SILK LABO After Summer Days
Austin Vermont
Also, I\u2019m excited to be collaborating this spring with The Thinking Traveller\u2014who, if you aren\u2019t already familiar with them, are a family-owned company that represents high-end house rentals in Italy, Greece and Corsica. I had heard about them during my Traveler days, but I finally got to experience one of their properties, Tre Contrade in Sicily, several years ago when we rented the 19th-century villa with the most epic pool and Etna views for my mother-in-law Carmie\u2019s 80th birthday. Then on another trip to Sicily I visited friends who renovated the most beautiful property, Masseria Cardinale, outside of Noto\u2014and they list it with the Thinking Traveller as well. Most recently, my dear friend Rula just finished her 16th-century Masseria Donnagnora in Puglia, and also listed it with them. I thought it was interesting that TTT kept coming up as the rental agency of choice amongst my friends\u2014a big part of that being because the listings are exclusive (so the agency really knows the property and the area), and they liked the partnership that ensued. So when founders Rossella and Huw Beaugi\u00E9 approached me to see if I could help introduce them more widely in the States, I thought it would be fun to do aperitivo gatherings in New York and in Napa. If you\u2019re in NYC on April 18, we\u2019ll be with our friends at the Lingua Franca townhouse from 5-7, and if you\u2019re in Northern California, join us at our friends\u2019 at Hudson Ranch on April 20, from 4-6pm. When the dates get closer, I\u2019ll share more here and/or on social.
I\u2019ve had Genoa on my list for a very long time\u2014a beautiful city on the Ligurian Sea that I knew had incredible palazzi and food (among many things, pesto and focaccia). I also always have a soft spot for places that most people don\u2019t talk about. The first person who told me I had to get there was an old friend whose taste I trust implicitly. Then Matt met a couple in the Rome airport who live there (we ended up doing a story on their collection of vintage hotel stickers), and who told us about 3rd- and 4th-generation men\u2019s shops and beautiful 19th-century chocolate boutiques that they just knew we\u2019d love. A friend recently went to a weekend party there for Friends of Genoa, a nonprofit that helps promote and preserve the historic city. And the final nudge was reading the excellent story that my friend Maria Shollenbarger wrote for HTSI (you should read it for a proper deep dive\u2013I\u2019m just giving some highlights here!). No doubt part of the reason I\u2019d never gone was that there wasn\u2019t a good hotel to stay in, but when I read about the new Palazzo Durazzo Suites in Maria\u2019s piece, I was sold. We flew from Rome (for the moment, Genoa isn\u2019t really well connected\u2014it would have taken us most of the day to train there), and landed in the late morning. We arrived at the Palazzo Durazzo and were overwhelmed with how beautifully restored it was\u2014a 7-year labor of love carried out by Emanuela Brignone Cattaneo (the architect who oversaw the project and owns it with her husband, Giacomo Cattaneo Adorno) and Cesare Barro, the artistic director. It opened last summer, and stays open year-round. We dropped our bags in our room, the Doge Suite, which is one of the most beautiful rooms I\u2019ve ever stayed in in my life.
We headed out to see an apartment that was for rent. Not that I had been planning on moving to Genoa, but as our landlord is selling her apartment in Rome and we were struggling to find interesting new options, we were willing to be convinced. We saw a 200-sqm. apartment with the most incredible terrazzo floors and details throughout\u2014for just 1,600 euros a month! (While we didn\u2019t take it, we\u2019re definitely considering Genoa for the future, especially when the fast train from Milan launches in the next year or so.) From there, we found ourselves at the menswear store Finollo, where they\u2019ve been making bespoke shirting and incredible silk ties for over a century for the likes of Gianni Agnelli and the Duke of Windsor. Next we stopped at Romanengo, the most elegant chocolate store, which opened in 1780. We snacked on farinata (a chickpea pancake) and then picked up some mind-blowing focaccia from Focaccia e Dintorni, before wandering through a 12th-century public arcade, the oldest in Italy, lined with one place to eat/drink after another. (It felt to me like San Sebastian in that there are so many great places to eat/snack, it\u2019s so inexpensive, and has such great energy.)
The rooms\u2026 We were spoiled with a penthouse suite, which came with its own sauna and pool, and a kitchen and living room area with a fireplace. We toured an entry-level room and another one a step up from that, and both were lovely. The common thread for all rooms is that incredible view of the Dolomite peaks\u2014and the room is the backdrop for taking it in. Bathrooms are minimalist and have their own product, which was so good I would have bought it if I hadn\u2019t had so many stops afterwards. There are 40 Tower Suites, which all have outdoor beds\u2014in summer, you can ask for them to be made up if you want to sleep under the stars.
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