Villa Treville Positano Book

Perched above the Tyrrhenian Sea on a secluded cliff overlooking Positano, Villa Treville is one of the world’s most exclusive boutique hotels. Villa Treville Positano offers readers an exclusive look into this legendary Amalfi Coast escape, from its origins as a retreat for the Duchess of Villarosa to its transformation under the artistic eye of renowned Italian film and opera director Franco Zeffrelli, who purchased the villa in the 1960s as a private estate before it became a luxury hotel in 2009. Through his vision, Zeffrelli shaped the eighteenth-century property into what he referred to as his “dream world,” with opulent interiors featuring theatrical designs akin to his lavish sets, with props from La Scala and The Metropolitan Opera, as well as his own collection of priceless antiques and objets. Among more recent additions from Treville’s current owner, Govind Friedland, are multiple terraces, hidden pools, a beach club, and the renovation of several villas on site, as well as the Dr. Barbara Sturm-helmed spa, and the restoration of the iconic Salone Bianco, now the Bianca Bar.

Co-written by noted travel journalist Nicky Swallow and Govind Friedland himself, the title features rare historical imagery and insider stories, highlighting the hotel’s singular design, eighteen levels of cascading gardens, and past as bolt hole to the likes of Coco Chanel, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Maria Callas, Rudolf Nureyev, and Liza Minnelli. In Villa Treville Positano, check in to a volume for hotel and Italy lovers alike that effectively captures what Zeffrelli’s biographer called “just possibly, the most beautiful place on Earth.”

Govind Friedland is a geological engineer, metals and mining technology executive, and hospitality entrepreneur. Born into a renowned mining family and raised in the global industry, he earned a degree in geology and geological engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. With over twenty years of international experience, he has financed, explored, and developed critical minerals essential for clean energy, wireless technology, data centers, and national defense. He serves as Executive Director of Ivanhoe Capital and co-founder/Executive Vice Chairman of I-Pulse, advancing deep- tech energy and pulsed-power systems. He is also Managing Director and co-owner of Villa Treville, the iconic Amalfi Coast estate once owned by Franco Zeffrelli, now one of the world’s most exclusive boutique hotels.

About the Author:

A Londoner by birth, Nicky Swallow grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Trained as a classical musician, she arrived in Italy in the early 1980s to join the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale in Florence as a violist. Among her early performances with the orchestra was Franco Zeffrelli’s 1984 production of La Traviata. Her writing career began in the mid-1990s, and she is now recognized as an expert in luxury travel, food, wine, and lifestyle. She has contributed to Travel & Leisure, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, Condé Nast Traveller, The Telegraph, and numerous other publications. She is the author of Assouline’s Cala di Volpe. She also runs a music festival in the Val d’Orcia, Tuscany. Her base is an olive grove just outside Florence.