Film director Franco Zeffirelli’s former villa is now open for business – as a hotel.
The Villa Tre Ville, in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, was where Zeffirelli entertained guests such as Laurence Olivier, Maria Callas and Elizabeth Taylor until he sold it in 2007, saying that he was unable to continue enjoying it.
The villa was bought by local hotelier Giovanni Russo, who altered it as little as possible. He has installed a lift to ease guests’ passage up the steps and turned an old bread oven into a shower cabin but many unusual and exotic features remain. The Zeffirelli suite is decorated in blue and white, as it was in the director’s time, and contains furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl which he brought from Syria. His collection of books is still there.
A night in one of the villa’s three most luxurious suites, which have their own swimming pools, will set you back €5,000 [$6,520] and you can stay in the smallest room for €1,100 [$1,434] per night. These prices include breakfast but not VAT [sales tax].
Franco Zeffirelli is now 87 and lives in Rome.
What is your favourite Zeffirelli film?
Would you pay these prices to stay in the Villa?
