If you yearn for a time when hotels were a far grander affair; a place where penguin-coated concierges attend to your every whim with polite and courteous grace and the views are as outstanding as the service, then look no further than the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria.
The hotel, situated on the Amalfi Coast, and roughly an hour’s drive from Naples, lives up to, and perhaps even exceeds its name, with palatial marble corridors and a rostrum of immaculately kept gardens leading out from the hotel’s surprisingly modest entrance. Once inside, however, the grandeur of the place really does take your breath away.
High ceilings, grand pianos, and wonderfully traditional, dare I say, colonial furnishings lend a decidedly regal air. The rooms are amply furnished and decorated, with either sea or garden views on offer and equally luxurious marble bathrooms saturated with fluffy towels and an assortment of lotions and potions to keep one amused for several hours.
The hotel’s spa and swimming pool are the icing on the cake. The pool’s secluded position in a secret grove ensures that it’s a truly relaxing experience, and there are waiters on hand should you need a gin and tonic or two.
After a two hour session in the spa, in which I was lathered, scrubbed and rubbed with oils until my skin was glowing like a baby’s, I was on the verge of proposing to my therapist, if only to secure such sublime relaxation on a daily basis. Needless to say, a herbal tea revived me to my senses, and I thought better of it.
The hotel is situated in the charming Italian village of Sorrento, where you can enjoy the day on the water – visiting the local islands of Capri and Positano – and pass your evenings strolling through the orange-blossom scented streets of the town watching that most charming of Mediterranean scenes – the entire family, from old to young, passing the evening together, a sea of warm smiles.
The hotel boasts two restaurants as well as a majestic breakfast room, with quite literally everything your heart could desire, forcing us to coin the term ‘brownder’ – which stands for ‘brown and significantly rounder’. That is just how we returned to the drizzly shores of England, longing for another slice of the Excelsior’s splendour.
A weekend package with Citalia costs £699pp based on 2 adults sharing and includes breakfast, transfers and return flights from London Gatwick.
For more information, visit www.citalia.com.
