A room with a view

It’s a bit of a thing with me on holidays: Does my room have a view?

And just like in the Merchant-Ivory movie adaptation of E. M. Forster’s book A Room With A View, when I look out to something sublime I can hear the film soundtrack of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s O Mio Babbino Caro faintly in the background.

So it was with great delight that I opened the shutters of a historic palazzo in Italy, before the start of a recent tour, to see a picturesque garden unfold before me.

And it had come about due to a serendipitous hiccup.

The pre-tour accommodation I had booked at the Romantik Hotel Villa Margherita in Mira, was suddenly only available for a single night.

“So would madam mind moving a short distance down the road to a sister property, the Villa Franceschi, for the beginning of her holiday, at no extra charge?”

Madam Googled the Franceschi, found out it was a gorgeous Relais & Chateaux property that had been featured in one of their boutique guides and so the answer was an immediate “Si”.

Shutters opening out to lovely views were to be a feature of my holiday — an Albatross Tour to discover Italy off the beaten track.

Starting with the Villa Franceschi, which has a history that dates back to pre-1632 when the Franceschi family took over agricultural and monastic land to build the villa that stands there today.

The property, with its own mooring on the Brenta River, was the country estate of the Franceschis, a family of jewellers who lived in a stately palace in Venice’s San Barnaba district.

After a long and storied history the villa fell into disrepair during the two world wars but saw a rebirth in 1968 when it was acquired by the Dal Corso family to be brought back to its former glory and relaunched as a boutique hotel.

But back to those views from my splendid room in the original palazzo. I looked out to a park setting with ancient trees — magnolia, pine, cypress and oak — standing sentinel over expanses of lawn, formal hedges, bowers of fragrant jasmine, winding paths and statues.

The property also has a pool, paved terrace areas and an old mews building which now houses reception and more accommodation, plus a signature restaurant, named for its sister hotel, the Villa Margherita.

I made the most of my stay there, getting up early to catch the dew still on the lawns and to walk those paths, pausing to sit on the garden’s ancient stone seats and take in the sound of birdsong, church bells and the soft breeze rustling the trees. And I repeated the exercise to see it all in the fading light of evening.

What a place — for parties, romantic trysts, serious networking, hide and seek...

I thought of all the elegant gatherings that must have taken place there over the years and all the stories those trees could tell.

Sister property the Romantik Hotel Villa Margherita is a 17th century palazzo, formerly known as the Contarini Villa. The building has remained intact, just as it was four centuries ago, in a park setting on the Brenta River, amid lawns, magnolia and cypress trees and with an imposing entrance.

My suite looked down the tree-lined driveway and as a bonus I had a Juliet balcony garlanded with red mandevilla.

Both of the Dal Corso villas are beautifully furnished with antiques, elegant silk drapes, Persian carpets, paintings and frescoes and Murano glass chandeliers and light fittings. There are quiet areas in which to sit and read, indoors and out, or simply enjoy the fine interiors and garden surroundings.

The views went up a notch, literally, in Umbria in my room on the second floor of the Dei Duchi, a centrally-located hotel, next to a park in the heart of Spoleto. There double shutters opened — on the left to the rolling hills of the Umbrian countryside and on the right to the excavated remains of an ancient Roman theatre, the Teatro Romano, and the State Archeological Museum.

Another grand palazzo awaited for the final night of our tour — the Villa Tuscolana Park, in a wine growing region in hills which look across to Rome. The Tuscolana Park is an elegant 16th century villa set in four hectares of lush grounds and occupying a dominant position overlooking the town of Frascati. The property has been owned by a bishop, a pope, a prince, a princess, a queen and a king — Vittorio Emanuele 11.

It is now owned by a Roman Catholic religious group who restored the building (it was badly damaged in World War II) and turned it into a hotel.

My room, on the third floor, had shuttered windows which opened to a spectacular view across the villa’s formal front gardens and hillside Frascati to Rome in the hazy distance. And it transformed into a glittering spectacle at night.

From palazzo elegance and wooden shutters I went to a different level of wow factor during a stopover in Dubai. My travel agent had arranged a surprise room upgrade to a giant retro-mod suite on the 21st floor of the Sofitel Dubai Downtown. With floor to ceiling windows across a lounge, bedroom and a decadent bathroom it offered dazzling views of the architectural wonderland that is Dubai.

So while soaking in the suite’s giant tub in a froth of scented bubbles, a glass of bubbles in hand — I saluted all my holiday rooms and their views.