The Hotel Breathing New Life into Furore, the Amalfi Coast’s Secret Hamlet

Furore Grand Hotel offers a renewed sense of belonging in an Amalfi Coast village long hidden from view — a minimalist design of white and light embraces local craftsmanship and cuisine rooted in the region

Furore Grand Hotel rises from the sheer cliffs above the Fiordo di Furore, midway between Amalfi and Positano

Furore Grand Hotel rises from the sheer cliffs above the Fiordo di Furore, midway between Amalfi and Positano. Spread across nine cascading terraces, its white-limestone volumes marry traditional Amalfi forms with crisp, contemporary lines, pursuing continuity with the landscape rather than spectacle. Every suite faces the horizon; many enjoy private pools that seem to spill directly into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The project is as social as it is architectural. Local masons, carpenters, ceramicists, and blacksmiths shaped the building and its interiors; local farmers and the kitchen garden supply the restaurant; residents staff the hotel’s daily operations.

In a village long defined by scattered houses and the absence of a central piazza, the hotel has become a quiet new gathering point—energising Furore without disturbing its understated charm. Furore Grand Hotel is a pivotal hub: from here, ancient mule paths etched into the rock wind their way to neighboring hamlets, while narrow country lanes descend toward secluded coves.

Furore: a short history of the village that doesn’t exist

Furore owes its dramatic name to the thunderous roar that echoes through the gorge whenever storms roll in. Perched between the mountains and the sea along the Amalfi Coast, it is often described as the village that doesn’t exist. Unlike neighbouring towns, Furore never developed a central square or main road. Homes are scattered along the cliffs, embedded in a dramatic topography. This diffuse, almost invisible structure has shaped not only the town’s identity but its myth. Without a conventional nucleus, Furore remains elusive even to cartographers, maintaining a low profile that allows it to resist the pull of mass tourism.

Originally, the area consisted of two small settlements; over time they merged into what is now the modern village. In the Middle Ages, Furore was a rural outpost of the powerful Maritime Republic of Amalfi, but it eventually secured its own local government and identity. Population figures remained tiny for centuries—just over a hundred people in the 1500s and only a few hundred by the 1700s—reflecting its isolated, cliffside location.

Despite its size, Furore developed a surprisingly varied economy: locals produced handmade paper, silk, olive oil, pasta, and rope, while terraced farming, fishing, and goat herding helped sustain everyday life. Several of Furore’s hillside churches preserve ancient Roman marble sarcophagi and a late-15th-century Renaissance altarpiece—rare treasures for such a small community.

Furore Grand Hotel: the latest venture of the Irollo de Lutiis family

Furore Grand Hotel is the latest venture by brothers Pietro, Giuliano, and Alessandro Irollo de Lutiis. Their family’s hospitality story began when their father acquired Villa Romita – a landmark estate on the Sorrentine Coast – which they have operated since 1974 as the boutique hotel La Medusa Dimora di Charme. 

For this new chapter, the three brothers purchased a cliff-top property on the Amalfi Coast that had stood idle for years and invested €30 million in a meticulous, four-year restoration. The result is Furore Grand Hotel, a fresh milestone in the family’s legacy of refined Italian hospitality.

Set amid such a landscape steeped in history and tradition, Furore Grand Hotel blends into its surroundings with quiet grace. Conceived not as an intrusion but as a seamless extension of the terrain, it aligns with the genius loci — the very spirit of the place. Its cliff-hugging architecture mirrors the coast’s sheer verticality while honoring local restraint; minimalist lines forgo spectacle in favor of silence, dissolving into the pale limestone that frames the Amalfi cliffs.

Furore Grand Hotel: Architect Fabrizia Frezza has carved a “cathedral of light”

Architect Fabrizia Frezza has carved a “cathedral of light” into the cliff face, a work that reconciles daring engineering with lyrical calm. The arrival sequence sets the tone: a vast terrace crowned by a cylindrical turret appears to float above an endless horizon of sea—an image that first evoked, for Frezza, the dream-like piazzas of Giorgio de Chirico and became the project’s guiding muse. Inside, the most challenging—and ultimately defining—task was vertical circulation.

Elevators were tunneled directly into solid rock, while a dramatic helicoidal staircase unfurls through the core of the building. Its fluid, Mediterranean curves echo the lounge’s groin-vaulted ceilings and side apses, a deliberate nod to the region’s coastal chapels. Everywhere the architecture stages an unbroken dialogue with the sea. Guest rooms and common areas are rendered in restrained, neutral palettes so that light and water dominate the sensory field. Archways, vaults, and soft white surfaces frame ever-changing blue vistas, allowing sunrise and moonlight to become integral design elements.

Only the spa breaks this luminous spell: cloaked in deep blacks and charcoals, it offers a cocoon of shadow where guests can retreat from the brilliance above—an intentional counterpoint that heightens both contrast and serenity.

Bluh Furore, guided by resident chef Vincenzo Russo

Bluh Furore is the fine-dining jewel of Furore Grand Hotel, guided by resident chef Vincenzo Russo—born in 1995—and shaped by the creative oversight of Michelin-starred maestro Enrico Bartolini. After seven formative years with Antonino Cannavacciuolo at Villa Crespi, Russo secured Bluh Furore’s first Michelin star in 2024, a record-quick achievement. His cooking translates the Amalfi Coast’s spirit into four tasting journeys, from the romantic Amore e Furore to the earth-centred Respiro della Terra, each blending local bounty with classical finesse and quiet restraint.

One of the emblematic dish, Festival di Pomodoro e Totani, embodies the house credo of complex simplicity, colour, play, experimentation. A sunset-hued tomato broth settles in a white bowl, its mirror interrupted by emerald drops of herb oil. Ribbons of flash-seared squid curl upward, kissed with oregano, while tomato concassé flickers beneath the surface. Fresh basil and tiny amaranth leaves add a final aromatic lift. The presentation is intentionally spare, drawing eye and palate alike to the sweet-saline dialogue between terrace-grown tomatoes and squid landed in the coves below—an edible portrait of Furore’s dramatic union of land and sea.

Petramare Spa – Indigenous stone, artisanal finishes

Land and sea converge in the very essence of Petramare SPA. Nestled inside the Furore Grand Hotel on the Amalfi Coast, the spa was conceived as an organic extension of its Mediterranean setting. Indigenous stone, artisanal finishes and subtle sea-toned palettes define the design vocabulary, while the main hall features an ancient grotto preserved beneath a transparent protective canopy—an arresting focal point that confers geological authenticity and architectural distinction.

Under the guidance of Spa Manager Rosaria Stefanini, the spa follows a “Mediterranean well-being” ethos—a fusion of regional traditions and advanced holistic methodologies. Wild local herbs, aromatic essences and handcrafted products sourced through short supply chains anchor each treatment, ensuring sustainability while preserving a palpable sense of place. Signature experiences include the multisensory Head SPA ritual—precise manual techniques and plant-based preparations that restore both scalp and mental equilibrium—and Herbarium, a journey in which guests harvest native botanicals that are then transformed into bespoke cosmetics, turning the treatment into a dialogue with the surrounding landscape.

Matteo Mammoli