Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / Positano / Villa Magia
Villa Magia
Positano, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
The oldest part of the house is an eighteenth-century watchtower, built to spot Saracen raiders early enough for Positano to run for the Montepertuso hills, and its foundation is still visible from the pool deck. Luca Vespoli's parents bought the place in 1992 and raised him in it. The name is theirs: Marilu and Giancarlo, pressed together into Magia. He opened it as a hotel in 2015 and has been adding ever since, with three pools, a hammam and Kneipp walk free to guests, and Luna, where Enzo Licciardi cooks above the gulf.
- Opened 2015
- Neighborhood: Positano centro
About Villa Magia
- The King Suite was Marilu and Giancarlo's own bedroom on the first floor of the historic house, kept with its double-arched terrace and its cabinet of curiosities intact.
- Two more floors were stacked onto the watchtower in the twentieth century, which for a time made this one of the largest villas standing on the Amalfi Coast.
- A hidden garden reached by its own staircase holds a Kneipp water walk, and 180 steps below the main house sits a two-bedroom dependance where a chef arrives each morning to cook breakfast.
History
The oldest part of Villa Magia is an eighteenth-century coastal watchtower, one of the chain built along this shore to give warning of Saracen raiders in time for the people of Positano to retreat up to the hills at Montepertuso. The original foundation of the tower can still be seen from the pool level. Two further floors went on in the twentieth century, which made the building one of the largest villas on the coast at the time.
The Vespoli family, Positano hoteliers, bought the property in 1992 and lived in it for more than twenty years. Their son Luca grew up in the house and was married there. In 2015 he acquired an adjoining property and started converting the family home into something of his own, with his wife Simona: first a guest house, then rooms to let, then a scattered hotel across several buildings, and now a small luxury resort. The name is a portmanteau of his parents, Marilu and Giancarlo. Their old master bedroom on the first floor of the historic house is now the King Suite, still with its terrace, its cabinet of curiosities and the best view on the property.
Rooms are spread between the historic house and satellite buildings up and down the slope, all different, all with sea views and private balconies or terraces, and they include a family suite partly cut into the rock and a suite with its own panoramic pool. A dependance 180 steps below the main house works as a self-contained two-bedroom apartment with a chef coming in for breakfast. There are three pools, one heated with a waterfall, and the Bouganvillea wellness area with a hammam, sauna, gym, treatment rooms and a Kneipp path in a hidden garden, all free to guests. The Luna restaurant opened two years after the hotel, under chef Enzo Licciardi, with the staff in pale linen and handmade Positano sandals.
The setting
Villa Magia stands in the upper part of Positano, on the terraced slope above the town where the gardens and pergolas step down the cliff and the rooftops fall away toward the Gulf. Positano itself is the first town on the Amalfi Coast coming from Sorrento, a vertical village of pastel houses that was a fishing port and then almost empty before the writers and film people found it after the war. Behind and above the hotel sits Montepertuso, the hamlet named for the pierced rock on the mountain and the refuge the watchtower's warnings sent people toward. The beach at Spiaggia Grande and the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta with its majolica dome are down the steps in the town; the Sentiero degli Dei footpath runs the ridge above.
Restaurants and bars
- Luna — Restaurant · Mediterranean fine dining
- Magia Bistrot — Restaurant · light bites and regional dishes
Experiences
- Capri and Amalfi Coast Magia boat tours — Boat tours of Capri and the Amalfi Coast.
- Transfers and tours by Magia luxury limo Positano — Transfers and tours by luxury limo.
- Private Cooking Class and Lunch at Villa Magia — Private cooking class and lunch.
- Hidden Gems of Positano Walking Tour — Walking tour of Positano's hidden gems.
- Magia Rituals: Luxury Wellness Retreat in Positano — Luxury wellness retreat.
- Vintage Fiat 500 Experience in Positano — Vintage Fiat 500 tour.
Amenities
- complimentary access to the spa
- two panoramic swimming pools with solarium
- private cars and vans
- boats
- tours
- transfers
Open Villa Magia in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
More hotels in Positano
- Covo dei Saraceni — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Buca di Bacco — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Eden Roc — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Il Gabbiano — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel La Bougainville — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Le Agavi — Independent · Accessible Luxury