Five years to restore a 19th-century mansion, named
Palazzo Margherita, and now finally famous movie director
Francis Ford Coppola has another luxury hotel to add to the four others, this time in the
Basilicata region, Southern Italy, in the same town,
Bernalda, from where his grandfather immigrated to America.
The hotel is situated on the town central square, with large front doors opening to a courtyard followed by a large garden with a swimming pool. To restore and decorate the mansion
Coppola asked the acclaimed French designer
Jacques Grange to help, but he also asked his family to contribute to decorate the nine bedrooms in their personal favorite style so the rooms are very different from each other and create the feeling of entering a private home with lots of personality.
All bedrooms have hand-painted walls and ceilings, sometimes with trompe l’oeil
as in the Sofia room, adorned with delicate trellis.
Another corner of the Sofia room. As you can see Sofia Coppola and Jacques Grange
wanted to create a summer atmosphere, with pale, fresh colors and light wicker furniture.
Sheer curtains flowing in the breeze and leading to the terrace in Francis Ford Coppola suite,
in a more exotic style recalling Tunisia and Morocco.
Can you imagine waking up in this room?
A common area, with walls covered in a rich Arts and Crafts Le Manach fabric
and dark ruby Murano chandelier, where to drink coffee and read the paper during the day.
Some rooms bring us back in time like in this image, have you noticed
the simple bouquet of flowers, coming directly from the garden and casually arranged?
Hand painted walls and ceilings are a feature of the whole hotel. Every detail was studied carefully, amenities and comfort abound, heated floors, media equipment, large pool, great common areas to relax, beautiful gardens…
A stunning Murano chandelier shines against faux marble walls.
Again a “new” sofa straight from the “past” and a simple arrangement of gladioli on a whimsical coffee table. Hand painted walls look like luxurious wallpaper.
(Funny that we say of a real rose “It looks like it is made of silk”
and of a fake one “It looks real”…just came to my mind after writing the above).
For Coppola the Palazzo Margherita is about family and in fact his daughter Sofia got married there last summer. In an interview she said: "It was such a great setting, our friends all gathered in the garden, and we had a small ceremony at the end of a trellis walk with rosé from my father-in-law's winery, Château Thuerry and Prosecco at the bar after."
Francis Coppola added: "When you are there, you get the feeling that you are in a real place, in the palazzo you are in heaven. You walk out the door and there is real Italy. In the evening, everyone is out, there are children everywhere. It feels very safe, and I find it a very pleasant and authentic experience."
I agree with him, even if most tourists from around the world prefer Tuscany as an Italian destination, there are many more places to visit in that country, equally beautiful or sometimes giving you even more the true Italian life experience, like in this, till now unknown to me, small rustic town of
Bernalda.
Photography by James Merrell©2012
Tent London Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things". If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click
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