DOLCE VITA DIARIES (Episode 15): Escape to an Italian Dream

It's a little embarrassing. No one understands me speaking in Korean like this. Because I'm stuck with the words. Why don't we do all those things together? Many years ago, I was invited as a journalist to visit the breathtaking hotel Il San Pietro in Positano for a night for a press trip. But this is the story of how filming behind the scenes of the hotel I fell in love with it all. The history, the food, the people. Couldn't bear to go home and decided to move to Positano. I had been in another part of the Amalfi Coast filming so I arrived at Il San Pietro by little boat. From the water you can barely distinguish the hotel from the rock and the greenery. It was purposely carved with natural lines to blend seamlessly with nature. Carlino, the uncle of the current managers apparently told the builders no straight lines. He wanted curves, architectural spontaneity and mostly for it to harmonize completely with the land itself. Apparently everyone thought he was crazy for building so far out of the town of Positano even though actually it's only a five minute walk or drive but there was no other hotel that far out at the time. Some people just have a vision of how things could be even if everyone around them can't yet see it. The guys just took my luggage and then they told me to go into this cave and apparently there's an elevator to go up into the hotel. It just honestly feels like a scene out of James Bond or something. So I enter the cave, step into the elevator and then the doors open at the hotel. An intoxicating dream of light, bougainvillea, vivid Italian tiles and beauty. Vito here is the director of the hotel and I mean we had dinner last night and you were telling me a little bit about everything but explain to me, raccontami un po' how is it growing up, because you grew up here in Positano. My uncle Catalino had 22 nephews. 22? 22, yes. Me and Carlo, my brothers, we were the only two allowed and I grew up here. The first time I came here I was six. Really? Before I didn't have permission. For many people I think this is just, as you say in Italian, to grow up in Positano. This seems like a fairytale, a dream. Yeah, but it's not only a dream, it's the accomplishment of a dream of a person When he first started the hotel, part of the family, five brothers, two brothers and two sisters, they thought he was crazy because it wasn't possible for them to imagine something outside the village. And they also tried to send him to the tribunal because he had a lot of debts and part of the family thought he was going crazy. This is to send him to court, yeah. Because they wanted to stop him from spending money. Really? I mean it was not, it's not a rich family. My great-grandfather was a gardener. Really? So the whole thing started by nothing. I even see it on the ferry, people like you say, it's a long journey, they come and they're tired and they put a plane and a train and a ferry and then they see Positano and their faces, they change. They're like, ah, ecco perché, this is why we have come. So anyway, complimenti because you have a beautiful... For you it's so easy to get invitations, such a beautiful girl. Tell me, I ask you something, how many invitations have you got up to now? Well, a few. I'm sure you are. No, no, but I think people generally, everybody is very friendly here. Yes. They're very friendly. Vito, a very good cook himself, has an ardent passion for food, particularly local dishes, and I spent many days speaking with him about recipes that I was creating for a TV show I was working on. Although his hotel attracts kings and queens and celebrities, he has quite a lot of contact with the locals who live much more simply. He introduced me to a couple living high in the mountain above Positano, you may remember that episode, and also to one of my favorite restaurants, Da Adolfo, just a little shack on the beach beside the hotel which you can only arrive at by boat. I often saw Vito in the hotel's garden picking vegetables or in the kitchen of the restaurants. Carlino, the casual restaurant down on the hotel's private beach, is where they serve up their signature lemongrass pasta, made with an infusion of lemon zest. It's one of the most delicious plates of pasta I've ever had, fresh but with a little heat of chili, and a totally unexpected star ingredient, but lemongrass grows here, as do obviously the lemons they use to make the confit which creates the sauce. Then there's the elegant restaurant Zas up on the terrace, which is Michelin star and run by the extraordinarily talented chef Alois. I spent a night discreetly filming behind the scenes of this restaurant to see what it takes to produce Michelin star dishes. It's five o'clock in the morning. I am a bit crazy. I volunteered to get up this early because I really wanted to go to the market, the fish market with the chef. He's waiting outside. He's going to drive me there in the truck. I love how serene it is in the morning. It's super early. The Amalfi Coast is still waking up. There are no honking horns or anything. It's just really quiet. The air is so fresh and cool. It's going to be 33 degrees today, I think. During summer or even spring, you want to get up nice and early to just enjoy the Amalfi Coast. It's nice and calm and cool. It's really special. I have to get going now. I'm with the chef of San Pietro. How are you this morning? Great. We're going off to buy the best fish of the whole Amalfi Coast. It's true, no? There will be nothing left for anyone else, right? No, no. We're going to take everything. Chef Alois, he's basically driving the car like you drive a Formula 1 racing car. I don't know why you're a chef. You should be doing the Grand Prix or something. For sure. Wow, it's crazy. You know the streets of Positano are already quite windy, but he's just taking the corners. He's like, no, it's fine. Around 5 a.m. there's no one on the street so we can go super fast. Okay. I trust you, I trust you. If we make it alive to the fish market, we are going to buy... What are we going to buy? All local things. It depends. Sometimes it's dentishes, sometimes it's scorpion oil. It all depends. You'll see in the market. Okay, okay. He was saying to me before, he's like, you know, the guys here, they're real, they're genuine, and he really likes that rapport that he has with them so that he can go in there and be honest with them. But, he said, even though they're super friendly, he doesn't stand for any nonsense. I mean, he says, you know, when you're buying fish, it's black and white, whether it's good or it's not. And if you don't give him the best quality, he has no time for you. So, I think he's funny. He's quite a... He jokes around and everything, but when it comes to, like, buying the produce, he's quite serious. And he's saying, you know, it doesn't matter you have this friendly kind of rapport, but he said, if someone doesn't give me good quality, that's it. Basta. Mamma mia. It's so heavy. This is 10 kilos. You've only got 10 kilos. So, can you tell me quickly while we're waiting for the bill, how often, how many times a week do you come here? Ah, okay. So, Tuesdays and Fridays. Two times a week. Yeah, and... In Denmark, it was quite small. There was not too much fish, but normally on Friday, it's huge, there's a ton of fish. Okay. There are lots more. Yeah, yeah. And why this place, in all of the... No, because it's the only serious place, because all the other places, they will offer you, first time, very good fish, and so on, both times. Ah, okay. Here, I know, I've always highest standard, what I want. Yeah, yeah. And they give me the best that I can eat from the shop, so I won't find it differently. If I go to the big market in Naples, I never find the same quality of fish as I can find here. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. But then Naples is quite dangerous, so I prefer to come here. They know what I want to give me the best fish. What do you mean by dangerous? Like, in terms of... Because I mean, it's a different world there. Yeah. If you want a chance to go there, it's different, because if you touch a fish that's not yours, they can kill you. What? No. I'm not kidding. It's him. Really? No, in Naples, you don't have any fish, you don't have to walk, you don't have to cut, you are maximum. It's very strange. It's a very strange world of Naples. It's full of terrorists. Full of terrorists. Cameramen and terrorists. Here's the meat tender. Buongiorno! Wow. So, it's a bit of a difference to go from the sort of gritty, dirty fish market to this, which is so elegant. And they just have classical music playing and you can hear the birds chirping and I'm looking out over the water. Wow. I freshened up a bit, I went back to my room to wash the fish off. And now I'm going to check out the breakfast, because apparently the chef was telling me, he was like, you have to try it, we have like 12 different types of bread. And I must admit, I am starving. I've been up since 5am, so let's go see what they have. Look at these. These are croissants filled with crema di pistachio. You see, pistachios are very popular. You'll see them in a lot of sweets here in the South. I've fallen madly in love with Italy and I made a life here, but you fell in love with Italy many, many years ago, no? Yes, I came here the first time and I had the view here, I had the luxury of simplicity, I saw how people live here, the quality of life, that's what's all about here in Italy. And I think when you can wake up every single morning with a view like this, with the quality of life, I think a lot of people dream of a life like this. But do you remember when you first saw Positano? Do you remember how you felt? I still look at Positano if it was the first time, because even driving with my Vespa to Sorrento, to go around Positano, I still see things, even if I see it a million times, I see things like, wow, I haven't seen this before, why? How come? That's what was so brilliant about this place. And the thing is, because when I was in the car with Alois, Chef Alois, No, Alois, no, Chef Alois. No, when I was, I can't pronounce your surname, you'll have to pronounce it. Don Langrinac. Okay. It's quite different. I can try with the Italian. I can tell it with his name, but I can't change it, so I have to deal with it. No, but when I was in the car with Alois, I am still thinking, I mean, I live in Italy, but still for me, the Amalfi Coast is, wow, it takes my breath away. And it was interesting to me, because to be in the car with you in the morning and you're still looking and saying, hi. I was driving too fast, she was complaining, I don't feel good. Like all women do. No, excuse me. Complaining in the morning. No, no, it was, okay, it was my fault, I came a little bit late because I was, Only 20 minutes. Mascuda. I was preparing the camera. No, it's okay. But no, it's good to see this because sometimes I think that, you know, you can think about Positano and think, oh, it's just a place for glamour and chic and, you know, the tourists come. But being here and meeting you as well, I've discovered that there's also this other side of Positano that's very real and very, And the real village is kind of, the real life is behind all this. But it's a nice life. It's not the life when you live in a big city like New York or Portugal where you wake up in the morning, traffic, noise, whatever. Here you wake up soft. Work is hard but it's different. It's completely different. Yeah, because, I mean, Alex has lived and worked in many countries. You're super international, no? Because you're from the city you're from. I'm from Belgium but then I went to France, I went to Japan, I went to New York, I went back to France, to Central Bay, and Italy. I'm always travelling because I'm a very curious person and I want to discover, I want to see, I want to know how people live. I want to do so many different things than outside of my kitchen because I think that's what makes my life so interesting. Doing not only your job but other things like a couple of years ago I was in Cameroon I was doing social work with the Red Cross to help people, poor people in their needs. That's what makes my life so completely different. I like to do so many things and people sometimes ask me what are you taking every day? What drug are you taking? Tell me. I'm not taking, it's natural. Sometimes it's too much but that's how I am. I find that you are very Italian, I think. Because I see you, I know that you are preciso. I mean, preciso in Italian means very precise but you have to be as a chef you have to be disciplined and you have to know how to run a kitchen. But I think I see in you you're also you know how to A lot of people tell me when they see me the first time they say are you Italian? I don't want to be an Italian but I would love to be in Italy. But to be an Italian no way. No, the way you come from that's where your origins are. I'm from Belgium, I love Belgium. Even if I go for a couple of days to Belgium it's not a lot to see my mom and my brothers and sisters. But yeah, a lot of people tell me because I like the way they do how they do the hands with the scooter and the way they dress. It's all about a different way than we have in Belgium. Like for instance here you walk on the street and a lot of people stop you you need a lift. Like in Belgium you will never find this. People are more living on themselves. Here you can find a small 500 Fiat with six people inside in Belgium you will find every single car with a single person inside. And that's what's nice about you. You can you can It's a casino. It's a big casino. Yeah, a big mess. In the end it gets organized. But it's a big mess. Yes, yes. That's cool about it. Yeah. No, in fact this is what I love about the Malfi Coast as well is because nobody if you are without a car or a Vespa it's okay. You know, nobody even catches the bus because when I've been with friends they're like oh no Kylie but sooner or later someone will come along and we'll just get a ride from Passaggio. And this is this is what happens it's true because I remember I was you know I was just waiting at the bus stop after going to the beach and this couple they stop the car and they say ah, ma signorina are you going this way we're going to Conca come, we'll give you a lift. That's beautiful. This happens here, no? It really happens and not just because it's a No, no, but because they're doing it because they feel like doing it. Yes. It's not like they're forced to do it. It's just natural. Yes. And that's what's different in the colder countries like Belgium and Holland. Sometimes it's just because it's forced. Yes. Here it's natural. Yes. That's what's beautiful about it. Yes, yes. It's really beautiful. Yes. But I think I think you are Italian and you have certain aspects of Don't tell me I'm Italian. No. It's a compliment. Thank you so much. No, but let me finish. No, no, no. Because I think you're Italian in the way that you know how to also enjoy life. I mean, you work very hard. I've seen him all of last night. Mamma mia. He's working Yesterday was quite calm but normally But also you know how to enjoy life to enjoy the life because you know you are up in the morning taking a walk with your dog But it's important to enjoy life because life you've just won one life. And I often say and it's strange to say but if the good Lord would call me now in this very moment I would not regret because I've done so many things and a lot of people can't do in two lives. Yes, yes. And I live not 100% I live 300% every day. Like if this moment is my last moment so that's what how I am. No, no. I see that. But living with some of the people who are living the whole day along with me sometimes they always say I can't it's too much too much the whole day like too much. You and I are quite similar because we want to do so many things so everything we want everything everything comes to me I do, I do, I do. Yeah, but I think also it's a it's a case of you have a lot of energy and but I don't know if it's the same for you but for me I feel like this land the mountains the sea all of it it recharges me it recharges you. So I think for someone who has a lot of energy this is a good place to be, you know? You will see I've done the Global Tour completely the thing is I've never met a place where you have all the combination of everything in a small small area like this not because it's a small area but you have a combination of everything you have the ocean you have the mountains you have beautiful people you have good weather it's a combination of everything that fits all together in this this small spot and it's and that's I think also the magic and the thing why so many people come here for years because they they find something that they can't find nowhere that's for sure when I came here for the the first weeks it was quite difficult because the mentality when you used to have everything perfectly in a perfect time here it was different now they know how I am like a very you have to be you know everything is scheduled but in the beginning it was quite difficult because people they were more like if you can't do today you do tomorrow after tomorrow and you can't do this to a Belgian guy like that's too much oh shit you have to finish today don't bother me don't worry that's it but you get used to things and then you you have to find compromises people not coming here for having foie gras or having dishes that they can have in north of Europe or having in the States or wherever in the world they are coming here to have produce from here to have vegetables from here to have tomato from here to have the fish from here and that's where people are coming from yeah how many times last night did I hear you shouting spaghetti al postitano whatever it's a very simple dish it's spaghetti tomato oregano some parmesan cheese and olive oil but it's what people are coming for in the beginning for me it was like no I want to make things more complicated but then I've learned through the years that you have to we chefs want to exaggerate always we want to make beautiful dishes because to show up how good we are but it's not that that was important it's what important what the guest tells you in the end this spaghetti was very simple it was very tasteful that's what I loved because I would have put a lot of small decoration on top the guest would have appreciated because he would say ok it was nice I'm coming for the spaghetti not for all the decoration so maybe what I'm trying to do is get Alois to have a little bit of time off and maybe we will go here apparently he has an amazing Vespa you have two what do you do with two a small one and a bigger one ok so I'm keen to see this maybe I will bring you around because I want to see where he goes you have to go back to the kitchen because you have to work thank you so much thank you it's so cinematic here you feel like you're in a scene from a film because I'm passionate about these films from the 50s and 60s for me it's just a dream while I'm waiting here for the boat the guys at the bar came over and said you've made me a surprise it's latte di elefante which is milk of the elephant and it's made with lemons and almond milk it's sweet and refreshing and delicious I also spoke with Carlo Vito's brother for him Positano is a dream for how he can live it with his wife and two children taking them fishing or trekking in the mountains on his days off usually they want to be seen from far away from the mountains and we just did the opposite since the beginning we tried to be discreet with the nature and discreet with the guests last night the woman came to check to turn down my dialoge and he ended up speaking for maybe 40 minutes because she was that's why I didn't see her sorry now I get her in trouble but this is what I found so troubling because you know she wasn't it's not the same type of service that you normally get in a five star hotel because it is really personal and this woman she spoke to me and she said you know I have worked here my whole life before that my mother worked here and she said you know what if it weren't for this hotel it would be a different thing it would be a different town because she said this is we always say that we are blessed here in Positano because this hotel has really kept the economy alive in Positano all through the decades you know what you are telling me it's probably the biggest the nicest thing I could ever hear from our employees and because we are happy when they in the family when they buy a new car when they fix a new house this is the reason we work so hard not only for business because for us this is not only a business it's a part of life it's a part of so tell me about I don't know if it's too personal but I want to I'm intrigued by the way you are raising your children because they live a very healthy life you take them on long walks and they don't drink soft drinks which is incredible they don't drink any Coca Cola and you're telling me how did you I try to give them a healthy life but the nature around here in the hills the trekking is incredible trekking is incredible there are hundreds of nice paths for trekking sometimes I also make a mistake like last Sunday we were supposed to go trekking for 5 or 6 kilometers we ended up in a wrong trail and we did 15 or 16 kilometers but this is good this is the way my sister and I were brought up in the same way my parents were always saying don't just watch television you have to go out and we're going to take you for long walks in the mountains and you're going to eat fresh good food for not healthy food I try not just to forbid them otherwise this would be possible the first occasion when the father or mother is not there they would do the opposite so I try to let them understand by themselves that something is not healthy what I did for the coca-cola one night I chopped two little pieces of meat and I told them let's drop one piece of meat in the coca-cola in this glass full of coca-cola and put it in the refrigerator and the other piece of meat we leave like that on the plate in the refrigerator let's go to bed and wait tomorrow morning we check what happened so the day after we opened the refrigerator the meat was completely melted was corrupted from the coca-cola like coca-cola was an acid and the other piece of meat was integral so my son Giuseppe and Virginia they said oh so if we drink coca-cola it does the same into our stomach so they convinced that it was better for them not to drink coca-cola I know you work very hard and I always see I mean I see Carlo in the office until like midnight last night for example well sometimes I leave the light on and I go to bed no this is not true you do you work very hard but from the outside it seems very ideal you have a beautiful wife you have a job which you are passionate about you have children who are so affectionate with you and so they're really you can see that they're very cultured and very polite and then you spend your weekends you know going scuba diving and trekking in the ocean with your and this for me this is like the dream I don't know whether I perceive this very well I think I work very hard all week so I think I just want to stay with them it's important because at their age now, seven and eight, it's as important they have somebody, father and mother, telling them, you know, the right things to do, because at that time they do absorb everything. We're going to make the pizza. Now, this is one of the most beloved things in Italy, I can also translate if you don't follow me in English. No, I don't follow you. No, but I say that pizza is perhaps the most beloved thing in all of Italy, right? In the world. Yes, in the whole world, in all the world. This is incredible, Antonio makes pizza looking out over the sea, right? Your face is like... There's a gentleman sweeping the floor here, he's watching me. He's saying it's the same. It's not so much the same. But okay, so it's important not to put your hands in the middle, just to keep them around the edge. And then Antonio is saying that the middle will stretch out by itself, but you need to just keep it around the edges of the pizza dough. Okay, so left hand still, right hand moving around. This is... The margherita is the best, it's my favourite because it's so simple. Okay, so we put a little bit of parmesan, a little bit of mozzarella, pure di latte. Okay, and then a little bit of olive oil. So here they just serve the pizza as soon as you walk in to the restaurant. It's just a given that you will eat pizza and as you're deciding on what to order from the menu. But for me, I don't even need the menu, I could just have pizza and that's it, no? Eccoli! Okay, okay. Now I get to eat it. It's hot, it's boiling hot. You tell me if it's good, if I like it. Grazie. With wearing a white shirt and making pizza, perhaps not the best idea, no? Antonio, grazie, grazie veramente. Have you won? Do you have another one? I'm so excited. Chef Alois has just said I can go up into the bakery and see how they make the bread, the croissants, I mean, they make everything in the house here. And it's just like, in the whole kitchen, everything, it just feels like Santa Claus' workshop or something. Okay, so the great thing here is that everyone keeps asking me, ah, Semolina, would you like a cafe? And this is wonderful because it gives you lots of energy to last all day long. Now, this is so cute, they come with a little capello, a little hat on top to keep the coffee hot. And I'm about to go into the bakery where they make the croissants and the bread. And Chef Alois is just like, ah, kindly, you can just go in there and stay there all morning if you want to. And oh, I just can't wait because the bread here is amazing. So, I've got coffee and let's get into some pizza. I stayed for hours learning so much about bread, focaccia, pastry, cakes. In the end, the team invited me to stay for their lunch break. And what do they eat for their lunch, you might ask? Mozzarella di bufala, seafood pasta, salad, and of course, focaccia hot out of the oven. You know, we had dinner, I was going just back to my room and and then I think Vito is discovering that I'm, you know, very romantic and I love history. And so he's like, kind of here. And he gives me, aspetta, I'll show you. He gives me this book and it was like midnight, you know, and I was so tired. And then I went into my room and I could not put it down because it was, it reads like a fairy tale, like you read it and it's not, it's not like, you know, some sort of brochure of a hotel. I mean, this is, this is a story about a dreamer. And the story is that just the way that my mother wants to tell the story to the neighbors. Yeah, her grandchildren. Yeah, it's so, you think, maybe it's me, I'm too sentimental, but you think about the people that came before here and not just people in film, in Hollywood, but writers, you know, and artists. And it feels like everyone who was creative, you know, was attracted to this place because, perhaps because of the character of Carlino, no? Of course, he was a character and he had so many friends. One of the stories of the book is about the day that the hotel was fully booked and Marcello Mastroianni called Il San Pietro asking for a room. Carlino, ever the optimist, took the call and said, don't worry, ti aspettiamo, we're waiting for you. Quando pensi di arrivare? When do you think you'll get here? Finisco le riprese di oggi e arrivo da Amalfi, said Mastroianni. I'll finish today's filming and come from Amalfi. So Carlino hangs up the phone, looks around and thinks, we don't have a room, but we do have a beautiful terrace with a view. And so, like a conductor with his orchestra, in a matter of hours, they build a makeshift hotel room, walls plumbing, lighting, they upturned a giant salad bowl and made it into a sink, all in the time it took Marcello to drive from Amalfi to Positano. Apparently, he arrived with a great actress, Catherine Deneuve, and they stayed in that room for three months. Because no matter who you are, no matter what era, once you have arrived at this magical place, it becomes very easy to forget that the rest of the world exists.