Ravello, Amalfi Coast · Five-Star · #5 on the Amalfi Coast
Palazzo Avino
Ravello's Pink Palace, a 12th-century villa with a terrace pool and coast views that explain every painting ever made on this stretch of Italy.
Ravello's Pink Palace, a 12th-century villa with a terrace pool and coast views that explain every painting ever made on this stretch of Italy.
"The Vuilleumier family's 12th-century Ravello palazzo, the warm, family-run answer to the grander Belmond Caruso next door."
Why it ranks #5: Palazzo Avino opened in 1997 inside a restored 12th-century palazzo on the Ravello clifftop and has spent the decades since refining rather than reinventing. The Vuilleumier family owns and runs it, which gives the Pink Palace a warmth the bigger houses can't quite match. 43 rooms and suites (10 suites) climb the cliff, nearly all with sea-view terraces; a sea-view suite with private terrace is the one to book. Rossellinis holds one Michelin star (2026) and pairs it with one of the deepest cellars on the coast; the Lobster & Martini Bar handles cocktails, and the Clubhouse by the Sea beach club at Marmorata runs the daytime via complimentary shuttle. Best for couples who want Ravello's quiet and a family-run feel rather than chain polish. The honest trade-off: the beach is a shuttle ride below, not at your feet.
Best room: Sea-view suite, private terrace
"Ravello's Pink Palace, a 12th-century villa with a terrace pool and coast views that explain every painting ever made on this stretch of Italy."
Palazzo Avino is Ravello's other great hotel, the one next door to the Belmond Caruso, positioned on the same clifftop, sharing the same altitude and the same fundamental view. The comparison is inevitable and not quite fair. Caruso has the Belmond scale and investment; Avino has the character. A 12th-century villa painted the particular deep pink that has given it its popular nickname, the Pink Palace, Palazzo Avino has been a hotel since 1997 and has spent the intervening years refining rather than reinventing itself.
Forty-three rooms and suites, including ten suites, across the palazzo and its newer extensions each have terraces with coast views, the view from the pool terrace, which faces west across the Tyrrhenian Sea toward Capri on clear days, is one of the finest in Italy at any price. The rooms are decorated with antiques, handmade majolica tiles, and fabrics from Naples and Positano. The style is warm rather than minimal, colour, pattern, and the kind of Italian domesticity that makes luxury feel less like performance and more like hospitality.
Rossellinis restaurant holds one Michelin star (2026) and serves updated Campanian cuisine in a terrace setting that competes directly with the view for your attention. The wine list emphasises southern Italian producers, Campanian reds and whites that are underrepresented on most international hotel lists and genuinely worth exploring. The spa, though smaller than the Caruso's, covers massage, facial, and beauty treatments with trained therapists.
Palazzo Avino is the more affordable option in Ravello's top tier, beginning at €522 per night compared to the Caruso's €877, while delivering a location, a view, and a quality of experience that makes the comparison meaningful rather than dismissive. For guests who want Ravello's altitude and quiet without the Belmond price, this is the correct hotel.
Palazzo Avino's combination of character, a Michelin restaurant, and the terrace pool view makes it a strong honeymoon choice, particularly for couples who find the Pink Palace's warmth more appealing than the Caruso's formality. The view is identical; the atmosphere is different. Book a suite with a private terrace and request the Rossellinis dinner table facing west. The sunset from that position is one of the defining views on the Amalfi Coast.
Ravello's altitude, quiet streets, and absence of beach-club pressure make it Italy's best-kept wellness destination. Palazzo Avino's spa, the pool terrace, and the walking routes through Ravello's mediaeval lanes and terraced gardens provide the structure for a genuine retreat. The kitchen accommodates dietary requirements and can adapt the menu for detox or specific programmes. Three to five nights here in May or September is among the best uses of an Italian hotel budget.
The Rossellinis Michelin dinner, the pool terrace sunset, and the villa's character make Palazzo Avino an excellent anniversary choice at a price point roughly forty percent below the Belmond. The hotel manages celebrations competently, champagne, room decoration, private table arrangements, with the warmth of a boutique rather than the process of a chain. For anniversaries where intimacy matters more than grandeur, this is the better hotel.
Via San Giovanni del Toro 28
84010 Ravello, Salerno
Campania, Italy
In Ravello village, adjacent to Belmond Hotel Caruso
43 rooms and suites (10 suites)
Deluxe Rooms from €522/night
Junior Suites from €900/night
Grand Suites from €1,800/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Open: March, November
Rossellinis (1 Michelin star)
Terrace pool with Capri views
Spa · Private terraces
Southern Italian wine focus
12th-century palazzo · Ravello village centre
From €522/night. Ravello's best value at the luxury level, and the view is the same as next door.
Check Rates →Family-run since 1951 in Positano. La Sponda Michelin star. The pool above the town.
Also in Ravello. Infinity pool 1,200ft above the sea. Belmond's grandest Italian address.
17th-century convent above Conca dei Marini. The best spa on the coast. Twenty rooms.
Editorial · #5 on the Top 20 Hotels on the Amalfi Coast 2026 list
Palazzo Avino earns its place on the coast through ownership and the kitchen. The Vuilleumier family has run the Pink Palace since it opened in 1997, renaming it Palazzo Avino in 2013 for the founding family, and that continuity shows in service that feels personal rather than processed.
Its 43 rooms and suites (10 suites) fill the restored 12th-century palazzo, nearly all with sea-view terraces. A sea-view suite with a private terrace is the one to request.
Rossellinis holds one Michelin star (2026), the formal dinner anchor with one of the deepest cellars on the Amalfi Coast; the Lobster & Martini Bar handles cocktails, and the Clubhouse by the Sea beach club at Marmorata runs the daytime via complimentary shuttle. On the Ravello clifftop it sits alongside Belmond Caruso and Villa Cimbrone in the village's luxury cluster. Best for couples who want Ravello's altitude and family-run warmth rather than the grandeur next door; the trade-off is that its beach is a shuttle ride below.
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