Opened March 2012
Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's latest love letter to his ancestral home, this enchanting nine-room palazzo, a 19th-century villa with frescoed ceilings located in the center of Bernalda -- Coppola's grandfather's birthplace in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy -- is a true immersion in the elusive art of la dolce vita. Decorated by celebrated Parisian interior designer Jacques Grange (with creative input from Coppola's family), the hotel offers guests daily cooking classes from the palazzo's chefs, as well as a private pool and a garden that supplies vegetables, herbs, and citrus fruits to the palazzo's always-open kitchen. Located in a region relatively untouched by tourism (no small feat in Italy), it's just 20 minutes from the beaches of the Ionian Sea and 40 minutes from Matera, a Unesco World Heritage Site where ancient cave dwellings have been reclaimed as homes, churches, museums, and restaurants.
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