Travel - Bay Watch
La Minervetta Maison, Sorrento, Italy
By Shelly-Maree Cassidy. Photography by Grant Sheehan.
Sitting on the terrace at La Minervetta is like being at the theatre; in the centre of the grand circle. At twilight, as the sun dims, the show begins. In the distance, across the deepening blue waters of the great Bay of Naples, is the backdrop – a sleeping Mount Vesuvius and the lights of Naples. Below, stage left is a sheer drop to a miniature village on the edge of a little bay. It is as though you are looking down on a Lilliputian life, watching a tiny tableau just like a child’s toy town.
Down there in the distance, a real community is going about its daily business. Fishing boats return, restaurant tables are set, sun beds on the sliver of beach and along the piers are folded away, and lamps and candles are lit.
The scene below is like a film set, a designer recreation of a traditional Italy. Centre stage, ferries to Capri and Naples cross, as do cruise ships; super and simple yachts dawdle past. Church bells that toll every half hour, scooter ‘chatter’, music, boat motors and voices carrying on the night air as bars and cafés come alive make up the soundtrack to the scene.
Perched high on a rock face near the southern Italy town of Sorrento, above the old fishing village of Marina Grande, every one of La Minervetta’s rooms has a spectacular outlook. Even the kitchen has a panoramic view that could distract all but the most dedicated cook. There are visual treats inside too.
At first sight, it is as though a sea gypsy lives here – some seafaring collector and hoarder of curios from around the world, having sailed perhaps from Scandinavia to Tahiti and back again. There are brightly-painted model boats, statues and sculptures, pieces of coral and ceramics everywhere, beachcomber pieces punctuated with books and an informal but accessible library on art, travel, design, photography and more. The comfortable, artful interior is filled with inviting furniture, paintings and plants, lit up by day with the sun; at night by an enviable collection of architectural lamps.
This feels more like a home than a hotel; it is indeed family owned and run. However, it has been purposefully designed, rather than just a private house recently opened up to paying guests.
Architect Marco de Luca and his wife Eugenia di Leva have made-over what was once a restaurant into a small but very stylish Mediterranean hotel, with only a dozen rooms that are more like suites. Each has floor-to-ceiling windows for gazing at the bay and village below. Each is different from the others; all are colourful, immaculately detailed and cleverly accessorised. You will investigate your surroundings with much interest and pleasure. Even the handles on doors and cupboards are distinctive. And it seems that every alcove, shelf and bookcase in the passageways and stairwells has an intriguing montage to study.
The large living room, sun-worshipper terraces and kitchen are all exclusive to the guests, who can easily separate themselves from others in the spacious shared areas of La Minervetta. Halfway down the cliff, stairs lead to a rectangular wedge of land that juts out, green with grass; in its centre a cooling jacuzzi – ideal for summer refreshing.
Breakfast – decoratively plated and deliciously tasty – is served inside or out on the terrace; in the evening, pre-dinner drinks are placed on a tray. It is just 15 minutes’ walk to Sorrento’s many restaurants and bars using the winding road above or five minutes down the private path to those at the seaside neighbourhood laid out below.
Choosing this latter option, but unable to decide what to have from the menu, we thankfully agreed that the persuasive Luisa of family-owned and staffed restaurant La Delfina should choose dinner for us – much simpler and with a great result. The walk back up is certainly a fitness test.
La Minervetta is central on the Amalfi Coast, described as the world’s most beautiful coastline. It is an impossibly lovely vista of ancient towns that cling to sheer black volcanic rock cliffs, with blue seas far below and most often blue skies above. Oak, chestnut, pine, olive and lemon trees thrive in its historic soil.
Sorrento is the source of limoncello, the local lemon liqueur that has gone global. Its fresh cool taste is like the essence of early summer in a glass. This too is where the stylish sleek motorboats often seen in movies have been made since the 1950s, as well as their sturdy unsinkable fishing boats.
From here, it is easy to visit the city of Naples for the day, or the tragic Roman town of Pompeii, forever preserved after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BC buried it in ash. In half an hour, you can be ferried to the small but lovely island of Capri – the preferred holiday spot of emperors Tiberius and Augustus – conquerors in their turn conquered by nature.
Not only emperors but also poets, painters, writers and musicians have been inspired by the landscape. The Sorrentine Peninsula was part of the ‘Grand Tour’ for foreign intellectuals and dilettantes studying the art, history and culture of Italy – many never went home.
A fusion of Byzantine, Moorish and Roman architecture can be seen in a collection of convents, churches, cloisters, villas and palaces. Piazzas, gardens, galleries and museums are threaded throughout the terrain. By car, it is a spectacular and at times breathtakingly narrow drive around the coast.
From your La Minervetta eyrie, you have a bird’s eye view of the coastline; in fact, you are so high up that seagulls fly below the windows. From your room or the terrace, you are looking out across an ancient amphitheatre – a scene that has been admired for centuries. In Greek legend, sirens lived on the Sorrento coast – beautiful mermaid-like creatures singing songs that enchanted and lured sailors to the shore to be kept forever under their spell.
There is a sculpture of a siren at La Minervetta. It calls us back… as it will you.