Her smile said it all

Camillo met us at the door and led us down the steps into the lobby where we stole a glance at the beautiful garden beyond the terrace where the pomegranate trees encircle the old well. We had driven up from our house in the Langhe area of Piedmont, to find another world, a comfortable hotel in a romantic setting.

After the formalities we were led, via cool corridors of polished stone, to our room with exposed beams, antique furnishings and hand-painted tiles from Vietri. Whilst you could say that the room décor was outdated, it was air-conditioned and spacious with a sofa and two easy chairs reflecting a general aura of good taste. As soon as we were on our own, we opened the wooden shutters in unison and took in the wonderful view that can only be described as perfect, just perfect.

I had promised my wife that I would bring her to this special place. For me it was my sixth visit, my first some 40 years before had been with my late parents who had taken me there for tea during a summer holiday in the Veneto. My next visits, some twenty years later, were due to business trips and I remember my surprise at finding myself back in the garden, before sipping my first Bellini whilst discussing the days work.

Her smile said it all, she had not realised until less than 20 minutes before arrival that we were coming to the outskirts of Asolo. An inconsiderate road sign had given the game away, as I tried to distract her by pointing out one of the many magnificent Palladian villas, in the surrounding area, designed by the master, Andrea Palladio, himself. The subterfuge was over, so, as we were so close, I said we might as well drive up into this hill top town. We climbed up a little way from the main road and were confronted by a solitary red traffic light barring our way onto a single stretch of tarmac. We waited and waited and then, at last, just as we were about to turn around and try another route, a car appeared from the other direction coming down the narrow road from the town. The light turned green and we proceeded up the hill and through the narrow streets into the main Piazza in Asolo.

The Piazza Garibaldi is surrounded by elegant buildings, including the castle of Queen Cornaro of Cyprus, who was exiled to Asolo in June 1498. It was during this period, which was to become known as the ‘golden exile’, that the town became a small capital of culture, graciousness and social life. At the centre of the Piazza lies the Fontana Maggiore topped by a Venitian lion and fed by an antique Roman aqueduct. We stopped in the Piazza for a while at the Caffè Centrale, where the owners, Lele and Ezio Botter, deal personally with their customers. We enjoyed our caffè lunghi whilst people watching and listening to the trickling water of the fountain opposite before sampling their wonderful gelati.

Returning to our car, we drove out of the Piazza and turned left, entering a narrow street, passing close to the ancient arcades, some reflecting the gothic influences of the buildings above, trimmed with balconies, frescos and mullioned windows. This street led us downhill, under an arch, into Via Genova where the entrance to the Villa Cipriani was clearly visible.

In the early evening we left our room, proceeded down to the lobby and onto the terrace. The tables, with their pale yellow table clothes, were laid for dinner and the garden was looking at it’s best with the vibrant colours and heavenly scents complimented by the yellow and white striped cushions of the garden furniture basking in the early evening sunshine. I passed pleasantries with the barman, from Bar Il Pozzo, as my wife passed through into the garden. We selected a table close to the well and sat down to enjoy the vista and the last rays of the day’s sun. There was really only one drink to have at this moment, it had to be the classic Bellini, the juice of fresh white peaches mixed with Prosecco from Valdobbiadene, served in chilled champagne flutes.

The silver tray glinted in the evening sun as the barman approached, perched on it were the two Bellinis I had ordered a few minutes earlier. We sat for some time chatting, savouring our drinks, perusing the dinner menu and watching the sunset over the adjacent hillside with the beautiful cypress trees pointing skyward in an almost lyrical fashion. After a while, the black tied "Maitre d'" showed us to our table on the terrace adjacent to the dining room. We made our selections from the mouth watering menu, which offers a delightful combination of superb local specialities of traditional Veneto fare and Mediterranean cuisines, compiled by Secondo Ceccato. Then we chose our wines from the comprehensive wine list dominated, as you would expect, by a selection of some 150 Italian wines. The risotto all'asolana, in particular, was superb, the wine excellent and the staff attentive without being over zealous in this most relaxing of settings.

This villa had once been the home to Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, although Browning sadly died a few month’s after acquiring the property in 1889. In 1902 the property was sold to a Mr. Zennaro, who bought it as a gift for his daughters marriage to a member of the Galanti family. Villa Galanti became a country estate for holidays . The Villa passed to the manager of Rifugio del Grappa on the death of the head of the Galanti family and he turned the property into a country hotel named "Belvedere". In the early 1950's the property changed hands again when the famous Irish family Guinness, acquired the Villa. In 1962 the family passed the management to Giuseppe Cipriani, the owner of Venice's Harry's Bar, who turned Locanda Belvedere as it was known, into a small luxury hotel and renamed it Hotel Villa Cipriani. More recently it has passed through the hands of the Aga Khan's Ciga Hotels and now Starwood Hotels & Resorts as a Sheraton Hotel. Fortunately, there is no overt branding on show, indeed the china in our room was Esse designed by Richard Ginori for Ciga Hotels.

The next morning, we took breakfast on the terrace overlooking the hills that apparently inspired the likes of Canaletto, Giorgione and Titian and the plain beyond. The buffet table, was to be found in the dining room, laden with cheeses, meats, fruit, delicious local yoghurts and a variety of breads which was quite sufficient for us after our wonderful dinner the previous evening. A breakfast menu was also available should we have required something more substantial. After breakfast we walked up the hill from the hotel towards the town centre, admiring the diverse architecture and taking in the calm relaxing atmosphere of this medieval hill top town. Arriving at Piazza Garibaldi, we perused the enormous selection of books at the book shop beneath the portico adjacent to the tourist office and visited the Castle before returning to Caffe Centrale to sip another one of their excellent coffees. We continued our stroll, viewing the specialist shops selling antiques, ceramics and hand crafted items. Stopped at one of the oldest craft centres, the Tessoria Asolana, a hand weaving workshop which has been making unique, high-quality fabrics since the nineteenth century and today still uses the nineteenth century looms, before returning to the hotel for our last lunch prior to checking out.

Camillo was on duty again when the time came and wished us a good onward journey and told us, with a wry smile on his face, not to wait another twenty years before returning to Asolo…..We won’t! The Villa Cipriani is still a hotel that offers a tranquil setting within the sophisticated environment of an elegant town for a relaxing stay and a memorable experience. If this sounds idyllic, we can assure you it is.

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