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"View Slideshow\n\nThis place is my capriccio, my self-indulgent whim,\" says Giovanni Russo from the cliffside terrace of Villa Tre Ville. An Anglified polyglot Italian and a member of a distinguished Sorrento family of hoteliers, Russo operates this recently opened 15-room Positano hotel as if it were a beautifully run home. No bellboys, no tedious waits at the check-in counter, no prosaic minibars; instead there are fresh-cut flowers in every room, shelves stacked with first editions, and crystal jugs filled with the sweetened juice of lemons picked from the villa's orchard.\n\nFour years ago, Russo, who also owns the nearby islands of Li Galli, bought the estate from legendary film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli and restored it from top to toe. He became so enamored of it during the renovation that he now lives here part-time with his partner, Nicoletta Fiorucci. \"When the property went up for sale it was a dream come true,\" explains Russo, sipping a glass of Aglianico Riserva and taking in the spectacular sunset. \"I wanted a place where my friends and people from all over the world would feel truly at home in Positano.\"\n\nSecret Positano. The locals call it timida\u2014shy\u2014because as one travels along the Amalfi coast it remains invisible until the last harrowing curve, when it dramatically materializes: a picture-perfect village with steeply terraced gardens and pink-and-white stucco houses nestled between the mountains and the sea.\n\nThroughout the past century, writers, intellectuals, musicians, and many figures from the world of ballet\u2014notably Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev and dancers Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev\u2014came here in search of simple pleasures. Zeffirelli himself was so enchanted with Positano 40-some years ago that he bought three adjacent villas, and, with the help of designer Renzo Mongiardino, transformed them into Villa Tre Ville, a sprawling estate (see AD, January 1988) where he welcomed his Hollywood friends, infusing the area with transatlantic glamour.\n\nAfter acquiring the villas, Russo commissioned Rome-based designer Fausta Gaetani, whose aristocratic family has owned property in Positano for decades, to give them a sensitive renovation. Her approach was to introduce state-of-the-art comforts while preserving, with the help of local artisans, the estate's historic patina: hand-painted floor tiles, whimsical mosaics, and fine ceramics from nearby Vietri sul Mare. She elected to leave much of Zeffirelli's decor virtually untouched. \"How could one possibly change the white-tiled room designed by Mongiardino?\" she asks. \"And sleeping against the same headboards used by Laurence Olivier or Liza Minnelli is part of the experience, isn't it?\" Villa Tre Ville, however, is anything but a time warp. Lamps by artists and designers such as Orsina Sforza and Herv\u00E9 Van der Straeten give the interiors a contemporary glow. And when Julian Schnabel stayed here recently, he paid tribute to a long-lost artist friend from Positano by painting the words HUMANITY ASLEEP over a traditional Sicilian puppet-theater backdrop in one of the living rooms.\n\nGuests arrive full of good intentions, hoping to tour Pompeii or one of the area's other splendid archaeological sites during their stay, but the hotel soon casts a tranquil spell. Exploring the nooks and crannies of the terraced garden (full of wisteria, jasmine, and bougainvillea and tended to by green-thumbed Fiorucci), getting a massage, tanning on the rocky shores, or swimming in the glittering waters of the Mediterranean\u2014this is about all the activity that takes place here. Typical of any good Italian home, life at Villa Tre Ville is meal-oriented\u2014and these take place on the shaded veranda, with its dizzying views of the bay and the mountains beyond. Even when fully occupied, the hotel has the peaceful mood of a private household, and Fiorucci and Russo clearly relish their roles as hosts. As they carefully assemble the wine list and menu (freshly caught fish and an abundance of vegetables from the estate garden) and mingle their guests with their friends, it's impossible not to feel just as they do\u2014perfectly, contentedly at home.\n\nSee Villa Tre Ville's tranquil renovation."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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