Chasing Bellezza

He enriched Le Sirenuse with hundreds of beautiful objects, and always knew exactly where to place them (often this would be a guest room – for Franco, these were just as important as the ‘public’ parts of the hotel). Much of the furniture or art he assembled is firmly in the 17th and 18th century Neapolitan and southern Italian tradition that is the bedrock of Le Sirenuse’s aesthetic. But Franco had eclectic tastes, and there are plenty of neo-Moorish items too – not to mention an important collection of Central Asian suzani rugs.

At the same time, Franco enthusiastically embraced the Sersale family tradition of working closely with skilled Italian artisans – local ones for preference – to restore but also to embellish and extend the fabric of a hotel that grew up around an ancient Amalfi Coast villa with its traditional cross-vaulted rooms. For Le Sirenuse’s floor tiles or stucco panelling, for its flowerpots, rattan chairs, marble bathroom tops and a host of other fittings, furnishings, tableware and amenities, Franco sought out firms and individual artisans who combine a respect for tradition with dedication to quality and creative verve. No detail, whether it be a cocktail glass, a bedspread or a room key, was too small to escape his attention.

The Sersale family has continued in his footsteps. While expanding the hotel’s work with artisans, Franco’s son Antonio and daughter-in-law Carla have also brought contemporary art to Le Sirenuse via the site-specific Artists at Le Sirenuse programme. Carla Sersale’s Emporio Sirenuse fashion and lifestyle brand exports the family’s love of beautiful things and southern Italian taste worldwide, including in its range a series of variations on Franco’s beloved Suzani wall hangings. And the desire to distil the spirit of Le Sirenuse and Positano into a scent led Franco’s niece Marina Sersale and her husband Sebastián Alvarez Murena to found the fragrance and body care line Eau d’Italie in 2014.

There’s one more part of the story still to tell, and it’s a vital one. Le Sirenuse doesn’t have a hotel garden, because it is a garden. Plants are everywhere, on the terraces, in the rooms, in the lobby, lounges, bars and corridors. The bougainvillea that climbs the walls of La Sponda restaurant is justly famous, as are the lemon trees, immortalised in numberless Instagram posts, that flank the pool or stand as solitary sentinels, in ornate terracotta pots emblazoned with the Sersale family crest, on the lobby terrace or at the centre of Franco’s Bar.