Heart’s Journey

It’s that certain Sunday, time once more for our annual roundup of romantic hideaways discovered during years of travel in a search for places close to the heart.

The survey extends from a charming village in Austria to a tiny speck of an island in the South Seas. Several of our choices have appeared in previous roundups while others are deleted this year due, in our view, to a loss of romantic appeal.

The highest honor we can bestow, Five Hearts, goes once again to Austria’s village of Durnstein, a magical kingdom only a few miles removed from Vienna, the perfect choice for lovers in search of a fairy-tale setting composed of castles, cobblestone streets and vineyards that sweep to the Danube.

Romantics settle in at Schloss Durnstein, the ancient castle-hotel where classical melodies are piped to the terrace, a particularly appealing spot in springtime when lovers become captives of this medieval village with its fragrant breezes.

Of an evening, guests dine by candlelight while the melodies of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Haydn stir the soul. Schloss Durnstein draws the discerning traveler who is enchanted by the hotel’s baroque armoires, its Renaissance treasures and the voice of the Danube. Five Hearts? Indeed: .

Next there is Positano, the Italian village on the Amalfi Drive that overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea with its little fishing boats and hydrofoils that carry visitors to Capri. As readers recall, my love affair with Positano spans years. Likewise, Steinbeck was enchanted with this village with its rocky paths that lead to the beach and villas anchored to precipitous cliffs.

The wonder of Positano is Hotel San Pietro, whose rooms are cleverly hidden among the ledges of a cliff that dives straight to the sea. I have an acquaintance who is obstinate and difficult to please and even he was charmed by the San Pietro. For the traveler who cherishes aloneness, it is a rare choice. Bored into the cliff is a shaft down which one travels by elevator to a sun deck and a speck of a beach.

The San Pietro is favored by Anthony Quinn and other celebrities. No two rooms are alike. Some face the sea while others focus on Positano, a couple of kilometers to the north. The San Pietro is a place where you can relax, sunbathe and swim. Because it offers no distractions, it is favored particularly by honeymooners. We give it Five Hearts: .

In this survey of places visited earlier, there comes to mind the Grandhotel Giessbach on Lake Brienz in Switzerland, a setting that sets the soul to smoldering, a castle-like retreat that rises on a wooded hillside beside a thundering waterfall. The Giessbach is a rare discovery, one that captures the heart of more than one romantic.

Listen to what reader William Jennings of Pasadena had to say about the Giessbach: “My wife and I spent part of our honeymoon at the magnificent Grandhotel Giessbach. It was a fairy-tale adventure. Each day was a romantic fantasy. We will never forget one rainy night. We were sitting in the lobby feeling the warmth flowing from a huge crackling fire, listening to piano music filling the room with love. We danced the evening away in our stocking feet upon an Oriental carpet beneath a crystal chandelier. . . .”

One may drive to the hotel from the village of Brienz, although most romantics choose the steamer that delivers them to a pier below the hotel, which with its waterfalls is spotlighted at night. To refresh the memory of those who learned about the Giessbach in our earlier report, the hotel has provided shelter for emperors and kings in addition to hopeless romantics.

More than a century old, it rises like a feudal castle on 50 forested acres. Many weddings are held here, and reservations for honeymooners are booked weeks, even months, in advance. A huge clock in the lobby ticks away the hours while cherubs watch from the ceiling. We give the Giessbach Four Hearts: .

Only a short train ride from Brienz, the Alpine village of Kandersteg welcomes other romantics. Cradled between Grindelwald and Gstaad, Kandersteg is a tapestry of towering peaks and verdant mountains, wildflowers and linden trees. There is one particular hotel we have nominated in our survey for lovers--the Waldhotel Doldenhorn, which rises in a magnificent valley between the peaks of the Allmenalp and the Blumlisalp.

The Doldenhorn is a small, chalet-style hotel of immense warmth and charm with a splendid restaurant. In summertime, window boxes drip with geraniums while vacationers sip wine and espresso on a terrace surrounded by wrought-iron lamps. Thick eiderdowns are spread across beds, and a grandfather clock sets the spell for romance as soon as you enter the hotel. The charming village has a 16th-Century church and farmhouses hundreds of years old.

Postal buses deliver couples to secret picnic hideaways in mountains surrounding Kandersteg, and there are paths with benches where romantics study this world of Alpine splendor. At Waldhotel Doldenhorn a sense of well-being pervades each room. The hotel is small and unpretentious, and in our search through columns past--those ripe with romance--we give it Two Hearts: .

Once again, the Italian village of Cortina d’Ampezzo gets high marks in this annual survey. Set in the hollow of a splendid valley, Cortina d’Ampezzo is surrounded by the Dolomites--those rocky, Alpine peaks that seem forever lost in the folds of clouds. It is especially romantic in springtime, when wildflowers bloom in profusion in high meadows.

Cortina’s mountains tower above the earth, separating Italy and Austria, their waterfalls swelling rivers and lakes whose shores are lined with buttercups, forget-me-nots and columbine. Unlike so many other tourist destinations, Cortina d’Ampezzo has not been spoiled by success. As a result, the magic of this Alpine hideaway continues to attract lovers in search of solitude.

Were I to return to Cortina d’Ampezzo, I would choose again the charming little inn created by Antonio Piovesan at the base of the Dolomites. It is called La Capannina, and while Piovesan was in the process of building it, he obtained the ceiling from a 15th-Century palace in Padua, gilt-edged Venetian mirrors, a 17th-Century Moorish door, grillwork from a convent and antiques purchased from a dozen old palaces. The result is a cozy little inn for discerning guests that rates Three Hearts: .

For lovers, I have another nominee in Cortina d’Ampezzo--the colorful Hotel de la Poste with its grandfather clock, a collection of antiques and a lounge that once served as the village post office. This former osteria dates from 1802, a Hansel and Gretel shelter whose window boxes flow with geraniums during a summer’s visit. We give Hotel de la Poste Two Hearts: .

Returning to Austria for a moment, romantics find solace in Salzburg at the magnificent old Goldener Hirsch, a choice of the romantically inclined for more than 400 years. Only steps from Mozart’s birthplace, it provides shelter for the bride and groom in an atmosphere of antiquity. Granted, the floors sag and the lift creaks like an unoiled door hinge, but in our roundup the Goldener Hirsch gets Five Hearts: .

In Salzburg, our Five Heart rating () goes also to the Osterreichischer Hof, a colossal (and much younger) hotel on a bank of the river that flows through this storied city of music and romance. With its marble columns, polished mahogany and spotless rooms, the Osterreichischer Hof is considered one of the finest hotels in Europe. Off the lobby with its deep sofas and Persian rugs, guests gather for tea in a snug room that faces the river and chestnut trees. Swans glide by, gulls wheel overhead and flowers are scattered throughout the lobby while a piano sets the mood with melodies meant for honeymooners and old marrieds alike.

New to our list this year is a former convent that’s been converted to an inn in Portugal’s walled village of Obidos, which perches on a hilltop 60 miles outside Lisbon. It is called Estalagem do Convento () and it has been in existence for more than four centuries. There is a lounge with fireplace and candles; guest rooms feature wrought-iron lamps and ancient chests and tables. And in the bar downstairs, a fire sheds its warmth while guests amuse themselves at a chess table as the recorded voices of fado singers flow from a speaker. Others retire to the garden with its orange and tangerine trees, where one senses a vacuum that draws the visitor back through centuries.

Whitewashed Walls

As for the village, sunlight floods its narrow, twisting streets, flashing off whitewashed walls. Geraniums bloom in window boxes mounted on houses trimmed in blue and yellow. Obidos is a village that endures. Inside the crenelated walls of this ancient community, one travels back in time for centuries. Eventually, if one remains long enough, there is the discovery of Antonio Tavares’ little lantern-lit cave on Rua Direita. It is here that the fado singers gather, remaining often till dawn. I recall the truck driver who sang of love and hatred and other passions. Not one of the entertainers at Antonio Tavares’ bar is a professional. All refuse tips. They sing strictly for the joy of expressing themselves.

In France I would direct lovers and honeymooners once again to the hill town of St. Paul de Vence behind the Riviera, and especially to that charming and ancient inn, Le Colombe d’Or. During its long history, Le Colombe d’Or has provided shelter to such figures as Sir Winston Churchill and the Duke of Windsor. A century-old inn, Le Colombe d’Or features walls hung with priceless paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and others. Lunch is often served in the courtyard where a wooden bucket filled with flowers provides an unforgettable fragrance. In this ancient inn the rooms, some featuring canopied beds, are reached by a staircase. Le Colombe d’Or: .

Another repeat nominee this year, only a few miles from St. Paul de Vence, is Chateau Chevre d’Or () in the medieval village of Eze between Nice and Monte Carlo, an inn set 1,300 feet above the Mediterranean. The walls of Eze are graced with bougainvillea; narrow, twisting streets and stairways deliver visitors to a garden at the very summit. As for Chevre d’Or, previously it was a private villa that later was refurbished by a musician from the opera house at Monte Carlo. Each room has its own private entrance, and, in the bar, candles flame and a wood fire glows to create a particular mood for guests.

Across the Mediterranean, Morocco’s Hotel La Mamounia draws an endless lineup of honeymooners . . . as well as others with stars in their eyes. Rising in the fabled Red City of Marrakesh, La Mamounia has played host to royalty, writers, film stars and world leaders. Churchill came to paint in the loveliest garden in all North Africa. Bougainvillea cascade down the hotel walls and roses spread a fragrance known only in Marrakesh. With its filigreed ceilings and marbled corridors, La Mamounia deserves our award of Four Hearts: .

No Finer Match

For two in love, I can think of no finer match than an ocean-front room at Hong Kong’s Regent hotel with its floor-to-ceiling windows that frame a passing parade of sampans, junks, freighters and ferries. To awaken with the bay in perfect focus is to experience one of life’s memorable moments. While I was there on a visit several years ago an immense freighter slipped by my window; Victoria Peak was lost in a caldron of clouds and lightning exploded in the heavens as thunder sent a shudder along the shoreline. A deluxe hotel, the Regent provides the style of personalized service European hotels were famous for before mass tourism overwhelmed the world. We give it Five Hearts: .

As we turn from the Orient and swing to the South Seas, our final nominee in this roundup of romantic destinations is Bora Bora, an island that Michener proclaimed the most beautiful in the world. Certainly it figures near the top of the heap. While Bora Bora has changed a trifle, the lagoon with its distant reef still mesmerizes visitors, and those who can afford the best choose the over-water bungalows at Hotel Bora Bora: .

Days are spent bicycling around the island and snorkeling in the rainbow-colored lagoon. Down a dusty road, little houses with tin roofs provide shelter for islanders who are content to live out their lives far from the world of crowds and cars and crime.

A Frenchman I know went to Bora Bora for a short visit 40 years ago. One night we stood together and he smiled while lighting his pipe. “I may stay on permanently,” he said. “Yes, I’m tempted.”

Here is a listing of hideaways named in this article:

--Schloss Durnstein, A-3601 Durnstein, Austria.

--Hotel San Pietro, 84017 Positano, Italy.

--Grandhotel Giessbach, 3855 Brienz-Giessbach, Switzerland.

--Waldhotel Doldenhorn, 3718 Kandersteg, Switzerland.

--La Capannina, Via Dello Stadio 11, 32043 Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

--Hotel de la Poste, Piazza Roma 14, 32043 Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

--Goldener Hirsch, Getreidegasse 37, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.

--Osterreichischer Hof, Schwarzstrasse 5-7, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.

--Estalagem do Convento, Rua Dr. Joao de Ornelas, 2510 Obidos, Portugal.

--Le Colombe d’Or, Place des Ormeaux, 06570 St. Paul de Vence, France.

--Chateau Chevre d’Or, Rue du Barri, 06306 Eze, France.

--Hotel La Mamounia, Ave. Bad Jedid, Marrakesh, Morocco.

--The Regent, Salisbury Road, Hong Kong.

--Hotel Bora Bora, Nunue, Bora Bora, French Polynesia.

Note: A future column will deal with our Cupid Nominees for the United States.