Review: Regina Isabella

Why book Regina Isabella?

Marinated in the essence and spirit of its 1950s heyday, the hotel captures the golden era of Mediterranean sophistication and Dolce Vita glamor. Ischia is a volcanic island of verticals; all cliffs, summits and hairpins, and to find a five-star resort on the waterfront is surprisingly rare. That Regina Isabella’s marina, little beaches, sunbathing platforms and pontoons offer such easy access to clear emerald-colored sea is an obvious sell, as are the four swimming pools and legendary thermal spa. The location, between cliff and sea, and on the edge of the charming Lacco Ameno, a short stroll away, means you can also get your fill of ‘life’ in a vivid, former fishing community. Here is a hotel that can actually be all things to all people; a destination spa and starred restaurant, a restorative retreat with natural thermal hot springs, as well as an intimate, relaxed family resort. Small wonder there is such a high percentage of returning, mostly Italian, guests.

Set the scene

To arrive from Naples in the resort’s private motor launch, Magnum 53, to the full line up of senior staff on the pontoon, is the best way of making an entrance here, where a sense of theatre is in the DNA. The faux Graeco-Roman up-lit pediment and columned threshold of the legendary spa is equally, gloriously, camp. Such singularity extends to retro design details; shaggy grass-fringed beach umbrellas, sun-loungers with their angled shade attachments, the oval swimming pool and the joyous colored Capodimonte floor tiles everywhere to conjure a sense of nostalgic hedonism.

Individual, a little eccentric, the hotel is privately owned by the Carrierro family from Naples, who are very present and for whom hospitality is a passion project. Offering bucket loads of character, Regina Isabella is in a different league from other cookie-cutter ‘luxury’ or trend-setting resorts and has a clientele to match.

The backstory

It was built in 1956, the brainchild of Angelo Rizzoli, publisher and filmmaker, an aficionado of balneotherapy healing through bathing in thermal waters. It was he who turned the existing thermal clinic, owned by his wife’s gynocologist, into a headline act. He put Ischia on the map, setting the bar for a new kind of health tourism and triggering a spate of Ischia-inspired movies, from Vacanze a Ischia to Cleopatra with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. The duo conducted their affair quite brazenly at Regina Isabella which also threw Ischia into the spotlight. The Talented Mr Ripley and My Brilliant Friend, shot decades later, went even further to capture the simplicity and allure of the Mediterranean seaside summer with Ischia as the ultimate holiday island idyll.

The rooms

The 50s style and atmosphere continues in the 128 bedrooms spread across the three different units and buildings completed between 1956 to 1963. Some still have vintage dressing tables, bedsteads and the cherrywood marquetry of built-in cupboards, with modernist iron-railed ‘Juliet’ balconies—as in room 370, from which Elizabeth Taylor famously hurled Richard Burton’s clothing, following an epic row. The Royal Wing was most recently updated with thermal plunge pools on the terraces; umbrellas framing views across the Bay of Naples.

Food and drink

The three restaurants take their inspiration from the bountiful surrounding seas. There are simple pasta dishes and catches of the day at Sporting, lunchtime only, while Indaco, open in the evenings, is the stage-set for Michelin-starred chef Pasquale Lamar’s clever, culinary imagination (codfish carpaccio and black truffle pearls). Vigna Del Lume is the wine to order; a local mineral-tasting white from the small producers of the island's most vertiginous vineyard. The main dining room is like sitting on a cruise liner jutting into the big blue with adjustable sail-like shades to fend off the hammering sunlight. Buffet breakfasts are a sight to behold, with a cornucopia of cheeses and fruits and over a dozen versions of cake.

The spa

The famous mud and hot springs, which have been used to heal since Roman times, are tapped and harvested for their natural mineral content. They contain varying amounts of calcium to calm the nervous system, magnesium, hydrogen carbonate, sodium, sulfur, iodine, chlorine, iron, and potassium—so good for joint elasticity. The radioactive nature of Ischia's waters was discovered in 1918 by Marie Curie, who realised the important therapeutic power of radon. The gas dissolved in the water has miniscule benign radioactivity which is enough to help treat the pain and symptoms of arthritis. The thermal water and mud act on the immune system through the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, which can ameliorate associated inflammatory problems such as gut disorders, psoriasis and eczema according to literally scores of scientific publications supporting spa treatments.

The neighborhood

Lacco Ameno is the smallest and most elegant seaside town on the shores of the Bay of Naples on the northern coast of Ischia. It extends vertically up the lush green slopes of Mt Epomeo to which there are jogging and hiking trails from the hotel.

The service

Italian service knows instinctively how to blend formality with frivolity and a sense of fun, and the staff who have been here, many of them their entire adult lives, are committed, enthusiastic, and deeply professional. They contribute hugely to the sum of happiness that makes every visit feel like you are coming home.

For families

With choices of swimming pools and gentle beaches, complimentary kayaks and paddleboards, this is an easy escape for families. There is no charge for children up to two years, while older offspring pay between 100-150 euros a night to sleep in their parents’ room, depending on their age.

Eco effort

Sustainable practices are very much a part of the ethos here. Single-use plastics are eschewed where possible and in the suites larger refillable shampoos and conditioners are used, as well as compostable pods for all in-room coffee machines. Vehicles are electric, and, of course, since the resort is built over hot springs, it is able to use geothermal energy cost-effectively to power heat and air conditioning.

Accessibility

All public areas of the hotel, including the four pools, treatment areas of the spa and the sunbathing pontoons are wheelchair friendl—as you'd expect in an establishment that puts health and wellbeing centre stage. And as the sea laps at the feet of the resort, ocean-bathing is easy and accessible to all—not always a given on this island with most hotels built on a vertical.

Anything left to mention

The famous La Mortella gardens nearby were created in 1959 by composer Sir William Walton and his wife Susanna with the assistance of Russell Page from the UK. Narrow paths wind between now fully mature bamboo clumps and agaves, around ornamental ponds and fountains. Near the Nymphaeum, the attractive teahouse is a poetic spot for an aperitivo.