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The Outside of San
Michele
The Breakfast "Room" Overlooking the Golf Course & Sea
The Breakfast "Room" Overlooking the Golf Course & Sea
The Inside
of San Michele
The Resort
Activities
Golfing Through The Vine Yard A Walking Path Through The Farm The Beach - note: there is an elevator to the beach Vine Yards & Orange Groves
Golfing Through The Vine Yard
The Hotel
Today
Note: this essay and the history below
was written by a guest at the hotel who was so smitten by
The San Michele that he was compelled to put his
observations and conversations that he had with the owner in
writing.
Father and
daughter worked in harmony to rebuild and re-furbish the old
house and their success is apparent from the first view of
the “stately home” which looks out over the Tyrrhenian Sea –
in clear weather to the most active of Italy’s volcanoes,
Stromboli.
It is a
feast of colour with creepers adorning the front of the
house facing the sea and balustraded terraces softening in
the evening light; classic louvered shutters sit open wide
by the Byzantine curved windows. Any observer who has
seen the sights of Rome will recognise the inspiration of
the Spanish Steps in the staircase to the family apartments.
The principle reception rooms exude luxury and elegance in
the furnishings and careful arrangements of flowers and
pictures.
Much of the
44 hectares (about 110 acres) is farmed using traditional
methods – known as “organic” to produce supplies for the
dining room – circa 90% of what guests eat and drink.
The chickens run free in their compound, cattle, sheep and
goats– all locally bred – are farmed for meat and milk.
Grain crops are grown to feed stock and guests so there are
always fresh baked croissants and bread in the breakfast
buffet, free range eggs for the discerning, jams and honey
from the hotel’s fruit gardens and apiary. Fresh pasta
served at the dinner table is made in the kitchens and
accompanied by the estate wine from the cellars.
A trip to
the cellars takes the visitor into an underground world
where the smells of yesteryear tease the nose. It is a
short climb from the bathing pool terrace to the entry to
the stone caverns quarried into the hillside that serve the
house as cellars. Inside under the arched roof lit by
a few fluorescent tubes are stored all the hams and cheeses
of the best Italian tradition cheek by jowl with stainless
steel vats, wooden barrels and bottles of wine
Part of the
land near the road is given over to a testing nine-hole golf
course, which has its own bar and catering facility.
The farm buildings and golf clubhouse fit discretely into
their surroundings and every effort has been made to
preserve the integrity of the landscape. Both farm and
golf course are cared for in the most natural ways – the
only chemicals used are kept just for the golf greens – the
fairways of the golf course are mowed regularly to provide a
fair lie but indigenous weeds sit side by side with the
grass.
The Hotel
has its own small beach, nestling at the foot of the cliffs.
Access to the beach is by a lift designed and installed
using the civil engineering know-how of the Siniscalchi
family. The entry to the lift is inside the hotel
gates just a short walk down the drive passing the lemon
grove where the fruit trees stand in a colourful carpet of
flowers. It is a smooth ride down the 450 or so feet
of the lift shaft and a short walk and a few steps bring you
to the shingle.
Every
visitor comfort is provided on the terraces above the beach
including shelter from the sun, a well-stocked kitchen and
bar run with the same friendly efficiency as in the hotel.
On one day of our visit the sea was stirred up by high winds
and a lifeguard kept careful watch lest the unwary tangled
with the waves. Again when we were there (May 2004)
the improvements and modernisation programme was in full
swing. A bonus from a trip in the lift is an easy walk
along the public beaches to the small harbour where fishing
boats share moorings with pleasure craft.
In
one matter Claudia Siniscalchi is at odds with some of the
work that her father did – she is determined to ensure that
only plants and trees indigenous to Calabria grow in her
grounds – so she will carry out a programme of “Chop! Chop!”
(her words) until that is achieved.
The process
of ensuring that the comfort of guests and their pleasure in
the house and its many facets will continue. Ever the
good hotelier Claudia will also continue to develop the uses
of the hotel. The new conference centre is evidence of
that, sponsors are already recognizing the value of a golf
course in Calabria and from time to time the reception rooms
provide an elegant and serene setting for Bridge
Conventions. Who knows my wife and I may one day bid
an unstoppable Grand Slam at a table there – it’ll be me
that has to play it!
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The
San Michele History
There has
been a building on the present site of the Grand Hotel San
Michele for centuries. The probability is that it was
originally a church or a refuge. It may well once have
been home to Robert the Guiscard, one of the impoverished
Norman knights who went to Italy and led an army which
conquered Calabria in the 11th century. He waged war
against Pope Leo IX but when the Papal attitude to the Holy
Roman Empire changed he allied himself with Pope Nicholas
II. For his services he was created Robert “Duke of Apulia
and Calabria” – he was promised Sicily as well and set out
with his brother to conquer the island.
Robert died
of fever on another warring expedition to Keffalonia in
Greece and the house passed to his widow, Sikelgeita.
She found the demands of the upkeep of her inheritance too
much for her and decided that she would earn her place in
heaven by giving it in heritage to the sisterhood at Monte
Cassino, the Benedictine monastery, situated on the hill of
the same name overlooking the town of Cassino, Italy,
northwest of Naples, which featured in an awesome battle
between the Allies and the Germans in World War II. Founded
in 529 by Saint Benedict of Nursia on the site of an
Apollonian temple, the monastery became the home of the
Benedictine Order and was for many centuries the leading
monastery in Western Europe.
The house
became a live community of women – not a convent - and there
Sikelgeita must have lived out her days. There was a
small chapel in the house where the women would have
worshipped – at least they would have been allowed to share
in the service through the arched windows. The chapel
is believed to be where the dining room is in the hotel
today. You may still see fragments of the original
fabric of the building carefully preserved behind glass in
the reception area.
In the 17th
Century the house at Centraro was home to Baron Falcone.
It is with the inevitable twinkle in her eye that Claudia
describes the way in which the Baron came to his property,
which might well have exceeded the 44 hectares in which the
modern hotel stands. Clearly troublesome to the Norman
rulers of Italy he was given a “Grace and Favour” settlement
that kept him well away from them in what then must have
been really wild country. He would have had his hands
full maintaining law and order in the area around Centraro,
watching his own back and too occupied to pose a threat to
his benefactors.
There is no
doubt that the hotel today is on an ancient Byzantine site
and such is the care taken in its construction that it
reflects the glory and splendour of that bygone age and sits
comfortably in the magnificent grounds that surround it in
its dominating position high over the craggy coast.
It was much
later in the 1920s that the house first entered into the
history of the Siniscalchi family and the modern history
began. In 1923 Rosario completed his studies in Rome
in Civil Engineering and his first assignment was the
restoration of the house some miles from the village where
he was born. He set about the work and the new house
was built in the style of Coppede, an architect much in
vogue in that period. Coppede was renowned for his
elegant designs and adding style to classic traditions.
The site high on the wooded slopes above the sea demanded a
sympathetic eye to blend it comfortably into the
surroundings and that is what Rosario Siniscalchi set out to
achieve and the work he did then has been continued to the
present time. That project was never completed but the
house and its charm stayed on in Dr Siniscalchi’s memory.
Almost 40
years on and Rosario, now at the peak of a successful
career, had a family of his own - in particular a daughter
who had followed in her father’s academic footsteps and was
completing her studies. In 1961 he sat with her and
this conversation which she will never forget took place:
“Claudia I am going to give you a
present.”
“Thank you father – what will it be?”
“I am going to give you a hotel!” - with
a wry smile!
“But what will I do with a hotel
father…?” - faint dismay perhaps?
The
conversation developed and the grand plans for the Grand
Hotel San Michele were laid. Claudia might well have
been just as doubtful about the potential of a hotel in far
off Centraro as her ownership of one. Calabria did not
then have the infrastructure which would allow development
of any of its natural resources and that most certainly
would have made it an unlikely growth area in the tourist
industry. But tourism was becoming an increasing
contributor to the world economy. Italy – with its
combination of beautiful coast and country combined with the
magic of its chequered and history - well preserved in
buildings and artefacts - was always in the forefront of
travellers’ ambitions.
Though
Calabria has yet to earn the reputation as a holiday
location of Italy’s more glamorous regions the number of
annual visitors is growing and at the Grand Hotel San
Michele there is much more than simple half board
accommodation in four-star hotel to delight and surprise the
discerning guest.
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