A person opposite the entrance in the left-hand corner of the Sala Cardinali of the Grand Hotel Cocumella in Sant’Agnello di Sorrento, which contains portraits of the four high prelates that Sorrento gave to the Church, can distinctly hear all that is being said in the very opposite corner.
A masterpiece of Neapolitan Baroque, it was originally a climatic convalescent home for Jesuits. A fairy-tale world of aristocratic elegance, the former cloisters have been transformed into a hall, it has a lovely citrus fruit orchard and an ancient church with three altars, one of the most beautiful in Sorrento. It has given hospitality to General Murat, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Russell, Leopold of Bourbon, Mary Godwin, wife of the poet Shelley, and Hans Christian Andersen. The HQ of the British Allied Command, one of the first guests after the war was Moravia. The access to the sea from the terrace high above the Gulf of Naples dates back centuries.
