History typically is seen in glimpses through the pages of books and the display cases of museums. But to know it intimately, you have to sleep on it--literally. And Hideaways can help make that history lesson one you'll remember forever. Spend the night in a 400-year-old cliff-clinging French chateau. Retire to your room in a Boston hotel with an impressive past. Have sweet dreams in a former royal hunting lodge in the shadow of the Great Pyramids. Join us now as we review some of Hideaways' favorite places where the past is always present.

In the "Habit" of Hospitality

You just might feel more virtuous when visiting La Locanda delle Donne Monache ^THC, sequestered away on the southern Italian coastline in the village of Maratea. This former convent was built it 1735 for the religious order of the Visitandine nuns of San Francesco di Sales. Buildings were added over the years by local church benefactors, giving the hotel its distinctive terraces, vault corridors, and hidden gardens. What started out as a place of meditation and prayer continues to inspire with its stunning location between ocean and forest and the simple, monastic beauty of its 29 rooms and suites. Room to request: La Vicariahas--its bathroom has a soaking tub incorporated into the hillside rock.