The duchess in question was Bona Borbone delle Due Sicilie, who bought this stretch of coast in the 1970s and built a private compound that has since been enlarged, tastefully, into a hotel of twenty-nine rooms.
The test of a good hotel, for me, is whether I could write a book there. Esencia passes on the first afternoon, when a woman in a linen dress brings me a slice of watermelon on a plate the size of a serving platter and does not, thank god, ask if there is anything else I need.
