ragazzi &palazzi Lydia Bell surveys the boot and finds 10 luxe new places to stay with friends or la famiglia, from palatial opulence to hilltown simplicity.
Moving mountain San Lorenzo Mountain Lodge, Dolomites. Opposite top: rooms at the Aman Canal Grande Venice feature frescoed ceilings and guests enter from the canal through water gates. Bottom: JK Place Roma.
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Monastero Santa Rosa, San Lorenzo Mountain Amalfi Coast Lodge, Dolomites Best for:T he jaw-dropping location. Best for: Mountain air. The Bay of Salerno has rarely looked This 16th-century hunting lodge better than from Santa Rosa’s overlooking the three main valleys terraces of bougainvillea, jasmine of the Dolomites is so much more and lemon trees, and from its infinity than a ski chalet. The Plan de pool carved into the hillside. The Corones ski area, with 116km of particular serenity of this new slopes, is a four-minute helicopter 20-room hotel may stem from its ride away, but there are year-round Italy’s Grand Tour circuit – Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples – has origins as a 17th-century convent. activities closer to home, from some of the most charismatic lodgings in the world, with character The original vaulted ceilings and snowshoeing and sleigh-riding and patina developed over centuries. The love affair with Italy has chapel remain, but none of its to porcini and berry hunting. Hike extended south, into earthy Puglia and Basilicata, and there’s a wave original austerity does, despite the to a mountain hut with a picnic iof new investment that’s transforming crumbling heritage buildings confessional boxes and historical of local venison ham, bergkäse into refined stays. “Italy hasn’t seen this much construction since the photographs. It took 12 years and cheese and strudel, or sweat in the Renaissance,” says John Voigtmann, whose love affair with Italy has a fortune for American owner Bianca lodge’s log-cabin sauna of recycled spawned the boutique hotels La Bandita and La Bandita Townhouse Sharma to achieve this 21st-century antique spruce. The restored original flagstone floor and vaulted in Tuscany, among our list of luxe new lodgings. standard of luxury and beauty. And the organic and foraged food ceiling in the lodge’s entrance hall Aman Canal Grande, Palazzo Margherita, is top-notch. are warmed with fox-fur throws and Venice Basilicata We love: The thermal-suite spa plush furnishings as well as a Best for: An inner-city retreat. Best for: Southern indulgence. for candlelit massages using blazing fire. Original wood panelling This is a magnificent study in This romantic 19th-century palazzo Santa Maria Novella products. lines the walls of the corridors and contrasts: Aman’s pared-back in the earthy south is the latest of Rooms from $600 per night, rooms and there’s another open aesthetic impressed upon the wildly film director Francis Ford Coppola’s including breakfast. Via Roma 2, fireplace in the first-floor lounge. maximalist 16th-century Palazzo five film set-beautiful resorts.T his Conca dei Marini, Salerno, Stellar trimmings include 17 Papadopoli near Venice’s Rialto family retreat-turned-hotel is in the monasterosantarosa.com hectares of surrounding private Bridge. Opened last year, Aman’s town of Bernalda in the Matera forest and meadow, a helipad and first property in a European city is region of Basilicata and is the Chiesa del Carmine, an outdoor whirlpool. Hosts Stefano a pint-sized, 24-room palazzo to birthplace of Coppola’s grandfather. Umbria and Giorgia Barbini are congenial rival the Gritti, the Daniela and the The director has restored the Best for: Milestone gatherings. and fashionably well-connected; Cipriani. Guests enter by the porta frescoes and vaulted ceilings of This estate in Umbria, at the foot he’s a former head of Escada, she’s> d’acqua, one of the grand, rarely this 1892 palazzo and created of Monte Tezio, has a lake for used water gates fronting the city’s nine ornate bedrooms, with four fishing, woods for truffling, groves palazzi. Inside are 18th-century named after members of the family. of olives, vineyards, even its own frescoed ceilings by Giovanni There are in-room massages, 11th-century chapel and bell Battista Tiepolo, grand salons, a pitch-perfect regional produce tower. Guests settle into an leather-panelled library, a gilded served anywhere you like on the 18th-century farmhouse sleeping ballroom and acres of marble. Amid property and cinema screenings 14, with a grand piano among the the opulence are rare features in from Coppola’s personal collection. diversions. Outside is a pool with this city: a tiny spa and two gardens, We love:T he absence of Hollywood valley views and pergola inspired one with a Japanese restaurant. pretension; the main Cinecittà Bar by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, We love: The view across La (one of three bars) is on the town’s and gardens with shaded Serenissima from the palazzo’s main square and open to all. Rooms eating spots and fountains. rooftop altana platform. Rooms from $1,200 per night including We love: The chance to mark from $1,535 per night. Palazzo breakfast and cooking lessons. the seasons: harvest grapes Papadopoli, Calle Tiepolo, Corso Umberto 64, Bernalda, or olives, hunt for truffles. Sestiere San Polo, Venice, Matera, coppolaresorts.com/ From $6,131 per week. Pierantonio, amanresorts.com palazzomargherita Perugia, chiesadelcarmine.com
169 per night, villas from $9,200 St Regis Florence per week, including breakfast. Best for: Interiors aesthetes. Via di Mezzo, Castiglioncello del Every palazzo has a story and this Trinoro, Sarteano, Siena, one is exceptional. Formerly the monteverdituscany.com Grand Hotel Florence, the first luxury hotel in Florence, it was JK Place Roma, Rome designed in 1432 by Filippo Best for: Big-city sophistication. Brunelleschi, best known as the New hotels are rare in the Eternal architect of the city’s remarkable City, so last year’s opening of cathedral. After a major overhaul JK Place Roma, just off theV ia to restore its grandeur, the hotel Condotti, turned heads. reopened a few years ago as the It has the same DNA as its St Regis, full of frescoes and glass sultry sister hotels in Capri chandeliers, ornate fabrics and and Florence, imparted by custom-designed furniture. The architect Michele Bönan, 81 rooms and 19 suites overlook who has created a classically the fabled Arno River and Florentine beautiful bolthole behind a hills, and its restaurant, Etichetta 17th-century façade. Thirty Pinchiorri, is an offshoot of the rooms and suites in kingfisher famed fine-diner Enoteca Pinchiorri. green and charcoal grey have Downtime between gallery fireplaces, wood panelling and viewings can be snatched at the Carrara marble bathrooms, Iridium Spa Suites featuring grey with a mix of antiques and Florentine marble and mosaics. bespoke furniture and. Extras We love: The Art Unveiled program include in-room massages where guests get behind-the-scenes and a personal trainer. The access to top cultural sites and JK Café Bar pays homage elite events not available to the to Roman classics such as public – that’s us at the Uffizi’s spaghetti alla carbonara. back door. Rooms from $460 We love: The rooftop bar and per night. Piazza Ognissanti, lounge garden with views is Florence; stregisflorence.com open to locals and screens Fellini classics. Rooms from La Bandita Townhouse, $1,071 per night including Tuscany breakfast.V ia di Monte d’Oro, Best for: A Tuscan idyll. Rome; jkroma.com This pied-à-terre is the sister property to La Bandita Countryhouse, the granddaughter of Gaetano this hamlet from the dead, including Azzurra, Sicily a boutique hotel that was an instant Savini, the founder of the Brioni the restoration of a 12th-century Best for: Island exploration. hit when it opened seven years ago fashion house. chapel. His aim was to create a This elegant stone villa in a in a nature reserve in Val D’Orcia. We love: The goat-stable-turned- “cultural sanctuary”, and it’s a secluded spot on Sicily’s east Last year, owner John Voigtmann wine-cellar with a 300-year-old surprisingly busy place. There’s coast was built in the 1970s by opened a centro storico version key and 1500 bottles of mainly the Caffè Monteverdi with a the Benanti family, who make wine of his Tuscan dream in a former regional wine. From $3680 per farm-to-table menu under the near Mount Etna. They decided to palazzo and convent in Pienza, day for two people, $154 per direction of Locanda Locatelli- lease their home for holiday rental one of the region’s most beautiful additional adult, $77 per additional trained chef, Paolo Coluccio, and last year, making this a perfect hill towns. Within stone walls child; includes breakfast, afternoon the fine-dining restaurant, Oreade, base from which to stroll to cafés and under beamed ceilings are tea, dinner and non-alcoholic drinks. which opened late last year. Former and the 15th-century fortress of 12 rooms styled with Busatti linen, Sleeps 10. Località Elle 23, San Frieze Art Fair curator, Sarah Brucoli. There are beaches and Ortigia bath products, flatscreen Lorenzo di Sebato, Bolzano, McCrory, runs an artists and grottos nearby, and it’s a 30-minute TVs and Riccardo Barthel sanlorenzomountainlodge.com scholars-in-residence program drive north to Syracuse and its distressed-leather armchairs. here; the inaugural exhibition at buzzing island centre, Ortygia. The onsite Townhouse Caffè Monteverdi, Tuscany the Monteverdi Gallery held in The villa sleeps six and has a serves favourites such as pea Best for: Cultural immersion. September exhibited works by sea-view terrace, shaded pergolas, and burrata bruschetta, and Monteverdi comprises three Turner Prize nominee Marvin Gaye a lawned garden and a stone ricotta-stuffed zucchini flowers, villas and a bijou, seven-room Chetwynd. And the University of jacuzzi overlooking the Bay of and kids under five eat for free. hotel perched on a hill in the Siena is working on an Etruscan and Brucoli and Etna. Swim in the We love: The honesty bar village of Castiglioncello del Sienese archaeological dig nearby. Med from a private jetty. operates all hours and laundry Trinoro, in a Sienese landscape We love: Dinner at Oreade features We love: I Rizzari fish restaurant is gratis for stays of three nights immortalised in generations of the likes of antipasti, wild boar ragù in Brucoli will deliver and collect or longer. From $300 per night Renaissance paintings. Nostalgic pappardelle, pistachio-crusted diners by boat for lunch and dinner. including breakfast. 111 Corso Italian-American lawyer Michael tenderloin pork and lavender From $5,866 per week. Azzurra, Rossellino, Pienza, Tuscany, Cioffi has spent 12 years raising ice-cream. Hotel rooms from $575 Brucoli, thethinkingtraveller.com labanditatownhouse.com GT
170 GOURMETTRAVELLER.COM.AU Town and Country Clockwise from left: Chiesa del Carmine, Umbria; St Regis Florence; La Bandita Townhouse, Tuscany; Palazzo Margherita, Basilicata. Opposite: Monteverdi, Tuscany (top) and Azzurra, Sicily.
Monteverdi is in a Sienese landscape immortalised in generations of Renaissance paintings.
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