Italian luxury iconic hotel Il San Pietro di Positano celebrates 55 years

Don’t stroll for Positano with Carlo Cinque if you are in a hurry.

Every few meters, the guardians and hoteliers stop him to chat. Some are his friends, some are their relatives, they all suggest the tight links that connect the Carlo family – and their historic hotel, Il San Pietro di Positano – to this idyllic city on the Amalfi coast.

A few shy weeks of his 55 years^th The birthday of June 29, Il San Pietro is still the best place to restart a photograph of Slim Aarons, to embrace the fantasy of the Italian life lives to its most elegant.

“We are always available to our guests. For us, it is a pleasure to provide everything they need to enjoy their stay,” says Cinque, 60. Appointed by his late Grand Uncle, founder of the iconic ownership of luxury, Cinque, co -owner at the hotel with his brother, Vito, 57.

Carved into a rocky promontory, the hotel is still an essential stop on the Amalfi coast. The guests stroll through the terraced gardens, fragrant with jasmine and rosemary and abundant with citrus fruits, tomatoes, salad vegetables, herbs and eggplants. They can bring a quick elevator to the vermillion chaises, made, they were arranged in the part of the crystalline ocean, and swimming or navigating in one of the two custom yachts of the hotel. Exercise options include pilates on the beach, yoga and tennis; All in all, there is an outdoor gym located under an abundant lemon and a pool that reflects the azure sky. Among the many delicious lunch options: the homemade linguina plastered with local lobster and the organic tomatoes grown on the site.

The Cinque family now looks like so obvious referees of luxury trips, but their path was initially madly. In 1934, Carlino Cinque, 23, convinced his dubious father to help him buy land that had been abandoned by locals who migrated to the United States and Argentina. At that time, Positano was a quiet fishing village.

“Everyone said that Uncle Carlino was crazy. Why would he start a hotel in a city without tourism?”, Says Cinque.

A self -taught one that only completed the third degree, Carlino Cinque opened the Hotel Miramare in 1934, taking into account the lucky Europeans of the North who Winter in Positano. During World War II, the Miramare hosted British generals. The postwar period, many of them returned, creating a market for Anglo visitors.

Cinque aspired to greater elegance and started buying land two kilometers from the city center, in a cliff -with views of the Gulf of Salerno.

Disconnected by austere conditions, Cinque imagined a luxurious complex, a sophisticated getaway that opened in 1970.In the years, his family added a Michelin -starred restaurant, a seafront tennis court and a boutique with the most experienced coffee and experienced buildings, with sleeve bags.

“Uncle Carlino did all this without an architect. He had the vision of an artist and really respected the natural environment. When he built something, he would go out on the boat and look at it from the water. If he offended the landscape, he would leaving and rebuilt,” says Carlo Quiner. “It’s the full opposite approach to what any other would do to build a new hotel.”

Carlino’s dreamlike nature, says his great nephew, found the perfect foil on his nephew Salvatore and his niece Virginia, both of which had more pragmatic approaches.

Natural hosts and experienced vendors excelled in Listers as Franco Zeffelli, Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts and Dustin Hoffman, who was so in love with the vegetable gardens that he took to harvest his own products and join the kitchen staff for his meals. The cinemas also returned to the city, creating the annual Sun, Sea and Positano Culture Festival in 1992.

However, it is sometimes aware that the city is the victim of its success. Positano, with less than 4,000 residents, struggles with mass tourism that plague so many other impressive Italian populations. A single road connects the city with the rest of the Amalfi coast, with large buses sometimes causing great delays in the motorists and visitors who obstruct the picturesque but narrow streets.

The guests in Il San Pietro can simply take the 5 -minute shuttle from the hotel beach to Port de Positano, avoiding traffic on the road and some choose not to go out completely. With only 55 rooms and suites and 200 employees, the complex feels like a private club and has a 50 percent profitability rate.

The ambitious hosts, the cinemas are hardly based on their considerable laurels: during the last year, they have added the Palace Palazzo Santa Croe, a restored five -bedroom baroque palace and the two -bedroom sunrise. They also plan an indoor pool and an expanded spa in Il San Pietro.

Everywhere, the family etos is central, even challenging in an age when so many luxury properties are part of large international conglomerates. It is rumored that the cinemas have rejected the repeated bids of Bernard Arnault, a frequent guest.

It is difficult to imagine that they would never give up their beloved hotel, so deeply intertwined in their identity or to cease to be perfectionists.

“When we close the season, we always work to improve the hotel. We say our long -term customers that we will renew their rooms and say,” No, for the sake of heaven, we do not touch my room, it is so beautiful, “he says fife.” Then when they return, they congratulate us and say, “But it is much more beautiful than before.”