I posted about San Montano with the caption “missing slow days,” and I’m going to be honest: I’m still missing them.
Our second Ischia stay was at San Montano Resort & Spa, up in the hills above Lacco Ameno, and if Mezzatorre was golden and glowing, San Montano was green and quiet โ the deep-exhale half of the trip. Pine trees, sea views from what felt like the top of the island, and a kind of stillness that made me realize how loud my normal life is. (New York is loud. My brain is louder. San Montano turned the volume down on both.)
Morning swims
The days started in the water. Morning swims have ruined every other way of starting a day for me โ coffee first is fine, but coffee after you’ve been in the sea, with salt drying on your skin and the whole day still ahead of you? There’s no competition. The water was clear and calm and exactly the right temperature, which is to say: the temperature that makes you stay in twenty minutes longer than you planned.
Long lunches
And then lunch โ long ones, of course. At this point in the trip we’d fully committed to the Ischian schedule: lunch is not a break from the day, lunch is the day, and everything else arranges itself around it. Good food, a glass of something cold, a table with a view, and nowhere to be. I keep trying to bring this energy home with me, and my calendar keeps laughing at me. One day I’ll win.
Golden sunsets
Every evening, the same magic trick: the sun dropping toward the sea, the sky going gold and then rose, the whole hillside quiet except for the cicadas. We watched it every single night like it was the first time. Some sunsets you photograph. Some you just stand there for. These were the stand-there kind.
Where I stayed
San Montano Resort & Spa โ up in the hills above Lacco Ameno, wrapped in pines with sweeping sea views. Quiet, green, restorative in a way I didn’t know I needed. The slow days I keep dreaming about.
Next up: back to the mainland โ a pizza pilgrimage in Naples.
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