Spot the difference! Le cene a casa Zeffirelli e il dollaro e il pound debole. Non chiediamoci il perché, no no, la colpa è della munnezza. Non chiediamoci neppure perché la crisi dei rifiuti riguarda solo la provincia di Napoli, non quella di Salerno. Forse fra qualche mese la crisi rifiuti riguarderà solo casa mia.
Chi si salva il culo è “eteroeconomico”.
I’ve been lucky enough to stay at the director Franco Zeffirelli’s villa in Positano on the Amalfi coast several times. We met while filming Jesus of Nazareth and became firm friends.
Now godfather to one of my children, he invited my family to visit his summer house – actually a series of three villas – on a promontory overlooking Positano.
The villas are very old and are filled with the most extraordinary antiques. Outside there is a series of glorious terraces, filled with peach and olive trees, leading down to the sea.
For those who’ve never been, the Amalfi coast really is one of the most picturesque parts of the world, and the view from Franco’s villa of this chic little town tumbling down the mountains below, and the sea beyond, is magnificent.
During the summer, Franco, who is extraordinarily generous, would have anything between 15 and 20 guests, some staying for a month, some for the weekend. Everything we ate, be it tomatoes or fruit, was grown in the garden.
Lunch was always a delicious pasta, followed by fruit, and in the evening we ate with our plates on our knees, with a glass of local wine, on the terrace overlooking the sea. The food was simple but wonderfully healthy and tasty. Staying there really was the nearest thing to paradise.
The number of tourists heading to Italy’s Amalfi Coast is set to drop by as much as 50 per cent this spring. With its spectacular limestone cliffs and crystalline waters, the fabled coastline – home to Positano, Amalfi and Ravello – is usually a magnet for discerning tourists. But this year several local crises, such as the failure of rubbish collections around Naples, the closure of the coastal road and the discovery of toxins in buffalo mozzarella, have combined to persuade visitors to go elsewhere.
Lorenzo Cinque, the president of the hoteliers’ association of Salerno province, blames misleading press reports for the problems.
“The refuse crisis is taking place in the province of Naples, not Salerno, so our streets are absolutely clean,” he said. “And mozzarella from our province has never been at risk. But people have been alarmed by the newspapers.”
The strong euro, weak dollar and relatively weak pound, coupled with the generally gloomy economic outlook, have exacerbated the problem, said Mr Cinque. He estimated that bookings have reduced by half in March and April.
The situation is acute in Ravello, where the town’s most luxurious hotels had just a handful of rooms occupied last weekend.
“It is completely dead here,” confirmed Marco Vuilleumier, the owner of the family-run Hotel Palumbo. “Occupation is almost zero.”
Once the favoured retreat of Wagner, Liszt and Virginia Woolf, and home to Gore Vidal for many years, Ravello has been particularly affected by the closure of the coastal road for the past three months. This has been due to falling rocks. Last weekend local hoteliers set up a gazebo at the roadblock, where a hostess directed drivers to free parking places and offered them a free taxi ride for the last leg of the journey.
“People think that because the main road is closed, they cannot get here,” said Franco Girasoli, the director of the five-star Hotel Caruso. In fact, it is possible to reach the town using a lengthier inland route. After an emergency meeting with the Campania regional authorities, hoteliers hope the road will reopen next week.
Paradoxically, the area’s woes make it a tempting last-minute destination. On the website of the Hotel Caruso, for example, rooms were being offered at half price until April 24. As well as these discounts, many hotels are offering complimentary dinners and free room upgrades to entice visitors back.
It was also reported this week that the Via Krupp on the island of Capri, considered one of the world’s most beautiful footpaths, is to reopen after 30 years. Cut into the coastal cliffs, the path winds down through a series of dramatic hairpin bends. Local tourism authorities hope its reopening next month will help boost Capri’s visitor numbers, which have suffered as much of a downturn as the rest of the Amalfi Coast.
~ di vincenzodurso su Maggio 2, 2008.
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