Sojourn Snapshot
so·journ [sōˌjərn] NOUN: a temporary stay
AMALFI COAST
Le Sirenuse Mare Nerano
Le Sirenuse Mare Nerano beach club is perched on the tip of the Sorrento Peninsula in Italy’s Campania region. Sitting on a quiet stretch of coastline about 25 min by boat from Positano. Marina di Cantone is a fishing village known informally as Nerano and has long been an insider destination on the Amalfi Coast. The beach club spreads across 27,000 square feet of terraced land that ascends from a pebble beach, with two jetties extending into the sea: one for boat arrivals and the other access to a cordoned swimming area. For 75 years, Le Sirenuse is a place for travelers making their way to the Amalfi Coast. The Sersale family's hotel in Positano, opened in 1951 (in what had been their own summer villa), has become one of Italy's most enduring hospitality institutions as well as a haven for Hollywood stars since hosting the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Just as the family still intends, it’s the kind of place that guests return to year after year, and that is what they strived for with Le Sirenuse Mare, a beach club five years in the making. Note there are 99 steps from the pier to the restaurant - due to the historic layout and multiple stairways, Le Sirenuse Mare is unfortunately not accessible for guests with limited mobility.
T A S T E S
At the Beach Club
The Art of Living in a garden by the sea - Le Sirenuse Mare is an entire ecosystem devoted to sea breezes, stylish glamour and the good things in life. The overall concept is for guests to come and enjoy the full day at Le Sirenuse Mare. The 180-seat restaurant's, (open for lunch daily) menu reflects Neapolitan classics with an emphasis on simplicity and locally sourced ingredients. Three bars serve different moods and moments throughout the day. From the retro-style Bar Mare suited to pre-lunch aperitivos and the Dolce Far Niente Bar which focuses on house-made granitas & gelatos to Rose's Bar offering on the beach service for guests.
S O U N D S
All Day to Night
At the end of the day, while this is a beach club where one comes to have fun - it’s also where guests come to relax. “The music will start very softly, and as the atmosphere and the day progress, it will grow a little,” Explains Antonio Sersale (one of four siblings who founded the Le Sirenuse resort), “But we don't see people turning napkins. We don't see people dancing on tables. We see something that is fun, but within the boundaries of good taste.”
S C E N T S
Aleppo Pine Trees
Unique to this beach club than any of the others around it might be its 12 Aleppo pine trees. Owners - the Sersale family tapped Paolo Pejrone, a renowned landscape architect in Italy whose client list has included Valentino and the Aga Khan, to design the garden. It is first and foremost a garden and then a beach club - the trees are the main show. Flowering shrubs and night-blooming jasmine provide natural outdoor decor and fragrance throughout the dining areas. Three handmade Lantana elephants graze under fig trees (a gift from the Elephant Family’s co-existence herd, a London-based charity). The architecture was designed by Annarita Aversa of the Milan and Amalfi-based studio Architetti Artigiani Anonimi - who worked with the natural slope of the terrain rather than against it. She also leaned on locally found materials for decor elements - handmade terracotta and ceramic floor tiles, chestnut-wood pergolas and sunshades made from bamboo tied with fishing twine.
S I G H T S
Arts + Culture
Santa Maria di Castello - tiny mountain hamlet close to Positano. Walk up the old footpath of Le Tese to find beaches, shops, cafés, and the famous dolce vita lifestyle.
Village of Nocelle - walk up the 1,700 steps that connect the Amalfi Drive coast road with the scenic piazza outside Nocelle church. Enjoy lunch at Rifugio dei Mele - design is very simple, chic and contemporary, and there's an outside terrace with incredible views.
Giardino della Minerva - the provincial capital, Salerno's ancient botanical garden. Ancestor of all other botanical gardens, connected to the Scuola Medica Salernitana founded in the ninth century. In the early 14th century, it was the private garden of Doctor Matteo Silvatico, who cultivated herbs and medicinal plants there. Visit the Tisaneria or ‘tisane café’, where you can drink infusions made from the herbs and flowers grown there.
Paolo Sandulli, Praiano - an ancient Saracen watchtower that stands in proud isolation at the top of a Praiano sea-cliff where Campanian artist, sculptor and poet Paolo Sandulli creates everything from delicate terracotta portrait busts to pen-and-ink drawings, ceramic tile murals and dialect poetry. Famous for his female busts, some of which sport flamboyant hairdos made from sea sponges.
La Bottega del Gozzo, Marina di Sorrento -gozzo sorrentino is the typical wooden fishing boat of the Amalfi Coast and the Sorrentine peninsula. Today only a handful of artisanal boatbuilders still turn out these traditional vessels, among them Bottega del Gozzo, which still operates out of the old Sorrento fishing port of Marina Grande. Run by maestro d'ascia (skilled boatbuilding carpenter) Vincenzo Aprea.
T O U C H
inspiration Le Sirenuse
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photos courtesy Le Sirenuse Mare Nerano
