Striking the perfect balance of seclusion without solitude, Monastero Santa Rosa allows guests to determine the tone of their stay, whether they’re looking to disappear for an intimate getaway or gather with the group and make new acquaintances. It’s hard to imagine that the generous grounds, filled with four levels of gardens, lush landscaping, plentiful lounge chairs, and canopied daybeds, serve just 20 rooms and suites. Where most boutique properties might only offer in-room massages, Monastero Santa Rosa hosts a fully equipped spa to rival any major city spa, offering not just treatment rooms, but large-scale amenities that include a sauna, steam, mosaic-tiled experience shower, hydro pool, and tepidarium.

Guests are welcome to feel a part of the scene at the library and bar. Engage in a game of chess or cards or read while sipping a martini in the modern cocktail area. Relax down by the pool or discover the resort’s secret gardens, quiet sun decks, and indoor relaxation areas. Get the best of both worlds by making your stay as energizing or relaxed as you wish, by selecting different spaces to suit your mood at any time.

Monastero Santa Rosa

When the sun sets behind the Amalfi Coast’s Lattari Mountains and day turns to evening along Conca dei Marini, gaze your eyes up from the Gulf of Salerno to find a glow, “a superb vision which hovers over the coast like the wing of an angel.” Perched on the cliff’s edge, Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa stands alone in majestic solitude, its rock base evoking the robe of a king. Originally a 17th-century monastery, Monastero Santa Rosa has been affectionately and respectfully restored into an exclusive boutique hotel and extraordinary luxury spa honoring its historic heritage. Ideally located between Positano and Amalfi, part of a coastline already boasting the most beautiful vistas in the world, Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa sets a new standard for breathtaking panoramas seducing patrons with its heavenly allure for generations to come.

History of Monastero Santa Rosa

Imagine nuns cloaked in traditional white wool and black cap attire busy baking delectable cream-filled pastries within the kitchen of a sky-swimming 17th-century monastery perched on the most dramatic promontory of Conca dei Marini. Such is how it all began… The sisters baked exquisite handmade desserts. Their sfogliatelle, a shell-shaped, filled pastry, became known as ‘Santa Rosa.’ Bianca Sharma, the current owner of Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa, plans to start a special tradition honoring the sisters and their heavenly sfogliatelle. In fact, with every step in the renovation process, Bianca considered the past. Reviving the spirit of Santa Rosa to keep its historical memory alive and relevant today became the owner’s steadfast purpose.

Originally built in the late 17th century, the monastery* came to life through the ambition of Sister Rosa Pandolfi, a descendant of the noble family Pontone di Scala who had taken up residence in Conca dei Marini. The antique church of Santa Maria di Grado, sadly reduced to ruins, was a gift to Sister Rosa. Having the means to make a difference, she funded the monastery’s construction built adjacent to the church for the ‘sacred virgins.’ Upon completion in 1681, the convent was dedicated to the glorious St. Rose of Lima.

Over the years the sisters contributed in many ways to the local community. Most notably the nuns provided funding for an aqueduct from Mount Vocito to Piazza Olmo to provide water for the inhabitants of Conca. Even today, a plaque stands near the piazza’s fountain in the town square commemorating this noble gesture. The sisters also became renowned not only for their aforementioned baking skills but also for their apothecary, concocting effective remedies to treat common afflictions. In the mid-1800s, however, the religious establishment was removed following the laws of eviction and the convent was handed over to the municipality.

Finally purchased by a Roman hotelier Mr. Marcucci, who recognized the property’s historic value, the old convent was transformed into a hotel in 1924. Esteemed for its authentic simplicity typical of monastic life, the Hotel Santa Rosa became one of the 39 castle hotels of Italy. The hotel’s motto was, “At each window, the sun. From each window, the sea.” To Bianca’s relief, the Caterina family who ran the hotel for three generations had the foresight to conserve the architectural foundations of the premises while implementing modern conveniences for guests. So the original architectural details remained. However, after the death of the Caterina family, the building was once again left without a purpose. Standing solitude on the edge of a cliff, the imposing structure became a lonely reminder of former glory, hospitality, and rich honorable history.

In 2000 Bianca was boating in the Gulf of Salerno and admiring the spectacular promontory towering above her. Her eyes rested on this majestic yet ruined monastery extending from but disappearing into the rock. She was instantly captivated, bought the property, moved to the Coast, and began her decade-long quest of restoring the former monastery into a luxury boutique hotel. Through Bianca’s endless dedication and careful instruction in conjunction with a local team of architects and historical authorities, the monastery’s structural integrity has been maintained. Thus the monastery’s original atmosphere remains ever present in her current design.

Since its origins the history of the Conca dei Marini village has always been intimately tied to the destiny of the convent. Bianca’s tireless efforts have enabled this bond to continue into the next century with the 2012 reopening of the monastery as a luxury hotel for locals and visitors from around the world to enjoy.**

*A monastery designates a place for a religious community of male or female who live a sequestered life in the structure.

**Historical references from Conca dei Marini

Each room and suite reflects beauty, charm and understated elegance while exuding the peaceful mood of a private estate home complete with rare antiques and spectacular sea views. Although the walls house the history of a 17th-century monastery, every room contains all the luxury comforts and amenities of a five-star hotel, including flat-screen televisions, complimentary high-speed internet access throughout the property, in-room safes, and 24-hour room service. Unique special touches authentically Italian are found with Ortigia bath products and Santa Maria Novella pomegranate bath salts from our spa.

All in-house guests enjoy daily complimentary use of the spa’s 70-square-meter/753-square-foot Thermal Suite, consisting of connected spaces encouraging a sequential choice of relaxation and well-being within the Stone Sauna, Domed Herbal Steam Room, Hydrotherapy Pool, Experience Shower, Crushed Ice Fountain, and Tepidarium.

ADDITIONAL AMENITIES:

• Spectacular sea views from every room and most bathrooms
• Fresh fruit upon arrival
• Air-conditioning, ceiling fans, and windows that open wide to let in the fresh air
• Central heating featuring heated floors
• Flat-screen television and international channels
• Minibars in all rooms and suites
• Pomegranate Santa Maria Novella bath salts
• Hair dryer
• Bottled water upon turndown

Unquestionably, the vanished-edge infinity pool of the Monastero Santa Rosa is the most dramatic and precipitous of the entire Amalfi Coast. Seamlessly architecturally sculpted into the rock-base cliff of Monte San Pancrazio at the lowest level of Santa Rosa’s sloping cascade of gardens, the elliptically shaped fresh water infinity pool blends into the sea, disappearing between the horizon and sky.

The gardens of the Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa are a semi-tropical paradise in the tradition of the exclusive estates and palatial Italian villas of yore. Behold a masterpiece of architectural landscape design, which descends from the dining and bar terraces through a series of multi-level cascading gardens with sweeping panoramic views of land, sea, and sky, culminating at the dramatic cliff-edge infinity pool.

Each level presents stylish, comfortable areas to relax and soak the day away. Ranging from private cabanas on the cliff’s periphery to day beds in the gardens to lounge chairs by the infinity pool, the elegantly manicured grounds are gracefully connected by interwoven stairways and free-flowing passages. From every angle, a new perspective of the Amalfi Coast and Bay of Salerno is revealed—gleaming white Amalfi to the south, sun-kissed Praiano to the north, Conca dei Marini’s quaint fishing village below, and the ubiquitous sea beyond.

Everywhere the Santa Rosa gardens’ intoxicating perfume encircles brimming with the fragrant botanical wonders of bougainvillea, lavender, agapanthus, coreopsis, rosemary, roses, and local-origin lemon trees, just to name a few of the many botanical wonders that grace the grounds. Approximately 5,000 plants were imported for the gardens from 10 different countries to flourish in cycles throughout the year, growing in beauty season by season. Connecting to the property’s past, 20 percent of the Monastero’s garden plantings are therapeutic in nature or edible—reminiscent of the Santa Rosa nuns’ therapeutic creations back in the 17th century. Maintaining the local ties to Conca dei Marini, intrinsically Italian influences exist throughout the botanical art as well as local stones used to restore and rebuild the gardens’ walls, stairs, and paths. This elaborate downward illusion of a tumbling waterfall of gardens climaxes at the cliff’s rim in the elliptically shaped infinity pool embellished by a pool-side fountain.

Monastero Santa Rosa’s garden was the owner’s “biggest pleasant surprise” in the entire 10-year renovation project. This enchanted Mediterranean garden is truly a place to experience sheer moments of pleasure.

The Sunset Terrace on the Monastero Santa Rosa’s zenith offers a sanctuary of sensory pleasures. Located at the end of the corridor on the hotel’s highest level, experience the ultimate space to relax and unwind. With a full panorama on three sides overlooking the Amalfi Coast with views stretching from Amalfi to Positano, this expansive terrace delivers numerous individual seating areas for embracing absolute decadent comforts alfresco. Breathe in the sea air and bask in Conca dei Marini’s blazing sunlight, or cocoon under the shade of its automatic retractable canopy. The Sunset Terrace’s bright decor echoes the kaleidoscope of colors along the landscape, sea, and coastline with cushioned lounges to enjoy breakfast, afternoon tea, or toasting your day with a cocktail at sunset.

Rest and relaxation are guaranteed at Monastero Santa Rosa, but should you feel the need to find time for fitness, the property makes it easy to stay on a healthy track. An abundance of walking trails, kayaking, windsurfing, and scuba diving are prominent in the area, and the hotel’s staff is happy to assist with all arrangements.

Stay on site and experience a variety of wellness rituals. Swimming laps, playing bocce ball, and walking through the multi-level grounds hardly feel like working out. Or, should you choose to feel more of a burn, head to the outdoor fitness area and hop on any of the latest TechnoGym equipment while you stare at the sea. An elliptical trainer, upright bike, recline bike, rowing machine, dumbbells, exercise balls, and weight-lifting bench provide all of the elements seen at a top gym, only in a much more idyllic setting.

Afterward, head to the spa and sweat it out even more in the sauna before rinsing off in the experience shower and soothing sore muscles in the hydro pool.

No need to feel guilty during dinner either. Our wonderful chef takes a locavore approach to his cuisine and uses only all-natural ingredients to create dishes that maximize the health benefits and nutritional value of food.

For excursions outside of the property, Monastero Santa Rosa can organize an array of activities to suit all interests and physical levels:

Kayaking the Amalfi Coast

Windsurf the Bay of Salerno

Scuba Dive on the Amalfi Coast

Walking Paths from Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa