COME AWAY WITH ME TO ITALY'S BEST KEPT SECRET - HOTEL BAIA DELLE ZAGARE
Tommaso Marangi Director of Food Beverage
Welcome to our online store and blog.
Each week we give you a behind the scenes look into the people places and cultures that inspire our brand. Travel is a key part of why we love our company so much as we get to work with artisans from all over the world while eating and sleeping our way throughs the countries we visit for work and pleasure.
This week we are back from our 2 month European jaunt between our new collaborations in Sicily to Salone Del Mobile in Milan to new projects in Puglia and onto Portugal its been a whirlwind summer of business and pleasure along the way.
Our company's motto is "Where Faded Grandeur Meets Genuine Authenticity". This is the DNA of our life and our brand. Having stayed in multiple hotels high and low across this beautiful world of ours we have a discerning eye for whats authentic...this is where we welcome you to Hotel Baia delle Zagare a study in realness. The New York Times says Hotel Baia delle Zagare is "One of the places to be visited at least once in a lifetime."
While thousands of people flock to the Italian Rivera or Southern Puglia, for those in the know who covet private beaches are appreciative of procurement of eco-friendly and local grown ingredients while supporting local business, this is the hotel for you.
On My Way To The Beach
There are so may summer songs I was inspired by, however, by serendipity as we drove through the gates of the Hotel Baia delle Zagare on cue on our Spotify playlist came Norah Jones "Come Away With Me" which in retrospect sounded like the perfect title for this blog entry.
Named after the fragrant citrus flowers in the near by park the Hotel Baia delle Zagare has maintained its charm with a magnificent renovation worthy of its historical value matching modern day amenities and lifestyle changes.
This hotel is a throw back to what one imagines icons like Gianni Agnelli, Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni frequented away from the global glare of fame absconding in raw luxury basking under palms, grottos and private beaches.
30 Second Elevator Ride to Paradise
In 1957 a young Apulian who was passionate about boating, nature and the sea, sailing with his boat discovered a bay called on the cards Baia dei Mergoli.
An uncontaminated place reachable only by sea and with ancient paths in the woods. The young sailor decided to build a house there for himself and his family but soon realizes that such a place deserves the attention of nature tourism and dreams of building a hotel.
The team leading the way forward are hospitality industry renown General Manager Fabio Carella along with his right hand man Tommaso Marangi (pictured above). These two gentleman are fully responsible for the feeling you get from entering the property to ones departure.
Bringing the hotel current with activities, food fare, courtyard wine festival of grapes, moonlight picnics, beach rave parties, live band playing jazz classics, kayaking through the grottos this "IS" your grandparents chic hotel on steroids.
THE BAR
Every detail of this operation is hand picked and curated. An ecosystem within itself from supporting local fishermen with the largest fleet in the area to local wineries, farms and musicians Hotel Baia delle Zagare is a "must stay".
A hotel can be beautiful and have a view but we all know the magic lies within the barman. At the hotel they have acquired the best Mixologist on the Italian coast Carmine Totaro.
Carmine's Coratina Olive Oil Infused Gin "Oleum Martini" Steeping for A Week
The "Drink List" reads like the formulas in a scientist laboratory:
Oleum Martini - coratina oil infused gin, sweet vermouth, olives, lemon
Americano Delle Zagare - Bitter rosso, Zagare's flavoured vermouth, rosemary soda
Vintage Negroni - Jenever, brolo chinato, red bitter, fernet branca
Frigitello Sour - "Cornaletto" pepper flavoured vodka, "Femminello" lemon of gargano, organic sugar, chili pepper julienne
The Boys Enjoying Signature Cocktails
Zagare Mule- Vodka, Femminello" lemon of Gargano, vanilla, ginger beer
Cosmopolitan - Gin, mediterrean citrus liquor, lime, pomegranate
Basil 75- Gin, basil, "Femminello: lemon of Gargano, apulian sparkling wine
THE ACTIVITIES
One of the most amazing things about this private location is its grottos and being able to kayak to the grottos. If anyone knows me well it takes a lot for me to venture out into the sun furthermore on a kayak. Thomas himself was shocked at my enthusiasm.
However having a hotel with a private beach and private grottos made me feel less like a tourist lining up to take boat rides in Capri. This is much more my speed. Of course there is a world class gym with a view and a tennis court but who wants that when one can kayak!
THE FOOD TRUCK
The Outdoor Dining Gourmet Food Truck
What better to match with a great Mixologist is a master Chef Giuseppe Lapomarda. Giuseppe's breakfast. lunch, dinner and everything in between makes you feel not like you are at a beach resort but more like 5 star Michelin experience , that is taking for granted that Michelin has even heard of this jewel in the sun.
Tomasso's invention of creating a gourmet food truck out of a vintage Air Stream and creating an outdoor area where one can take in the sunset over looking the cliff is simply amazing. The juxtaposition between the simplicity of the environment the beauty of the view and the level of the gourmet food truck sets the scene only achieved in movies.
THE HAUTE CUISINE
The I Faraglioni Restaurant , overlooking the sea, is located in the main building. Here guests can enjoy the best flavors of the sea, the Apulian land and Mediterranean cuisine in front of a breathtaking view.
Fertile land of traditions. Pantry of flavors and wisdom. Passions of small producers, farmers and fishermen. Puglia is true excellence: an inexhaustible source of inspiration and of our precious oil. Its countryside is the pastures of our meat. Its cellars, the houses of our wines.
Thomas' Crusted Shrimp
In the surrounding fields they cultivate native crops using only seasonally sustainable techniques inspired by ancient agricultural traditions.
But of all, they aim to cultivate the greatest mission: the protection of the immense heritage they call home.
Dress Code: Although you maybe at a beach holiday make no mistake this is a chic beach holiday where one is supposed to get dressed for dinner in respect to the staff the effort and the level of cuisine.
The Courtyard Festival
For a small boutique hotel to offer a variety of 6 restaurants meeting your every mood in addition to constantly celebrating the views once a week Tommaso organizes a courtyard festival.
The amazing team works in divine synchronicity like a symphony playing music with two of the hospitality industries world class conductors. If that were not enough the renown Italian photographer Franco Fontana was so inspired by this hidden gem he photographed it.
Fontana's style was shaped in the late 1960s under the influence of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. In that his teachers were his older contemporaries, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ed Reinhardt. Fontana's work with its focus on form and color was quite different from the classical black-and-white art photography that was predominant at that time.
Legendary Italian Photographer Franco Fontana
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Centre of Photography Scavi Scaligeri (Verona), Palazzo Reale (Milan).
Hotel Delle Zagare by Franco Fontana
A 1970’s photograph by maestro Franco Fontana exhibited inside the hotel tells a story…
"It represents my way of understanding photography. In fact, I believe that photography should not document reality, but interpret it. We all have reality around us, but it is the person who takes the photo who decides what he wants to express. Reality is a bit like a block of marble. You can carve out an ashtray or Michelangelo’s Pietà." -FF
Book your room ASAP the team is awaiting your arrival!
Have a wonderful week!
Thomas & Michou
2 comments
What a fabulous write-up of what looks like an absolutely charming hotel. I want to go!
Clint
💙
Alessandra
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