By Isadora

We stayed at Casa Mariantonia, a small boutique hotel built on a tiny little lemon grove off a cute pedestrian street in the middle of Anacapri town. Over a century old and still family-owned, Great Grandmother Mariantonia invented the limoncello. While it seems everyone’s ancestor along the Amalfi coast claims to have invented the limoncello – at the end of the day, a combination of vodka, lemons and sugar – we would like to credit Great Grandmother Mariantonia with the feat.

Why? Because at Casa Mariantonia you have breakfast under the lemon trees and gaze at the fist-sized lemons hanging off the trees, fallen on the ground yet to be picked up, and lounging on every countertop. You break soft apricots with your fingers, put one half between your loved one’s lips and the other half in yours and wash it down with sips of fresh lemonade so sweet with barely a hint of sour. You get intoxicated and inspired. And it’s only natural to think about combining spirits with the lemons to create the ultimate intoxication.

If you’ve only gotten a hint of what this new concoction is, the idea starts to form shape as you lie down by the pool or sit on your patio and decide to indulge on one cigarette. The hotel oddly reminded me of Sunset Marquee in Los Angeles, especially with our room on the ground floor with a private patio walk out straight towards the pool. Sliding doors in to your bedroom, sliding doors out to your pool. Just like the good old 70s. 

For dinner you return to the lemon grove, with candles and hanging lanterns, and ultimate sanctuary. After a sample of delectable sea urchin pasta, if the limoncello didn’t already exist you are ready to invent it now! That is why we believe it was Great Grandmother Mariantonia, sitting exactly under these lemon groves, invented the limoncello.

A canopied pathway from the lemon grove onto the pedestrian street creates a bit of a gateway to the outside world. The borders are blurred by a small wine bar which turns into a lively gathering spot for locals late into the night. And once again, it is hard to leave the gates of paradise. Only the Tyrrhenian Sea could possibly lure us away…

ADDRESS

Via G. Orlandi, 180  80071 Anacapri

CONTACT

https://www.casamariantonia.com

info@casamariantonia.com

ph: +390818372923

ph: +393355641902

LEAD-IN PHOTO

Casa Mariantonia / Facebook