Amalfi, Ercole and Cotto
Dear Jurnale, I often talk about historical hotels, great architects and important residences. Today, instead, I want to tell you a different story. Shortly after Amalfi, going up towards Agerola, there is the Ercole di Amalfi, a small family-run B&B. It is in a very characteristic place, with a cliff behind and a splendid view of the sea of the Divine Coast from which one can also see the house of Sofia Loren and Carlo Ponti.
The structure is owned by the friendly Lello Criscuolo, more than 70 winters at the registry office (only at the registry office though, since it shows almost half of his years). Lello is a carrier, like his father before him, and is known in Amalfi as the Hercules of Amalfi. He earned this nickname by transporting furniture, blocks of marble, even a small piano to the often uphill streets of the area. He even brought 350kg on his shoulder, all by himself.
Today he is still engaged in transport, but more than anything else he is dedicated to the management of his B&B and it is precisely there that our roads intersect. When a few years ago he decided to start this business together with his son Cosimo, he decided to install in all the rooms and in some parts of the garden some of our decorated terracotta tiles, enameled and decorated by hand as it used to be. The decorations embellish the rooms sparingly and for them, the cut-edge technique was used, used a lot in the Baroque floors of the 19th-century Neapolitan school, which consists of removing the enamel where the brick is to be discovered before reheating it. The result is a lightly embossed decoration that appears to be made on site after laying the floor. The overall effect of the room is very elegant and charming.
And not only that, you also have to know that Lello is a person with a strong artistic sense and a great propensity to recovery and besides restoring and giving new life to furniture and antique objects, with some of our majolica, above all waste, he has created a series of interchangeable wall lights that give a new look to the room.
And since he is thinking of expanding his B&B and who knows, next year we won’t be here again to talk about Lello and his family. Now, however, I must greet you, as always with affection and with the usual wish “What has been will be”