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Villa Treville, Zeffirelli’s home that still lives by the sea

In Positano, Villa Treville transforms Franco Zeffirelli’s former private residence into a hotel overlooking the Mediterranean while preserving its history and atmosphere

From Franco Zeffirelli’s private retreat to a hotel on the Amalfi Coast, Villa Treville tells a story of cinema, hospitality and Mediterranean life

On the cliffs of Positano, just beyond the centre of town and overlooking the blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Villa Treville still retains something many hotels try to create but rarely achieve: the feeling of entering a home with a history that predates its transformation into a place of hospitality.

That home belonged to Franco Zeffirelli. A director of film, theatre and opera, Zeffirelli turned this corner of the Amalfi Coast into more than a residence. Architecture, gardens, interiors, friendships and private life gradually became part of the same story. Today Villa Treville is a hotel, yet a significant part of its identity still comes from that period.

Before the hotel, there was a home

The history of Treville began before Zeffirelli. The original villas date back to the eighteenth century and are set along the coastline overlooking Positano and the Li Galli islands. Zeffirelli discovered the area when he was young and, many years later, succeeded in making it part of his own life.

Over time, he brought together and transformed the different buildings descending along the hillside, gradually creating what would become his retreat on the Amalfi Coast.

The name Treville preserves the memory of the three original villas. Zeffirelli himself interpreted them as different environments, almost like characters within a permanent stage set. His experience in theatre and cinema inevitably became part of the house.

Zeffirelli and Mongiardino, a home conceived like a lived-in stage set

The interiors also owe much of their personality to Renzo Mongiardino, the set designer, architect and decorator who had worked with Zeffirelli. The result avoids the neutrality typical of much contemporary hospitality: colours, fabrics, ceramics, Moorish influences, antique furnishings and traditional Campanian majolica coexist in spaces deliberately rich in character.

This is probably one of the most interesting aspects of Villa Treville today. Its transformation into a hotel did not involve systematically removing everything that had existed before.

Many rooms still retain objects, photographs, books, furniture and references connected with the life of the house. The past has not been artificially reconstructed for guests; in many cases, it has simply remained where it was.

A home visited by artists and leading figures of the twentieth century

The setting certainly played a part, but Villa Treville became known for more than its view.

During Zeffirelli’s years there, the property welcomed personalities from cinema, music, fashion and theatre. Among the names remembered by the hotel itself are Maria Callas, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Coco Chanel, Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

It was not, however, a hotel frequented by celebrities. It was a private home where guests were welcomed through their personal relationship with the host.

That distinction helps explain why Treville still has such an unusual atmosphere today. Before it had rooms to sell, it had people to welcome.

From private residence to hotel

The transformation came after the Zeffirelli years. Ownership changed and, over time, Villa Treville took on the role it has today.

Sources published on the property’s own website describe the later arrival of the Friedland family, who had known the Amalfi Coast for many years and subsequently continued the process of preserving and developing the estate.

Today, Treville Positano officially presents itself as a hotel spread across several villas set within approximately two hectares of gardens and terraces, with suites overlooking the Mediterranean and direct access to the sea.

Yet describing the place simply as a hotel tells only part of the story.

Sleeping in rooms that preserve a memory

The suites retain a strong connection with the people and works that form part of the house’s history.

There are references to Leonard Bernstein, to productions directed by Zeffirelli and, naturally, to the Maestro himself. The Zeffirelli Suite occupies the rooms where the director lived and worked, preserving elements from his personal collection and part of the original layout.

Even smaller details reveal this ability to transform without erasing. In the suite dedicated to Bernstein, for example, what was once the villa’s bread oven has been incorporated into the bathroom.

These may appear to be minor details, but they explain the difference between creating a hotel inside an old property and allowing a historic home to evolve into a new form of hospitality.

La Traviata, from winter garden to spa

One of the most significant examples concerns the former winter garden.

Zeffirelli used it while working on La Traviata; today the space has become La Traviata Spa. Its glass architecture and connection with the surrounding vegetation therefore remain part of the experience, despite its entirely different function.

It is a transformation that sums up the philosophy of the whole property: not to freeze the past, but to give spaces a new purpose without making them unrecognisable.

Maestro’s, Bianca Bar and a house that changes function

The same approach can be found in the spaces dedicated to dining and social life.

The restaurant Maestro’s carries in its name an obvious reference to the property’s previous life. Its kitchen also uses produce grown in the estate’s gardens, continuing in a contemporary form the relationship between home, territory and table that was part of the villa’s private life.

The Bianca Bar, meanwhile, occupies the Salone Bianco in Villa Bianca and retains the Moorish influence associated with the taste of Zeffirelli and Mongiardino. Here too, the transition from private residence to hotel did not require the complete removal of the original identity.

The sea is more than just a view

For MED Yachting, there is another aspect that makes Villa Treville particularly interesting: its physical relationship with the sea.

The property does not merely look down on the Mediterranean from above. Paths descend along the cliff towards the water and the hotel has its own seaside area, On The Rocks. Its services also include boat transfers to and from Positano.

Seen from the perspective of someone cruising along the Amalfi Coast, Treville therefore belongs to that particular category of Mediterranean places where coast and navigation become two different ways of reaching the same destination.

Arriving by sea also means, at least for a while, avoiding Positano’s congested roads and viewing the landscape from the direction from which sailors and travellers observed it for centuries.

A secluded Positano, just minutes from Positano

Treville occupies a distinctive position. It is close enough to the town to belong fully to the imagery of Positano, yet sufficiently separate to preserve its own dimension.

The gardens, the paths connecting the villas, hidden terraces and vegetation all contribute to this sense of separation. The official website now refers to four villas immersed in the gardens, while the historic name continues to recall the three buildings from which the property originated.

This too tells the story of Treville’s evolution: the place has not remained static. It has expanded, been restored and taken on new functions, while continuing to use its history as a structural element rather than as simple decoration.

From a director’s home to a Mediterranean story

Perhaps the appeal of Villa Treville lies precisely in this layering.

There is the eighteenth-century Positano of the first buildings. There is the Positano discovered by Zeffirelli as a young man. There is the director’s home, filled with friends, artists and major figures of the twentieth century. And finally, there is today’s hotel, with its restaurant, bar, spa, suites and services designed for an international clientele.

All these periods coexist in the same place.

For this reason, Treville can also be understood as something more than a luxury hospitality address on the Amalfi Coast. It is an example of how a deeply personal residence can change owners and function without completely losing its own voice.

And perhaps this is precisely what continues to distinguish it when seen from the sea: before becoming a hotel, Villa Treville was a home. And in many of its rooms, it still seems determined to remember that.

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Villa Treville

20 August 2026
© MED Yachting Editorial Team
Villa Treville, Zeffirelli’s home that still lives by the sea
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The information in this article has been sourced from and adapted from official sources and/or press releases, in accordance with our editorial code of ethics.