vintage Riva Aquarama speedboat, a true dolce vita icon, is now available for rental, with skipper, between the hours of 10am and 6pm. Note that boat activities are necessarily subject to weather conditions, and may not be available at the beginning and end of each season.
The hotel is ready to help you explore some of the incredible sights on our doorstep – starting with Pompeii, a unique example of an ancient town frozen at one moment in time. It’s just one of the draws in an area overflowing with cultural riches and natural wonders. Vesuvius, Naples with its rich, chaotic urban life, lesser-known archaeological sites such as Oplontis (which inspired the wine-red hue of our hotel facades), Amalfi and Ravello, Capri and Ischia – you could spend a month here and still not see everything.
Le Sirenuse’s terrace pool was already something of an Amalfi Coast icon when Swiss artist Nicolas Party transformed it into a liquid canvas that changes with every breath of wind and shift in the light. An exuberant play of overlapping and interlocking organic forms, Party’s vibrant mosaic has become a truly interactive piece of art: not only one you can dive into, but one you alter by doing so, as the ripples expand and create optical waves.
Designed by renowned Italian architect Gae Aulenti, the spa has been left deliberately unadorned to encourage tranquility and inner focus. The sole ‘decoration’ is provided by a series of black and white photographs taken by Franco Sersale during his travels in the East – photographs that, for critic Luigi Malerba, look deep into the soul, “revealing secrets, deepest essences, private worlds”. Inside the Spa you will find a sauna, a granite steam bath and an ice room – an atmospheric space with a ground ice cascade, illuminated by backlit crystal onyx walls. Among the treatment rooms, a Spa Suite, with steam bath and emotional shower, is set aside for couples. Massages, aromatherapy rituals, reflexology, acupressure, body rehydration and detoxification, exfoliation peels, restorative eyes therapy – Le Sirenuse’s expert therapists are trained in a wide range of treatments, and make it their priority to listen to guests and customize treatments to suit individual needs.
After a night of la dolce vita, or a day of too many dolci, it’s good to know that Le Sirenuse’s gym is there for you, should you need it. Equipped with the latest TechnoGym cardiovascular workout machines alongside weights, resistance bands, yoga and Pilates mats and other equipment, the gym also features two of the very few Megaformers in Italy. Developed by Lagree Fitness in Los Angeles, the Megaformer is a total-body workout machine, a kind of turbo-charged Pilates designed to deliver a healthy, well-toned and sculpted body.
Dolce Vitality is a six-day health and fitness retreat that takes place just once a year, in the week before Le Sirenuse opens in March. It centers on a series of challenging morning hikes in the mountains behind Positano that require, at a minimum, previous hiking experience and a good level of physical fitness. Each retreat runs from Sunday to Saturday and is open to no more than 30 guests, who have the whole hotel to themselves.
Any chef will tell you that stunning backdrops like this are a challenge. But for La Sponda’s executive chef Gennaro Russo, that view, that music and what’s on the plate aren’t that different. All three are the result of centuries of patient symbiosis between man and the natural world. In a simple plate of pasta al pomodoro, a branzino grilled to perfection or a Neapolitan babà dessert so light and fluffy you can cut it with the side of a fork lie stories of viscounts and peasants, fishermen and princes, but also stories of rivers, forests and volcanoes, dry-stone wall terraces and patiently tilled kitchen gardens. La Sponda, is illuminated by over 400 candles when dining indoors. It takes a gentleman over two hours to light each one by hand.
Aldo’s is dedicated to zio, Aldo Sersale, one of Le Sirenuse’s founders. It’s also dedicated to all those who love life and the good things in it as much as he did. As for the menu… well, you know those times when dinner beckons but you feel like something fresh, easy and seasonal? That’s Aldo’s. Oysters, fresh-off-the-boat seafood, Neapolitan classics, healthy vegetarian or vegan salads and sides, followed perhaps by the last word in tiramisù – Aldo’s is all about how simple that thing we call ‘eating well’ can be. If that’s not la nuova dolce vita, we don’t know what is.
But even here by the pool, they cut no corners. You’ll find heirloom tomatoes grown on the slopes of Vesuvius in that pasta al pomodoro, you’ll bite into a Club sandwich that took chef Gennaro Russo months of patient experimentation to perfect. And if you’re curious about the Amalfi Coast and Campania region wine scene – just say the word. It’s your vacation.
Named after the neon artwork that hangs from the cross-vaulted ceiling – Martin Creed’s DON’T WORRY – this cosy after-dinner haunt, with its verdant plants and stylishly retro ambience, is made for those who like their music tuneful, their cocktails old-school, their desserts as tempting as a Tiramisù.
Nature, sea and mountains lovers, romantic holidays on the coast of Italy.