13th-century hotel for elopements near Amalfi: Hotel Parsifal

Whitewashed walls, green shutters and lemon-patterned majolica tables give the hotel its Amalfi Coast character. The cloister passage is roofed in ivy and marked by hand-painted tile plaques on its pillars. Wrought-iron chairs with plum cushions stand where friars once walked. It's simple rather than grand: a three-star hotel that keeps its monastic calm, with cream umbrellas and beds of begonias doing the decorating. Couples who want warmth and a view over polish will feel at home here.

On April 23, 1288, Bishop Fra Tolomeo of Ravello handed three small churches and the land around them to the hermits of St. Augustine. The friars built their cloister over the following decades, one bequest at a time, including 15 tarì left in 1305 to buy the lime. Rome closed the convent in 1653, and the buildings became a seminary, a girls' conservatory and, by 1800, a family home with a vineyard. The last heir left it to the Poor Clares in 1943, and it opened as Hotel Parsifal around 1948, named for the opera Wagner was inspired to write in Ravello. The Mansi family has run it since 1999.

The hotel sits at the quiet end of Viale Gioacchino d'Anna, about ten minutes on foot from Piazza Duomo and Villa Rufolo. The church of San Giovanni del Toro, consecrated in the 11th century, is a couple of hundred meters up the lane. Below the railing the terraced hillside drops to Minori and Maiori, with the Lattari mountains behind and the bay spread out in front. Ravello's center is compact, so guests wander between the piazza, the villas and the hotel without needing a car.

Ravello is the Amalfi Coast's balcony town, a ridge village of gardens and palazzi where Wagner, Boccaccio and Gore Vidal came looking for inspiration. Villa Rufolo's gardens are a 15-minute walk, and Villa Cimbrone's Terrace of Infinity around 25. Every summer the Ravello Festival fills the Rufolo terrace with open-air concerts. Amalfi and Atrani are a 5 km drive down the hairpins, and Minori's beach is a stairway walk straight down the hillside. It's the stretch of coast that fills our list of places to get married in Italy.

Boats leave Amalfi's harbor along the coast, and Atrani's tiny square is one cove east of Amalfi. Pompeii is 33 km away, Sorrento 37, Salerno 28 and Naples under an hour by road. Ravello is walking country too, with hiking paths leaving from the town. The hotel's Guest Experience team books transport, tours and restaurant tables for the days around the wedding.

Naples airport is the one to fly into, 64 km and around an hour and a half by road. Salerno's Costa d'Amalfi airport is 48 km away, and Rome Fiumicino is a drive of four hours or more. Our planner in Italy books the transfers and times them with the hotel, so nobody has to drive the coast road themselves. In Ravello, cars stop at paid parking a short walk from the hotel and the last stretch is on foot.

There are 17 rooms, each with its own bathroom, air conditioning and free Wi-Fi, looking onto the sea, the garden, the Dragone valley or the cloister itself. Four deluxe rooms were carved out of the restored cloister wing. Rooms sleep two adults, and some connect for families. Check-in runs from 2 pm and check-out is by 11 am. Breakfast is served on the terrace, and the roof-top solarium is kept for hotel guests. It's a hotel, so a couple eloping books one room and a bigger party takes as many as it needs.

Ceremonies are held in the cloister garden, a paved terrace between two beds of pink and red begonias, with a round fish pond behind you and a railing over the whole bay in front. Guests sit on wrought-iron chairs either side of a short aisle, up to about 35 of them, and a round floral arch can frame the railing. Weddings here are symbolic; the legal part happens at Ravello's town hall or the Principessa di Piemonte gardens, a short walk away, and our planner books the appointment. Winter works too: we've married couples here among the pansies in the cool season.

Aperitifs are poured at the Chiostro-Bar, tucked into a corner of the terrace among the ivy, while the light turns gold over Minori. Dinner is under the pergola of Ristorante Raffaele, a beamed roof of reeds and canvas along the old convent wall, open on one side to the sea. One long table seats up to 30; rounds of six to ten take the terrace to 60. If the forecast turns, the same dinner moves into the dining room, whose tall windows keep the view.

Everything is cooked in-house by Ristorante Raffaele, the hotel's own kitchen. Menus are set-piece Amalfi dinners: risotto with porcini, sea bass with a mint sauce, homemade pasta with clams, a lemon sherbet between courses and the celebration cake to finish. The chef builds the menu around the season and adapts it for allergies and dietary needs, with gluten-free and vegetarian dishes always possible. One menu for the whole table keeps the service unhurried.

Children are welcome at every age. Rooms connect into family rooms, cots and extra beds come on request, and babysitting can be arranged through the hotel. Toddlers have the run of the terrace between the flower beds, and the fish pond keeps them busy for a while. Ravello's small scale suits families: the piazza and the villa gardens are all within a short walk.

With everyone staying in one small hotel, the wedding stretches naturally over a few days. The hotel suggests a welcome aperitif or a wine-and-cheese evening the night before, a pizza-and-pasta buffet for a relaxed get-together, and a late brunch on the terrace the morning after. Many couples stay on for a few honeymoon nights, with Positano an hour down the coast. It's the slower rhythm that makes getting married in Italy a week rather than a day.

Hotel Parsifal stays a working hotel on your wedding day, which is part of its charm: breakfast guests on the terrace, the bar open all day, the family at the desk. The outdoor event terrace can be hired for your exclusive use, and the ceremony slot comes with two hours of privacy in the garden. Book a block of the 17 rooms and the hotel feels like yours by the second evening.

The pergola keeps sun and light rain off the dinner tables, and cream umbrellas shade the garden terrace by day. If the forecast is poor, the hotel's management moves the meal indoors to the dining room, which seats the same 60. The hotel is open all year, so spring and autumn dates are easy to find, and a cool-season ceremony among the pansies has its own calm.