Some hotels are places you sleep. Mezzatorre is a place you sink into.
Our first stop on Ischia was the Mezzatorre Hotel & Thermal Spa, set right on the water on the island’s northwest coast, and from the moment we arrived, the whole stay had this golden, unhurried glow โ like the hotel itself had decided what kind of trip this was going to be, and we were just along for it. (Correct decision, Mezzatorre. No notes.)
Aperitivos by the piano
Here’s the scene I keep replaying: early evening, a drink in hand, a piano playing somewhere in the background, the sea doing its glittery thing just beyond the terrace. Aperitivo hour in Italy is already my favorite hour of the day โ it’s the hour that says the day’s work is done and the evening’s pleasure has begun โ and doing it with live piano and a sea view felt almost unfair. Like we’d skipped some line everyone else was standing in.
Golden hour, then pasta by the sea
As the light went gold, everything at Mezzatorre seemed to lean into it โ the stone, the water, the whole coastline. And then dinner: pasta by the sea, which sounds simple and is, in fact, simple, and is also one of the great pleasures of being alive. Good pasta, salt air, the sound of water. You don’t need much else. I’ve had fancier meals in far more decorated rooms, and I’d trade most of them for that table.
Where I stayed
Mezzatorre Hotel & Thermal Spa โ on the water on Ischia’s northwest coast. The piano-bar aperitivos, the golden-hour terraces, dinner by the sea โ it set the tone for the entire island stay. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Next up: slow days at San Montano โ morning swims, long lunches, golden sunsets.
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