Hotel Raito ★★★★★

Waking up on the Amalfi coast to the early sun filtering through the gaps in the heavy curtains that keep us in a cosy, sleepy nest gives me a thrill of happy anticipation. Our large, airy room adorned mainly in luminous white, is now softly aglow with a silver and shadow that promises a sparkling, blue­skied day waiting for us, and although I'm no morning person, I leap out of bed to fling open the drapes. A blinding flood of sunlight bounces in joyfully and a gust of fresh, sea airand the smell of pine soon follow it as I open our balcony doors. The tiles outside are already warm and the glittering turquoise sea lies just beyond, stretching out toward a hazy horizon. The warm wooden floorboards come alive with the play of light as it picks out the colourful touches, such as the rich rug at the foot of our huge double bed or the spray of fresh flowers by the window. We're here! At last!

One of my favourite plays, John Webster's 'The Duchess Of Malfi' is loosely inspired by real events that took place in Amalfi in the early 16th century and for this reason alone I am already intrigued by this dazzling piece of the Southern Italian coast. Now the magnificent vista before me has me more enthralled than ever.

We arrived late yesterday, reaching our room gratefully and already beginning to feel heady and romantic as we inhaled the sweet, spicy perfume of the night air and spied the bobbing lights on the dark velvet water below us from our fabulous viewpoint. Too weary to go far, we ate at the hotel's Il Golfo restaurant as we continued to admire those same vistas through the floor to ceiling windows. The food was perfection, made with fresh local ingredients and bursting with Mediterranean flavour, yet with a delicacy worthy of its five star setting. We ended the night by climbing into the whirlpool bath in our splendid bathroom, to soak away the last of our travel aches and then lazily flicking through some of the many satellite channels on our flat screen TV. The air, the journey, the sheer comfort and the local wine got the better of us before long, however, and we soon slipped into a deep, delicious sleep.

Now we descend to breakfast where we continue to admire to the stunning panoramas of the Gulf of Salerno as we feast on an array of delectable delicacies. We eat so much that we both feel as though we could last out the rest of the day. But there is that azure pool to work up an appetite and the rather tempting ExLounge Bar & Grill opening out onto the terrace beside it. Not to mention the 300m2 of spa pampering, where the Turkish bath, sauna, sensory showers and indoor heated pool are sure to make breakfast evaporate, leaving us pure, renewed and hungry once more! Then there are those beautiful beaches and charming towns to explore, all boasting quaint piazzas with little restaurants and fresh home­made pastas... Yes, I very much doubt we will ever stop eating here in this mouth­watering corner of the world. It's just as well there are so many wholesome activities to keep us in shape! I smile to myself as I picture what lies ahead and bite into my fourth slice of watermelon. This may have been the setting for the dramatic downfall of the magnificent Duchess of Malfi, but the impression I'm left with is no Jacobean Tragedy. This happy and heavenly paradise is rather a perfect backdrop for a comedy by Webster's contemporary, William Shakespeare, and here at Hotel Raito I am certainly living my very own 'Midsummer Night's Dream'.