Assouline Villa Treville Positano

Perched above the Tyrrhenian Sea on a secluded cliff overlooking Positano, Villa Treville is one of the world’s most exclusive boutique hotels. Villa Treville Positano offers readers an exclusive look into this legendary Amalfi Coast escape, from its origins as a retreat for the Duchess of Villarosa to its transformation under the artistic eye of renowned Italian film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, who purchased the villa in the 1960s as a private estate before it became a luxury hotel in 2009. Through his vision, Zeffirelli shaped the eighteenth-century property into what he referred to as his “dream world,” with opulent interiors featuring theatrical designs akin to his lavish sets, with props from La Scala and The Metropolitan Opera, as well as his own collection of priceless antiques and objets. Among more recent additions from Treville’s current owner, Govind Friedland, are multiple terraces, hidden pools, a beach club, and the renovation of several villas on site, as well as the Dr. Barbara Sturm-helmed spa, and the restoration of the iconic Salone Bianco, now the Bianca Bar.

Co-written by noted travel journalist Nicky Swallow and Govind Friedland himself, the title features rare historical imagery and insider stories, highlighting the hotel’s singular design, eighteen levels of cascading gardens, and past as bolt hole to the likes of Coco Chanel, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Maria Callas, Rudolf Nureyev, and Liza Minnelli. In Villa Treville Positano, check in to a volume for hotel and Italy lovers alike that effectively captures what Zeffirelli’s biographer called “just possibly, the most beautiful place on Earth.”