the times Saturday June 11 2022Travel 47
more new
Italian stays
Tenuta di Artimino, Tuscany
Among the hills and vineyards
of Montalbano, just 20km from
Florence, is the Medici villa La
Ferdinanda, built in 1596 by the
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Alongside it
you’ll find this estate of 102 rooms,
suites, villas and lodges, as well as a
winery, gourmet restaurants, a
swimming pool and spa. Designed
in a Tuscan Renaissance style with
terracotta floors, wooden beams
and Tuscan sandstone, this property
promises to reflect the historical and
cultural legacy of this unique spot.
Details B&B doubles from £207
(melia.com). Fly to Florence or PisaPassalacqua, Lake Como
Grand Hotel Tremezzo, that old-
school landmark, has a sister
property opening this month. An
18th-century villa on the lake, it has
been reimagined by the team behind
Tremezzo and will offer eight rooms
in the jewel-toned Palazz, plus four
rooms in Casa al Lago. There’s also
an olive-grove gym, lakeside tennis
courts and an open-air cinema.
Details B&B doubles from £854
(passalacqua.it). Fly to MilanBaglioni Masseria Muzza Puglia
The latest from the luxury hospitality
group with hotels in Rome, Florence,
and Venice, Baglioni Masseria Muzza
opens this month. It dates back to the
17th century and is surrounded by
five acres of countryside. Rooms are
dotted around the original courtyard
and have high vaulted ceilings and
views across the Alimini Lakes or
Mediterranean gardens and olive
groves beyond. There’s an impressive
spa and nearby golf course — “we
are offering our guests a five-star
resort that is wholly immersed in
nature,” the owners say.
Details B&B doubles from £390
(baglionihotels.com). Fly to Brindisi3
Tenuta di ArtiminoPassalacquaboth being family-run hotels, Le Sirenuse
is everything Borgo Santandrea is not:
saturated with rich colour, eclectic and
eccentric, layering the family’s historic
paintings with modern art (Martin Creed’s
neon “Don’t Worry” sign in a bar and Matt
Connors’s laminated panels in the lobby),
floor-to-ceiling handpainted murals, a
jungle of foliage and an attitude that more
is more. It is beautiful and bustling. A place
to see and be seen. The latest addition,
Franco’s Bar, an alfresco cocktail lounge
with a citrine-yellow neo-baroque foun-
tain, dubs itself “Positano’s coolest meet-
ing place” and has queues outside an hour
before it opens.
It’s hard not to fall in love with it too,
but Le Sirenuse offers a very different ex-
perience to Borgo Santandrea. The buzz of
one contrasts with the serenity of the
other. How perfect, then, that these two
luxury hotels can coexist in happy harmo-
ny — one for people who are looking to
have their spirits lifted, the other for those
looking to have their souls soothed.
If you’d have asked visitors to the
Amalfi coast if it needed another new
hotel, I imagine they’d probably have said
no. But that was before Borgo Santandrea.
Now its modern, airy interiors, uninter-
rupted views and laid-back service act like
a tonic to the more full-on parts of this
fabled coastline.
A disruption? Yes. But undoubtedly for
the better.Sarah Tomczak was
a guest of Borgo
Santandrea, which has
B&B doubles from £450
(borgosantandrea.it).
Fly to NaplesNeed to
knowride to Positano. It’s far quicker and cheap-
er to travel by boat as the summer months
bring more coaches, scooters, hire cars and
polizia — along with a cacophony of horns
— to the solitary coast road.
Positano lives up to the hype, but it’s not
for the faint-hearted. Its tiny spaghetti
streets are as filled with tourists as its
beach is with uniform, sardine-like sun-
loungers. It’s a riot of restaurants, bou-
tiques and ceramics shops, yet while there
are about 4,000 residents, an additional
12,000 tourists visit every day during the
summer months, so expect a squeeze. Join
the queues at Gelateria Buca di Bacco —
it’s worth it for the homemade ice cream,
with flavours including hazelnut, pistachio
and, of course, Amalfi lemon. Then find a
restaurant that serves spaghetti alla Ner-
ano (with fried courgettes), the dish made
famous by Stanley Tucci on his recent BBC
series Searching for Italy. Luckily it’s a local
speciality and on most menus — I ate a
huge, delicious plate of it at La Cambusa,
near the seafront. It’s deceptively simple
yet totally moreish.
We couldn’t visit Positano without also
checking out Le Sirenuse, the town’s most
famous hotel — and arguably Borgo San-
tandrea’s biggest rival for the It crowd. It’s
where John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor
and Reese Witherspoon (who honey-
mooned here) have stayed since it opened
in 1951. Fascinatingly, the two properties
couldn’t be more different. Apart fromLa Libreria is the hotel’s grandest offering
and the acclaimed chef Crescenzo Scotti’s
chance to get really creative. His eight-
course tasting menus are inspired by the
region, featuring tiny morsels of ossobuco,
scamorza cheese (still smoking inside lem-
on leaves) and a deconstructed version of
a pudding his nonna used to make.
Despite all its quiet luxury, Borgo San-
tandrea is a family-run business and that’s
the vibe its owners hope to create. The staff
are warm and convivial; the co-owner
Maurizio Orlacchio, who honed his hospi-
tality skills at Four Seasons hotels across
the US and Europe, welcomes guests to
breakfast every morning. The magnificent
buffet of fruit, cold meats, local cheeses
and a bounty of breads and pastries is
served inside the chef’s kitchen, to further
encourage guests to consider it a home
from home. This is a place where the wait-
ers remember your name and chocolate
cakes with “Happy anniversary” in loopy
writing appear in your bedroom.
We could have happily stayed put in this
white and blue haven, but the lure of the
neighbouring towns was too much to pass
up. We spent one afternoon wandering
around Amalfi town, where the pasticceria
Andrea Pansa is a must for espresso con
panna, a short coffee with sweetened
whipped cream, and a Santa Rosa, a pastry
horn filled with custard and cherries, first
created by the nuns in the nearby monas-
tery. From here we take a 20-minute ferry
Where the
Spanish,
French,
Greeks and
Italians go
on holiday
Magazine
ALAMYSuite at Borgo SantandreaThe Alici restaurant
at Borgo Santandrea