 |
| most spectaculer hotel for rent |
1. Rocca delle Tre Contrade, Etna
For exact In the foothills of Mount Etna, overlooking the sparkling Ionian Sea, Rocca delle Tre Contrade is one of the most spectacular places to rent in Sicily, and it's available for the first time this spring.
Painted a faded-grandeur shade of pink, this 19th-century villa was, until very recently, an estate owned by Sicilian aristocracy - and you can well imagine Il Gattopardo and his voluminous-skirted daughters waltzing around beneath its 30-foot-high vaulted ceilings. It is vast, and retains all its old-nobility charm. It is made up of three buildings, all interconnected, each with three floors, furnished with heavy Sicilian antique tables and cabinets mixed with contemporary pieces; and many of the original features - open stonework, colonnaded terraces, stone-tiled floors, massive fireplaces - have been retained.
There are 11 bedrooms, all with huge en-suite bathrooms. New touches include a wine cellar and an L-shaped infinity pool, reached by a secret staircase that tunnels through a lavastone wall.
In the grounds are fruit orchards and a kitchen garden where ingredients are harvested and turned into simple and delicious meals by the in-house chef (the house comes with a full staff). Food and drink is a passion in the Etna region, and what a lovely place to experience it: on the terrace at Tre Contrade, with 21 of your favourite people, listening to the crickets sing late into the evening.
2. Villa Egerton, French Riviera
It is in the coast at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the Villa Egerton might be the hottest newcomer on the Côte d'Azur for this season - it opens on 1 May 2013 - but it's got a long, rich history. Built during the Belle Epoque, the villa had its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, when it hosted guests including Coco Chanel and Greta Garbo, Dalí and Man Ray, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, who snoozed away summers in the shady gardens and partied, well, all over the place.
Now it has been revamped and is available to rent, and it's still equipped for some of the best parties on the French Riviera. Outside spaces include al fresco kitchen/dining areas, pool terrace and bar, hot tub, and gardens with views of the glittering Med. Inside there's a secret bar disguised behind a bookcase in the library; plus three living rooms and a grand dining hall, as well as a private cinema and its own wine cellar. Additional butlers, housekeepers (can't imagine Hemingway making his own bed), chefs etc all come as optional. Invite your most entertaining friends and tell them they've got a lot to live up to.
3 Villa Iriti, Corfu
A painter from London, on yet another trip to her beloved Corfu, found an old ruin on a hillside above the north-east coast. The walls had crumbled, the roof had fallen in; but she bought it, and spent the past two years rebuilding it and making this heartbreakingly beautiful villa just for two.
She has leant her artistic eye and the decoration is quite delightful: lots of white and natural shades, textures and touchy-feely fabrics with unusual touches - lamps made from blown-glass terrariums and organic wooden shapes, oriental carvings, antique furniture from different eras, ethnic textiles. And light, lots of light - there are three sets of French windows opening off the bedroom, and more from the sitting room to let in the light and the breeze.
The gardens - half an acre of them - have been done by landscape gardener Jennifer Gay. There's a little pool, several terraces overhung with olive trees, furniture for outdoor living - and it all overlooks the forest, with Agni beach and the hamlet of Rou below, and beyond, the Ionian Sea. As romantic as can be.
4. Sa Llupia, Deià
The little terracotta-roofed village of Deià , in the quiet north of Mallorca, has been the Balearic bolthole for artists, poets, writers, musicians and thinkers for well over a century now. First came Robert Graves, DH Lawrence, Jules Verne, Frédéric Chopin, Anaïs Nin; more recently Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler, Richard Branson.
The hotel to stay in is La Residencia, one of our Gold List winners; but if it's a villa holiday you're after (and louder parties for your rock'n'roll friends, which won't disturb other guests), there's an exciting new place to rent this year. It's called Sa Llupia, and it's a traditional old villa made from local stone, with shutters painted duck-egg-green. The interior is more modern - fabrics and furniture by Ralph Lauren, Roche Bobois, BB Italia - while the artworks on the walls are by local artists. The four bedrooms are individually designed; two of them have four-poster beds (so bag yours quickly).
Sa Llupia has its own pool and terraces, shaded by fruit trees, overlooking the Mediterranean - but guests here also, rather excitingly, get access to La Residencia's beautiful gardens and pool and tennis courts.
For more detail information, you can back to this link cntraveller
No comments:
Post a Comment