Ever since the four Sersale siblings—Aldo, Paolo, Anna, and Franco—turned their family’s summer retreat in Positano into an eight-room buen retiro in 1951, welcoming Americans and Brits just beginning to explore postwar Italy, they’ve stood as the unofficial first family of the Amalfi Coast. In 1953, John Steinbeck spent time with Paolo and immortalized the town in an essay for Harper’s Bazaar. Later, Franco spent decades scouring auction houses, filling the halls with the museum-quality antiques guests still admire today.

Over time, their buen retiro, with its breathtaking views of Positano’s harbor, has expanded to encompass 58 rooms, becoming one of the world’s great five-star hotels. Still, Le Sirenuse, with its Pompeian-red façade and hand-painted Vietri-tile floors, has retained that rarest quality, the sense that you are a treasured guest at a family’s seaside escape.