Cliffside getaway

Inside Anantara Amalfi, a hotel built within a convent above the coast

14 Sep 2025

Anantara Amalfi occupies a former Capuchin convent set on a cliff above the harbour. The altitude does two useful things. It gives a continuous line of sea and sky, and it removes you from the day-trip traffic around the Duomo and the port. Town is a downhill walk when you want it, not a constant presence when you do not. The complex began as a 13th-century monastery. In 1583 the Capuchin friars took charge and, with architect Matteo Vitale of Cava de’ Tirreni, rebuilt and reorganised the site into individual cells with a refectory and kitchen. Those decisions still shape how the building works today. The plan follows the cliff, which keeps circulation linear and calm.

Choose Anantara Amalfi if you want the coast’s spectacle with control over your exposure to it. The height gives the view. The convent plan manages flow. The chapel and cloister add function. The garden supplies the table. And town stays available rather than unavoidable.

You enter through the cloister, then peel off to rooms that were once monk cells and now face the water. The “Walk of the Monks” is the historic cliffside path that links the main building with lookouts and the pool; the hotel even uses this terrace for small receptions, which tells you how integral the route remains. The chapel is active rather than ornamental. The 12th-century Chapel of Saint Francis hosts Catholic wedding ceremonies for up to about sixty guests, while the cloister and sea-view terraces take symbolic vows and intimate celebrations. These venues are part of the working layout, not a set-piece add-on. Placement is the other advantage. You are minutes from Amalfi’s centre yet insulated by height and rock, so midday is best spent on the higher levels where shade, air movement and distance lower the temperature and the noise. If you plan day trips by boat, returning here gives a reset that many seaside addresses cannot offer.

Gardens keep the property coherent as lemons anchor the terraces alongside herbs and seasonal produce. You see them in rows, you smell them in the heat, then you taste them across the day: juices and preserves at breakfast, dressings and desserts at lunch and dinner, and a limoncello or amaro after. There are 52 keys, most converted from cells and finished in whitewashed walls, stone floors and timber so the view remains the point. The hotel reopened under the Anantara flag in spring 2023 after an extensive restoration and refresh, which brought the public areas and suites up to date while keeping the cloister and church intact.

Dining follows the same line: produce first, clean flavours, and the grove as a through-note, from a flash of zest on raw fish to a citrus dessert. Service patterns mirror the architecture, with staff appearing at the cloister, the stairs to the pool and terrace thresholds where flows naturally narrow. Choose Anantara Amalfi if you want the coast’s spectacle with control over your exposure to it. The height gives the view. The convent plan manages flow. The chapel and cloister add function. The garden supplies the table. And town stays available rather than unavoidable.