Parco dei Principi
Sorrento, Italy
A few years ago, on a writing and photographic assignment for The Condé Nast Traveller, the magazine had booked me into the Parco dei Principi in Sorrento on the Bay of Naples. I had never stayed in any other hotel where each of the plants and exotic collection of trees in the garden were labelled in Latin. The hotel had more surprises – the biggest being that it was/is a 1962 design classic by legendary Italian creative genius, Gio Ponti. Like a latter-day Philippe Starck, while Ponti was the architect, he was also responsible for the design of every item of furniture, the ceramic floor tiles in the many rooms – each has a different variation on the same blue and white theme – the shell and pebble murals and the white, angular, animalesque diving platform that juts out over the angular, blue swimming pool.
Between treks off to photograph gardens on Capri, Ischia and at Ravello above the Amalfi coast, I took a few snapshots around the hotel. The opening piece in the Traveller’s current, April issue, Where to stay section, is illustrated by one of my Parco dei Principe images. A print was made for them, while the others above are a selection of unretouched, scanned contact prints.
Visited the hotel?
Anything interesting to say about Gio Ponti?
Any impressions of the many gardens in this area?
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