Hotel Maiolica

Vietri sul Mare has been making ceramics since the Middle Ages, and the hotel is dressed in them. The facade is a patchwork of hand-painted tiles in lemon, cobalt and green; inside, every room has its own wall panel painted by a different local artist, so you can ask for the fish room, the lemon room or the one with the blue peacock. We wanted a place that feels like a gallery you can sleep in.

Rooms are bright and spare, with white linen, oak floors, terrazzo bathrooms and good reading lamps, so the colour comes from the art and the view. Deluxe rooms face the sea; the Ceramic Suite has an entire tiled wall, a rain shower for two and a terrace the size of a small boat. Family Quads sleep four, with bunk beds that the staff say are the most requested in the building.

The roof holds a small plunge pool, a bar and an unobstructed view across the Gulf of Salerno. Breakfast is served downstairs in the Osteria dell’Argilla, where the owner’s mother makes the cakes, and the restaurant opens for dinner on weekends with menus built around the Cetara fish market and Tramonti’s mushrooms and cheeses. Once a week we host a workshop where guests paint their own tile; the best ones end up on the corridor walls.

Corso Umberto I, the main street, is full of ceramic shops, bars and bakeries. The train station and the buses are a short walk away, so you can reach Salerno in ten minutes, Amalfi by bus in 40 and Naples by train in under an hour. If you prefer to walk, the Marina di Vietri is a 600-metre descent through the old town, and the way back is good exercise before dessert.