The Old Kings

TheArgentario has always been a destination for a certain type of tourism, so much so that it owes its very name to a family of famous vacationers, the Domitii Enobarbi, who were bankers by trade, the Argentarii. They owned two residences: Villa Domizia, in the Santa Liberata area, and anotheron the island of Giannutri, at Cala Maestra, where Agrippina, the motherof Emperor Nero, also spent her vacations. This family also seems to deserve credit for starting what is now a thousand-year-old tradition: comingArgentario, building princely villas in the most beautiful spots along the coast—so unique and stunning that they wanted to name them after themselves, such as Villa Feltrinelli or Villa Agnelli.

In fact, without going too far back in time—just as far back as the 1970s—Argentario frequented by what we like to call, with a touch of nostalgia, “elite tourism.” Strolling along the waterfront, you might have encountered princes and princesses followed by a retinue of brilliant artists, actors, and politicians of every rank. These were the people who, in their own way, contributed to the successArgentario many of the local establishments of the time, where it wasn’t uncommon to sit right next to royalty—perhaps from two or three different countries—or stars of the caliber of Liza Minnelli or The Beatles. 

One of the legends from those years is that Salvador Dalí was the bane of a cook’s lifeArgentario; he would always smear her tablecloths with “scribbles” that were difficult to wash off. Since then, many famous and not-so-famous faces have come and gone, but the recipe remains the same: the slow, sweet life, made up of long days on a boat, aperitifs at sunset still sprinkled with sea salt, dinners well into the night, and then perhaps staying awake all night to waitfor dawn while gazing at the stars by the sea.