Il Maniero degli Dei

Il Maniero degli Dei is a characterful period house in Furore on the Amalfi Coast, with sea-facing terraced gardens and a cascading pool.

Four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, are set up for up to 10 guests, which makes this holiday villa on the Amalfi Coast a good fit for families and friends who want comfort and service without running the house themselves.

Beyond the entrance lies a green, scented courtyard where a native Amalfi lemon tree grows against the old walls. Opening off it on the ground floor are the kitchen, the dining room and a sitting room with a fireplace.

The rustic kitchen centres on a big worktable made from the building's reclaimed timbers, with terracotta floors, copper pans under the hood and colourful Neapolitan tiles behind a professional five-burner hob.

The dining room, decorated with the owner's coral collection and a Neapolitan sideboard from the 1700s, is where breakfast is laid out each morning.

The bedrooms are upstairs: three in the main house and an Orangerie suite. They are dressed in a Baroque spirit, with antiques, silks, carved gold-leaf or velvet-covered beds and softly lit vaulted ceilings.

Santa Rosa has a split level with a sitting area and a loft holding a gilded bed; Sant'Alfonso pairs eighteenth-century rosewood furniture with a gilded Neapolitan chandelier; another room has crystal chandeliers and its own terrace with a solarium. Every room has air conditioning, heating, TV, a safe and a minibar.

The garden is spread over named terraces shaded by ancient olives and a maritime pine: one with herbs for the kitchen, one with a lemon tree, one with an organic vegetable garden and one holding the 12 x 5 metre pool, with two infinity edges and a Jacuzzi.

There are chestnut pergolas, outdoor showers, a solarium with changing room and a pizza oven.

A porter, housekeeper, gardener and concierge look after guests, with daily housekeeping, continental breakfast each morning and a daily minivan shuttle to and from Amalfi harbour.