Sorrento / Piazza Tasso

Hotel Antiche Mura

★★★★★

Hotel Antiche Mura is the Sorrento hotel for travellers who want the centre without the noise. Its name, the ancient walls, comes from the sixteenth-century fortifications that still encircle its gardens, and it sits on the edge of the Vallone dei Mulini, the ravine of the old mills, just off Piazza Tasso. From the street it is easy to miss; inside, an elegant nineteenth-century villa opens onto a garden of lemon and orange trees, and in the middle of the citrus grove lies the hotel's best feature, a kidney-shaped swimming pool with a hydro-massage area and loungers under the trees. The public rooms are lavishly decorated, with tiled floors and period touches. There are about forty-six rooms with air conditioning, flat-screen TVs, minibars and marble bathrooms with hydro-massage showers, some with tubs. Comfort Rooms are larger and some have balconies; the cheaper Economy Rooms have restricted views. Some rooms look over the Vallone dei Mulini, with the ruined mills in the green gorge below. The buffet breakfast, served overlooking the garden, is generous and highly rated. The location is the other big selling point: Piazza Tasso is on the doorstep, the Circumvesuviana station and SITA bus terminal for Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast are less than five minutes' walk, and the port for Capri is about ten minutes down the hill. There is secure on-site parking, a rarity in central Sorrento. Fit: couples and families on a mid-range budget, first-timers using Sorrento as a base for day trips, and anyone who wants a pool in the centre of town.

Why choose it: Sorrento has many central hotels, but few combine a garden pool, parking and a quiet setting within a few minutes of the station. Compared with the Hilton Sorrento Palace up the hill, Antiche Mura is smaller, more personal and closer to the centre; compared with the clifftop grand hotels, it is far more affordable, at the cost of sea views.

Room craft: pay a little more for a Comfort Room for space and, often, a balcony; Economy Rooms are fine for sleeping but have restricted outlooks. Ask for a room over the gardens or the Vallone dei Mulini rather than the street. In summer, the pool is the place to recover after a hot day at Pompeii.

Practicals: Via Fuorimura 7, by Piazza Tasso. There is no full restaurant, but breakfast is included and Sorrento's restaurants are all around you. On-site parking costs extra and should be requested in advance. Like many Sorrento hotels, it may close for part of the winter, so check dates for off-season trips. The trade-off is clear: no sea view, but a lemon-garden pool, a central position and fair prices.