Hotel Collection

At Bellevue Syrene where Christmas is a feast of glittering decorations

A hotel of luxury and great tradition (founded in 1820), run for five generations by the Russo Attanasio family, aﬃliated to Relais & Chateâux

by Sara Magro

2 December 2025

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

"Art is one of my mother Elsa's passions," says Amelia Attanasio, brand manager of the Bellevue Syrene hotel in Sorrento, and fifth generation hotelier. 'When she falls in love with some artist she invites him to exhibit at the hotel, and sometimes we buy his works'. The collection he owns is truly vast: chandeliers by Fiorentino, photos by Maurizio Galimberti, chairs by Gaetano Pesce, mirrors, inlaid tables, ethnic furniture that grandfather Giovanni Russo used to buy around the world. All inventoried. "My mother maintains that you have to use things, even if they are precious". Mama Elsa changes the arrangement of the furniture, buys new objects, reupholsters armchairs and sofas. So every time you return to Bellevue Syrene, there is always something different, and for Christmas it is a feast of glittering decorations.

Focused Art

The Russo Attanasio family has always had a special penchant for art, and the Bellevue Syrene, with its large spaces, is a perfect gallery. Last November they started a collaboration with the Correale Museum in Sorrento. And as their first engagement, which will last a few months, they are hosting the restoration of the Hunting Scene by the ﬁamming painter David de Koninck. And guests can witness the work on the work.

To see all those objects, some of them rare and valuable, makes one wonder if they might disappear. But no. No one has ever touched anything, perhaps because one perceives that they belong to those rooms in an intrinsic, natural way. And daylight spins through the lounge like a beacon, enhancing an inlay, a painting, a knick-knack in turn. How wonderful that beam of light coming straight from the clear Sorrento sky!

In a family there is an inescapable rule of hospitality: everyone must feel at home. And as in a home, there is the mistress's style, there are memories, and there is always something to nibble on at a table set in the lounge with pink and blue sofas. In the morning sweets and coffee; later pizzas, cherry tomatoes, red wine. And again you wonder if anyone approves of that delicious corner. "But no, it doesn't happen," says Amelia beaming, shaking her long blonde hair. 'It's a little buffet to pass the time. Maybe the husband is already ready and the wife still in the room...instead of getting nervous, whoever is waiting eats one of our sweet little tomatoes and forgets the clock."

Over 200 years of history

Last November, the Bellevue Syrene celebrated 205 years in business. One wonders why 205 years? Simple: in 2020, when it turned two centuries round, there was Covid and it was no time for glittering parties. They waited for the right moment for the grand gala it deserved, with champagne ﬁnishes and fireworks. Thus, 2025 will remain memorable in the history of this long-lived and always dazzling five-star hotel. Not least because it is the year in which the family inaugurated another five-star hotel: the Vetera in Matera, also aﬃliated to Relais & Chateâux like the Bellevue, which gives its name to the newly formed Italian hotel group.

An extraordinary location

The Bellevue Syrene has an extraordinary location, 50 metres above the sea, with a view that cannot translate the emotion of seeing it with one's own eyes. You dine under a portico overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, have an aperitif on a terrace that takes your breath away, surrounded by blue, the colour of serenity, which reduces stress and brings good cheer. A Negroni with coastal gin, almonds and toasted hazelnuts. What could be better? 'We are proudly Sorrentine,' adds Amelia, 'although my grandmother Anita Elizabeth Leigh is a little Danish, a little English,' as Amelia's blond hair suggests. It was her 84-year-old grandfather Giovanni Russo who bought the hotel in 1993. But it is now taken care of by his daughter Elsa, now helped by Amelia and her sister Adda, while their father looks for new facilities to enrich the group. Amelia continues: 'We were born hoteliers. My grandmother had hotels, my grandfather had hotels, they joined forces, bought, transformed, sold. The Bellevue became a five-star luxury, going from 80 to 50 rooms. A choice against the current in Sorrento, where more rooms means more earnings'. The rooms are all different, including two beautiful suites with 16th-century frescoes. At the helm is always Mamma Elsa, who chooses furnishings and themes to enhance the spaces.

An adventure that began in 1820

The hotel was established in 1820. It was originally the villa Agrippa Postumo, the grandson of Emperor Augustus. In fact, below, by the sea, there are still the remains of two wonderful nymphaea from the Roman era that were part of it. "When my grandfather bought the hotel in 1993, he also bought the adjacent Villa Tritone, a faithful reproduction of a Roman domus, with the same frescoes and a colonnaded terrace, where today you can have breakfast with Vesuvius in front of you. To go to the sea you take the lift, or go down through the grotto. On the way out are the Roman nymphaeums and noisy lidos. But the Bellevue Syrene beach club, with its cardinal-red umbrellas, is more secluded. During the day there is sunbathing, in the evening there is partying until late, without disturbing the hotel guests. The Russos, together with the other beach clubs, would like to enhance the area and create a promenade to the harbour. Another dream that will soon come true. Because this fifth generation of hoteliers certainly does not lack ideas, enthusiasm or drive.