inscribed as title and dated "Nov 29 1876"
The "Cappuccini Amalfi" hotel was founded in the early 19th century in a building on the Amalfi beach, near the "Porta della Marina". It remained there until 1905 when, due to the work of renovating the road and Piazza Flavio Gioia, the building was demolished.
Among the guests of this hotel were famous people today as then: Painters such as: Theodore Aligny, French; Frans Vervloet, Belgian; Ludvig Richter, German; Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema; Domenico Morelli, Italian; and Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph and its alphabet, Morse was initially a very well-known painter;
Poets and artists such as: August von Platen, German poet; Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, promoters of the French Académie Goncourt; and H. W. Longfellow, who translated Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" into English; here, moreover, L. F. Mendelson Bartoldi, heard for the first time the "Neapolitan tarantella"; and R. Wagner, who was inspired by the Villa Rufolo of Ravello for the Garden of Klingsor in Parsifal;
Scientists such as: Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite; Leander Hamilton McCormick, who invented the reflecting telescope; Politicians and nobles such as: Ferdinand Duke of Orleans; Peter II Emperor of Brazil; Count Clemens Metternich; Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich of Russia, capable of reading Dante in the original language; Prince Nicholas III Esterhazy; Prince F. J. J. Lobkowitz, patron of Haydn and Beethoven.
The Hotel Cappuccini Convento
Gregorio Vozzi, who at the beginning of the 19th century had created the Hotel Cappuccini at the Porta della Marina, sensed the tourist potential of Amalfi and in 1821 tried to rent the Monastery of San Pietro a Tuzcolo from the Bishop of Amalfi.
Vozzi understood the value of its imposing panorama and wanted to transform the abandoned monastery into a refined hotel, succeeding in his idea only for a short period: 1826-1835.
Only in 1882, Gregorio's sons: Francesco, Matteo and Andrea Vozzi, managed to rent the Monastery from the Municipality of Amalfi, which had become its owner in 1866, when the ecclesiastical buildings were confiscated by the Italian State.
Thus was born the Hotel Cappuccini "di sopra", later called Hotel Cappuccini "Convento" to differentiate it from the other Hotel Cappuccini "alla Porta della Marina" which was still open to guests.
Among the many important guests who have visited the new hotel, we are pleased to recall some with whom we have developed a particularly close bond: Philanthropic and political magnates such as: Andrew Carnegie, promoter of the Carnegie Technical Schools (Carnegie Mellon University) and sponsor of Carnegie Hall in New York; T. Roosevelt, 26th President of the USA; W. E. Gladstone and Joseph Chamberlain, English politicians; Prince von Buelow and Prince Max von Baden, Chancellors of the German Empire; Luigi Einaudi, first President of the Italian Republic; Alcide de Gasperi, President of the Italian Council of Ministers;
Musicians, writers, artists such as: Joseph Joachim, violinist; Leo Delibes, composer who wrote in the guest book: "He who has not tasted the macaroni here, cannot have the idea of what it can be!" Osbert Sitwell, author of "The Man Who Got Lost", who after two months of staying was moved by writing: "He who has not seen the Capuchins, has not seen Amalfi; he who has not seen Amalfi, has not seen Italy"; Gabriele d'Annunzio, Salvatore di Giacomo, Domenico Morelli, Gaetano Capone, Italians;
Significant European noble families such as: Prince and Princess of Wales; Duke of York; Crown Princess of Sweden and Norway; Princess of Baden; Princess of Anhalt; Princess of Schleswig-Holstein; Duke of Saxon Meiningen; Duchess of Aosta; Royal Family of Belgium.
Scientists and Nobel Prize winners such as: Henri Poincaré; Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio; Marguerite Yourcenar; Niels Bohr; Salvatore Quasimodo; Rita Levi Montalcino.
A record in hospitality
These two centuries of hospitality found their most splendid moment on the 31st of March 1893 when, without any advance planning, representatives of the most important royal families of Europe came together whilst on holiday at the Cappuccini at Amalfi.
- Alexandra Princesses of Wales, with her children: Victoria of Wales, Maud of Wales, George Duke of York:
Princesses Alexandra, with her husband Edward will become King (Edward VII) and Queen of England on the death of queen Victoria in 1901;
Princesses Maud, with her husband Prince Carl of Denmark, married in 1896, will become King and Queen of Norway in 1905;
George Duke of York, on the death of his father Edward VII in 1910 will become King of England (George V);
- Crown Princesses of Saxon Meiningen, Princesses of Prussia;
- Victoria Crown Princesses of Sweden and Norway, Crown Princesses of Baden,
Mary Keightley (1854-1946) was the youngest daughter of Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), executor of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s estate. She was a good amateur artist. Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), who was a solicitor who was the executor for Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had died earlier in 1830. Mr Keightley was responsible for the sale of Sir Thomas's collections, some of which were not paid for! There is a very interesting story about Sir Thomas's collection of old master drawings which were part of the assets Mr Keightley hadto dispose of. Following his work as a solicitor, Mr Keightley a few years later became the Registrar for the Charterhouse School, where he remained for 39 years.
Mary Keightley was born in 1854, in Charterhouse, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, her father, Archibald Keightley, was 58 and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Yates, was 41. She lived in London, England for about 20 years and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom in 1891. She died on 20 April 1946, in Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 93.