The former home of Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli is a dazzling place to stay
Words: Jonathan Whiley
So here I am, in the former home of Franco Zeffirelli taking a shower in a bread oven. Welcome to Treville Positano, the legendary Italian film and stage director’s private estate turned exclusive boutique hotel. Each of the 16 individually designed suites offers a glimpse into Zeffirelli’s world; ours, the Leonard Bernstein (where the composer wrote the soundtrack for Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon), features a copper bathtub on the sweeping terrace and a circular brick oven converted into a show-stopping bathroom. We’re not in Kansas any more.
This is the A-lister’s little black book escape on the Amalfi Coast, one of Italy’s most exclusive places to stay with the pricing to match. Where once Elizabeth Taylor, Coco Chanel and Laurence Olivier strolled in its verdant gardens, now the likes of Madonna and Jennifer Lopez have made it their hideaway (the queen of pop celebrated her 66th birthday here last summer).
Zeffirelli, first captivated by Positano as an 18-year-old, bought the property in 1969. “Now I could start creating my dream world out of the three villas which stepped down the terraced hillside,” he said. “I named one Romeo, another Juliet and the third Mercutio. Each place had a different character.” His charisma and love of Moorish design breathed life; he gradually added elements from secret walkways to exotic shrubs and new bathing spots before, approaching his 90th birthday, he sold it to Italian hotelier Giovanni Russo.
Six years later – in 2013 – Russo asked the current owners, the Friedland family, to take over. Long captivated by the coastline’s beauty and John Steinbeck’s assertion that “Positano bites deep”, they have preserved and enhanced Zeffirelli’s vision. From the director’s majolica-tiled kitchen on the restaurant terrace to the greenhouse that now houses the spa (part of the set for his film adaptation of Verdi’s La traviata), Treville dazzles.
Facilities include chic beach club On the Rocks, Bianca Bar (where cocktails are made with a micro-distillery laboratory) and the excellent restaurant Maestro’s, where the flavours of Campania take centre stage.
If you can tear yourself away from your residence (particularly the Zeffirelli Suite, the director’s former personal quarters with a hidden plunge pool amid tropical foliage) then guided hikes, cooking classes or a trip to Positano await. For the latter, the hotel offers a complimentary private boat transfer for a stylish dinner arrival within minutes.
Treville’s movie-star swagger hasn’t gone unnoticed. This September the hotel forms the backdrop of a new Amazon crime drama; the latest chapter for this storied address and its eternal cinematic allure.
