ABOVE: It's a hard life: the thermal suite spa is built into the original monastery stone

I’m not sure if it’s a hangover from the nuns who used to roam the corridors (they were working nuns who made sfogliatelle, a shell-shaped, cream filled pastry which became known as Santa Rosa) but the whole place is peaceful and calm; we barely saw another soul while there. It’s steeped in history with the nuns’ original confession box and a turntable in the front door where parents would drop off unwanted babies. Of course, this is sympathetically mixed (as Kevin McCloud would say) with modern luxury fittings.

This place is set up with one thing in mind – utter relaxation. Giant canopied sunbeds pepper the tiered gardens which blanket the hillside, while the smell of lemons, giant bougainvillea, jasmine and herbs waft through the air. Then there’s the infinity pool. Carved out of the cliff side, it’s perched so precariously over the twinkly blue Bay of Salerno that you feel as if you took just one more stroke you’d end up in the Mediterranean. Sunloungers line it and somehow, at just the right time, a light mist of water appears from the cliff behind you to cool you down. The waiter uses similar timing when appearing with sorbets and fresh fruit kebabs.

Unsurprisingly, this being Italy, the food is special too. We had buttery pastries and fruit while staring out across the ocean for breakfast and alternated between Caprese and Parma ham and melon salads for lunch – the freshest, cleanest and tastiest versions I’ve ever had of either. Chef Christoph Bob, who heralds from Alain Ducasse in Paris, knocked us up a tasting menu on the first night, including fish soup and a beautiful burrata cheese risotto.

Quiet contemplation on Italy's Amalfi coast