Between the wars, Francesco Saverio Nitti, prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy, often used to come down with his family and soon became a good friend of the owners. This was a hotel for the aristocracy, who flocked from all over Europe to enjoy grand gala evenings on the terrace high above the sea, with the Gulf of Naples stretched out before them. Requisitioned during the war, like all the hotels in Sorrento, it was fixed up again after the 1980 earthquake. The interiors have twentiethcentury lines and period furniture, but the buildings have lost none of their nineteenth-century charm.