Standing proud, perched on the cliff top, with magnificent views across the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius is Hotel Ambasciatori. The hotel is a true jewel in the crown of Sorrento. The rooms are clean and bright, the staff are polite and friendly and the food, restaurants and ambiance are absolutely excellent, not to mention the scenery in and around the hotel grounds and gardens. I have stayed here numerous times since I first started coming to Sorrento in 2005, a wonderful place to stay.

The hotel first came into being during the second half of the nineteenth century. A young man from Sorrento called Antonino Ercolano entered a seminary, but a relationship with a young lady forced him to leave his ecclesiastical life. Antonino decided to use what skills he had learned whilst working in the kitchens at the seminary and in 1878 bought two small rooms which he converted into a restaurant called ‘La Favorita’. This became a very popular eating place with his friends. Unfortunately Antonino had no children so he employed his nephew Giuseppe Manniello to help him. In 1940 Antonino entrusted the running of the restaurant to his nephew. He relaunched it with new ideas and local cuisine. In the early 1960’s Giuseppe decided to build his first hotel the Ambasciatori, helped by his three sons who were in their early twenties. A few years later they opened another three more hotels in Sorrento.

The hotel is situated along Via Califano and is a short ten minute walk into the centre of the town.