Grand Hotel Cocumella Sorrento

Historic hotel has been a haven for writers

The oldest hotel in Sorrento, the Grand Hotel Cocumella at Sant’Agnello, dates back to 1777.

The entrance to the Grand Hotel Cocumella in the Sant'Agnello
district, which is the oldest hotel in Sorrento 

Originally built as a Jesuit monastery in the 16th century, the Cocumella sits right on the edge of a cliff over- looking the bay of Naples and has a stunning view of Vesuvius from its terraces and gardens.

The interior of the five-star hotel reflects its long history, with walnut furniture, old majolica floors, frescoed ceilings and antique mirrors.

Over the centuries it has welcomed writers such as Goethe, Mary Shelley, Hans Christian Anderson and Francis Marion Crawford along with many artists, statesmen and noblemen who visited it while on the Grand Tour.

Jesuit priests lived in the building from 1637 until it became a guesthouse in 1777. It became a hotel in 1822. 

The cloister at the Cocumella, with its central well, has
been turned into a dining room

In 1978, the Cocumella was refurbished by architect Nino di Papa, with the focus on restoring its elegant features and recapturing its peaceful atmosphere.

The antique cloister with a grey stone well in the centre is now a dining room and the old chapel is used for concerts.

The huge gardens have a swimming pool and tennis court and there is a lift down to a private sun deck. The hotel has three restaurants and a cocktail bar that opens on to a terrace overlooking the bay of Naples.

One of the Grand Hotel Cocumella’s unique facilities is Vera, a 30 metre sailboat built in 1880, which is available for guests to charter for excursions to Capri and the Amalfi coast.

The hotel has 48 rooms, all different, which either have a sea view or a view over the gardens or citrus groves.

The hotel has produced its own history, which
includes details of Mary Shelley's stay

The novelist Mary Shelley stayed at the Cocumella in June 1843 with her son Percy Florence Shelley. It was more than 20 years after her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned off the coast of Tuscany.

Since the poet’s death Mary had suffered a hard life bringing up her son alone in London, depending on her writing for economic survival.

Of her stay in Sorrento she wrote: ‘The place is beautiful beyond expression –the weather exactly one’s beau ideal - warm and no heat. I go about on mules in the evening. Sometime we go on the sea.  But alas! we leave this place – too soon- & I plunge again into the shadows and worries of life!’

The Grand Hotel Cocumella is only a 15 minute walk from the centre of Sorrento but has the benefit of a peaceful location in Via Cocumella at Sant’Agnello, a small neighbouring resort.

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