That between Carla Sersale and Le Sirenuse, the iconic hotel she manages with her husband Antonio in Positano, is the love of a lifetime. A typical Amalfi coast villa perched on the rocks with a classy, baroque look, the property was converted into a hotel in 1951 after it was inherited by the Sersale family. Throughout the years, it gained a status of excellence, becoming the favorite destination of celebrities, artists, and authors – like John Steinbeck, who praised his stay in a 1953 essay for Harper’s Bazaar. Before entering Le Sirenuse, Carla Paravicini Sersale was a young Milanese woman who wanted to become a criminal lawyer. The Sersales have always been her family’s friends; she had known her husband-to-be since childhood. One day, after finishing hospitality school, Antonio threw a party in Positano, and the two met again after many years in the most beautiful location. They fell in love, and Carla decided her life needed a change. She gradually entered the business and, in 1992, she took over the shop her father-in-law and historic director, Franco Sersale, created as a spinoff of the hotel – Emporio Sirenuse –, turning it into a thriving international brand. One evening last month, she invited us to Franco’s Bar for a cocktail called Franco’s Fizz – strictly served in our blue Berlingot glasses. The following day, sipping water near the hotel’s new artist pool, we discussed legacy and family businesses, luxury, and art, which, at Le Sirenuse, stands out in every corner.

Interview Caterina Capelli

Photos Alessandro Trevisan

What’s Art’s place at Le Sirenuse?

Art is crucial. In 2015, we started Artists at Le Sirenuse, a program of site-specific art commissions. The works, created by selected artists, become part of Le Sirenuse's permanent collection – it’s a collector’s work. My husband and I have a similar taste. We’ve always been attracted to the kind of art that expresses itself through color. So Stanley Whitney joined the program– he does bold, colorful paintings; then Matt Connors, who created geometric installations of formica panels for the lobby and the restaurant, inspired by the rooms’ chromaticity. The latest installation is Nicolas Party's pool, inaugurated in April. We met him many years ago at a dinner party hosted by our curator, Silka Rittson-Thomas, and her husband, Hugo. They had this old house that would be demolished in Notting Hill, London. Before the demolition, they hosted one last dinner with a yet unknown artist, represented by Gregor Staiger’s gallery. In the house – a typical English building with stairs and lots of rooms – Nicolas literally painted everything: the ceiling, the floor, the walls, the chairs, the tables, the cutlery, the plates, the tablecloth, and even the napkins. The result was breathtaking. So we ended up commissioning Nicolas this pool. Like the artists who came before him – Matt Connors, Rita Ackermann, and others – he condensed in the artwork the surrounding colors: the green of the terrace’s wall and floor tiles, typical of the Amalfi coast; The blue of the sky and the sea. He added little red details, echoing the Pompeian red of the hotel's facade. At Le Sirenuse, art fits organically, blending within the décor’s eclecticism that mixes ancient and contemporary art, and objects from distant worlds.

Franco's Bar actually replaced a parking lot. At one point, we realized the place was too beautiful to be used that way, so we turned it into a bar. It was one of my father-in-law’s last projects. Franco designed the balconies – their shape mirrors that of the arcs below – using glass to open up the wonderful view. This bar, which became a landmark in Positano, features a sculpture by our friend Giuseppe Ducrot, a great sculptor in the style of Rodin. The initial sketch he showed us was very baroque. But he changed it at the last minute and started employing this new technique based on ceramic strips. He cuts them out and quickly assembles them, lets them dry, and finally glazes them. The sculpture’s yellow was created with a manganese layer underneath, giving the surface its signature purplish-black hues. The bar has blue steel chairs designed by my cousin Paolo Calcagni, Orsina Sforza's paper lamps, and a huge lemon tree at the center. Your striped, electric-blue Berlingot glasses perfectly matched our colors, so they were a natural fit in the bar. Inside, we serve our most famous cocktail, Franco's Fizz.

Venice and Positano are unique, beautiful places, yet they are increasingly crowded and visited by millions every year. How can authenticity be preserved without isolating and shutting the world out?

You have to isolate yourself a bit because otherwise, you’ll be invaded by people who just want to take a selfie. And those [kinds of visitors], you have to keep them out, or you’ll have no peace inside the hotel. We normally don't let anyone in until the bar and the restaurant open. We have to protect our guests. Outside, Positano’s streets – which are few, narrow, and made of stairs – are so crowded that an oasis like Le Sirenuse is needed to find tranquility and peace. In the evenings, however, anyone can book a table and visit the hotel. Le Sirenuse should be perceived as an elegant, pleasant, but informal place. The world has become increasingly crowded, and there’s nothing we can do. We need to accept it and try to live with it. The same goes for Venice. And Portofino, and Saint Tropez... All the most beautiful places are crowded. There’s no solution; You just have to adapt.

 

What’s your definition of luxury?

I don’t like that word. However, luxury exists, and no doubt we’re a luxury hotel. Over time, the concept has evolved, especially in the last 20 years. The guests of luxury hotels like Le Sirenuse expect first-class services, exceptional rooms, additional benefits like the spa, and [the opportunity to get involved in] other activities, maybe two restaurants, two bars... In the past, people expected less. When Steinbeck came here in 1953, the hotel had only a few rooms, a haystack, a simple restaurant, and no swimming pool. But no one demanded much more. It was a simpler world. Now, it's a race to the top. It's also fun because it pushes you to constantly evolve to achieve an increasingly refined product. Ultimately, I think the essence of luxury lies in the service, which should be extremely refined but not formal. Polite, and human.

 

 

To appreciate every person I meet. In our Positanese life, [my husband and I] meet a lot of people, and all of them enrich us incredibly. When you meet someone in a privileged way as we do – in a beautiful place, with the sun or the moon, a good drink in your hand or a plate of something good, Neapolitan, over your table – people tend to open up more about themselves, and in a more relaxed way, something that probably wouldn’t happen in the city. Often, over the course of an evening, you get to understand these people’s souls, and sometimes you become friends. It might not happen – and that person, or that couple, you'll never see them again. But it doesn't matter. It’s the encounter that enriches you. In 30 years, that's the greatest gift.