Il San Pietro di Positano

Before you've seen your room, you've probably already spent a few minutes looking over the edge of the terrace trying to understand how anyone managed to build a hotel here.

Il San Pietro sits on a near vertical stretch of coastline between Positano and Praiano. Opened in 1970 by local hotelier Carlo Cinque, the property was carved directly into the cliff. A small seventeenth century chapel marks the entrance. From there, the hotel unfolds downwards towards the sea through a maze of terraces, staircases, gardens and elevators. The setting is so dramatic that it risks overshadowing everything else.

Every room faces the Mediterranean. The hotel is built only one room deep, meaning there are no compromised views. Balconies hang above the water, fishing boats drift across the horizon and a lift descends almost ninety metres through the rock to a private beach below. There is even a tennis court suspended above the sea, one of those features that sounds exaggerated until you see it for yourself.

The rooms are spacious and comfortable, decorated with local ceramics and traditional Italian touches. They suit the hotel well, though travellers expecting groundbreaking design or particularly memorable interiors may find them less distinctive than the setting outside. Most guests will spend more time looking beyond the terrace than studying the room itself.

Breakfast is served high above the Gulf of Salerno, with lemon trees growing on the surrounding terraces. The restaurant makes good use of produce from the hotel's gardens and the views do much of the heavy lifting. Meals are enjoyable, though the location tends to linger longer in the memory than any particular dish.

For travellers who want to experience the Amalfi Coast from an almost impossible location, few places come close.