Inside the Reopening of Italy's Stunning Splendido Hotel
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Villa Beatrice sits perched atop a cliff, with a 180-degree view of one of the most stunning, secluded settings imaginable. Turn to the right, and you see the Bay of Portofino. Look left, and it's the Bay of Paraggi. The restored former palazzo, which is set within a national park and has private access to the sea, will be available to rent beginning this July for the first time in its 112-year history. It's the only accommodation of its kind for the hospitality group Belmond, which specializes in resorts, trains, river cruises, and safari lodges that recapture the glamour of an earlier era of travel.
Belmond, which was acquired by LVMH in 2019, got its start in 1976, when James Sherwood, the company's original owner, purchased the Hotel Cipriani in Venice. Soon after, he bought two original Orient Express sleeping cars at auction. Air travel had cut into the popularity of luxury trains, and Sherwood was able to get the pair for $113,000, according to The New York Times. He soon collected additional cars, and his revamped Orient Express took to the rails in 1982. Since then, the Belmond group has expanded to include train lines in Europe, Asia, and South America; hotels like Maroma on the Riviera Maya and Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Palace; and seven river cruises. What connects them all is an emphasis on slow travel, amazing experiences, and classic design.
Up the road from the Villa Beatrice is Splendido, a 16th-century Benedictine monastery-turned-52-room hotel, which opens for the summer season this month with a new Dior spa—the first in Italy—and a redesigned main building and cocktail bar. 'We haven't done anything crazy. We applied the modernity, but with respect for the past,' says Alfonso Pacifico, the hotel's general manager and Belmond's area managing director of Portofino.
Belmond's properties are routinely restored and revitalized; in July, the group will unveil the Britannic Explorer, the first luxury sleeper train to tour England and Wales. Next on the list is Florence's Villa San Michele, which will reopen in 2026 after a renovation that helped conserve historical elements of the former monastery and redesigned the hotel's suites. Hotel Cipriani is set for an ambitious renovation led by famed architect and designer Peter Marino.
'The first approach is to understand the location and the existing history behind [the property],' says Ons Gherib, senior vice president of design and construction at Belmond, of the company's process for restoring hotels. The architecture and design teams examine the records of who lived and stayed at the property, and study the history, architecture, and types of craftsmanship used in its original construction. For train design, the bar is set even higher: Only pre-1945 technology is used. 'Trains push the know-how and the craftsmanship to a level that is absolutely unknown,' Gherib explains. 'There's real craftsmanship, to the smallest detail. Every detail is drawn, designed, and thought of in a very small scale, which is absolutely stunning.'
The restorations can lead to delightful surprises. During the renovation of Villa Beatrice, the ceiling was removed to reveal the original, which was beautifully hand-painted. 'We really try to understand what was there and try to enhance it—bring it back to life and keep it alive.'
A version of this story appears in the May 2025 issue of ELLE.
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