I know I’ll regret saying this, but it could rain every weekend for the rest of the summer and I wouldn’t feel as if I’d been short-changed by the season. Over the past four days in Italy, I’ve done pretty much everything required for a complete summer – a couple of endless days on the sea on vessels faster and faster, new culinary experiences, many bottles of Italian white and a few architectural discoveries. If you want 72 to 96 hours of sun, scents and faultless food but don’t want the long-distance travel (I’m pretending you’re reading this in Europe), then sampling even half this list should leave you satisfied.
1. It begins and ends in Italy
Spain, France, Greece, Turkey and Lebanon are all perfectly nice countries on the Med but they have nothing on Italy. If Rome got its house in order, it could easily take the world’s number one tourism ranking and ease many of its economic woes in the process.
Key fixes? Many of its airports need both cash and management injections. Alitalia’s new coat of paint is not enough, and it needs either a rich sugar daddy to lavish care and attention on it, or it should be allowed to go under.
The soldiers mysteriously deployed in many of the big cities for August should be reassigned to clean-up duty elsewhere in Italy (the bottle and plastic bag-strewn roads around Rome could use a tidy-up battalion, and Naples too still desperately needs extra rubbish collectors).
Improve some of the rolling stock on the rail network and Italy would put a wide margin between itself and its closest rivals.
2. The San Pietro’s magic number
They say that 60 rooms is the magic number for a hotel. Fewer than 60 and you can’t make money. More than 60 and you can’t serve the guests. I arrived at the San Pietro in Positano on Friday and was instantly reminded why this number works: with so few rooms, staff remember your name and regular requests and a hotel can have a personality that doesn’t have to follow the economy-of-scale repetition needed to make bigger properties work. The family-run property hits all the right notes and never attempts to be anything other than a fine, Italian hotel.
3. Get the right trunks
My arsenal of swimwear is a mix of Loro Piana and Orlebar-Brown but I took two pairs of new Alberto Aspesi trunks with me this weekend for a trial run and they’ll be getting another trip to their homeland later in the summer. Made from the same fabric that the company uses for its trench coats, they dry fast and are cut for both modernity and modesty.
4. Lunch at da Adolfo
A couple of bottles of rosé from the slopes of Mount Etna accompanied by the freshest things that could be pulled from the sea is a winning mix for a Saturday afternoon at da Adolfo – just beyond Positano.
5. A gozo to go
Not all gozos (open-deck fishing boats) are created equal. My friend Olivia’s mate’s runabout boasts a black hull, retractable stainless steel steering column, cream ostrich seats and a deck cushions in canary yellow terry towel. With a massive Volvo Penta engine below decks, it can also cuts a lovely wake past vessels that resemble over-designed lady-shavers.
6. You can never have too many polo shirts for a long weekend
A four-day weekend requires at least six polo shirts for humid walks down to the beach club, splashed wine at high speeds and the simple need for a change of colour in the late afternoon. I opt for shirts by Drumohr, Avoncelli and Napoleonerba.
7. An afternoon on the Altair
Off the coast of Capri, we spotted my friend Diego’s boat Altair and pulled up for a visit. It’s important to have a comfortable place to refuel before pulling into the next port.
8. Caprese logistics
Capri’s efficient logistics – bag delivery from jetty to hotel, its retailers’ knack for sending all purchases where you’re staying – make the island a model that other parts of Italy should follow. Its strictly enforced pedestrian code and general Japanese sense of order mean that the island’s fathers could act as consultants to help improve tourism in other Italian cities/regions.
9. Palm Springs on the Med
The Italian resort of Sabaudia should be the most celebrated in Europe. Built by Mussolini, it’s an almost perfectly intact vision of mid-1930s Fascist architecture and could be a European version of Palm Springs – only better. Sadly, it seems to lack visionary leadership and is looking a bit scruffy around the edges. It needs an influx of sympathetic residents to restore the modernist villas and a pair of outstanding hotels.
10. A bit of la famiglia
Of course It wouldn’t be Italy without lunches, dinners, cocktails and a sprinkling of la famiglia along the way. She doesn’t take reservations but Frida’s piccante spaghetti vongole in Sabaudia is unmissable.
Tyler Brûlé is editor-in-chief of Monocle
tyler.brule@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/brule
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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