Il San Pietro di Positano is a beautiful cliff side hotel in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. My husband and I visited in May for our wedding anniversary. 

It was a dream of mine to visit the Amalfi Coast and I'm not quite sure why it took so long for us to finally go! We absolutely love Italy and visit at least once a year but this was our first time in the Amalfi Coast. 

I stayed at ISP partly due to the glowing reviews on here. We also stayed at Le Sirenuse on this trip as it was a bucketlist hotel for me. 

Check In

We stayed the night before in Naples due to flight times. A driver from ISP picked us up for Hotel Romeo in the city and drove us approximately an hour and a half to the hotel. You arrive at what appears to be cliff face and then you are taken down to the beautiful lobby by elevator. 

We were slightly surprised that check in involved filling a form rather than in room check in or a simple handing over of our passports. But it was done very quickly and easily. 

Our room wasn't ready - which we had expected as we chose to arrive in time for lunch rather than for the 3pm check in time. 

We were offered a welcome drink on the terrace, which is quite honestly the most beautiful terrace I've ever seen with views of Positano in the distance. 

It beautiful to take a walk through the hotel and it's about a ten walk down the cliff to the beach. There are elevators running throughout the hotel but some people with mobility problems may still have issues. 

Room

We had an Elite level room. Personally I don't think the size of the rooms here are congruous with the amount that you're paying but they are beautifully appointed and every room has a sea view and balcony. I just think that you don't get the value for money on the Amalfi Coast, we thought the same at Le Sirenuse. 

Service

The service was exactly the way I like it, warm, not overly formal but with just the right amount of formality. The hotel is family run and many of the staff have been there for years. They really go the extra mile, for example getting me sea sickness tablets for our boat trip. 

Concierge were quick with their responses pretrip and the staff at the hotel were utterly wonderful, giving a feeling of home. 

The boat trip that the hotel arranged for us was brilliant and they gave us excellent restaurant recommendations. 

Dining

The hotel has two restaurants, Michelin-star Zass is the main restaurant. The restaurant itself is beautiful and the food is excellent. Ingredients are locally sourced, some even grown in the hotel's own garden. The food is simple Italian food beauitfully cooked and presented. 

In the evening Zass is incredibly romantic, you are serenaded by an opera singer and the lights, view and atmosphere is just incredible. A minor gripe would be that the menu is pretty much the same at lunch and dinner. 

The other restaurant is Carlino, it's a more casual beach restaurant and available for guests only. It has a beautiful location right above the beach and the food is excellent with more simple options like salad, sandwiches and pasta. 

Location

ISP is around an hours drive from Naples where we flew in to. It's not right in the centre of Positano like Le Sirenuse but they do offer a shuttle. 

What struck me the most about Il San Pietro was the utter privacy. There wasn't a lobby full of other guests, there was a private restaurant and a private beach. Le Sirenuse felt busy by comparison. I liked the fact that it wasn't right in town but other restaurants were in easy reach. 

Pool

The pool was beautiful, never too busy and quick efficient service for drinks. 

Gym

Quite possibly the prettiest gym I ever saw! Surround by lemon groves and a view of the sea. 

Spa

The spa doesn't seem to be such a huge deal here, it was very small and we didn't actually use it.

Beach

There is a small stretch of beach and perhaps the chairs on concrete aren't to everyone's taste but the best thing about it, is that it's a private beach not immensely crowded and touristy like Positano. 

Overall

Quite possibly the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen, it feels organically carved into the clifftop and it's covered in flowers. The reviews are right, this is one of the world's best hotels. 

Amenities

The hotel has it's own boat which runs 2 hour complimentary trips. Annoyingly the website says the boat starts running in June - we were there in May and discovered the boat was running during our stay but we had already booked a private boat trip. It turned out that our boat trip was fabulous and we had a how day trip to Capri rather than a short outing. We chose the Joey II as our boat - highly recommended.