Couples were coming to Paestum to ask for a blessing long before there was a hotel on this beach. Greek settlers founded the city around 600 BCE, and the Savoy Hotel & Spa tells that history as its own: young couples, it says, came to the temple of Hera, goddess of marriage, to ask for her protection, and the hotel likes to think the protection still holds. The temples stand a short walk away. The weddings the Savoy has held for twenty years take place on the sand, in the park and in three salons of marble, crystal and coral, with the sea and the pines on the doorstep.
Where the Greeks built for Hera
The city was called Poseidonia then, and the hotel’s address, Via Poseidonia, still carries the name. Three Doric temples survive from about 550 to 450 BCE in an excellent state of preservation, and two of them belong to Hera. Around them stand the city walls, the remains of paved streets and a national museum, so a visit to the site is an easy addition to a wedding weekend for guests who arrive early or stay on.
The Savoy sits among umbrella pines on a long beach of fine sand on the Cilento coast, south of the Amalfi coast. From the hotel’s private beach the Amalfi coast closes the view to the right and the Cilento National Park to the left, with Capri on the horizon at sunset. It is a quieter shore than the one over the headland, and the Pagano family, who run the hotel, have been building their events business on it for two decades.
On the sand or in the park
The hotel’s private beach is Beach Club 93, open from May to September, and a beach wedding is the picture the Savoy returns to most: a ceremony at sunset with Capri ahead, on a stretch of sand the hotel describes as large enough for every guest. Behind the beach, more than 20,000 square metres of park lead back to the hotel, with century-old olive trees, rose beds, hedges of eugenia and bougainvillea, laid with paving of hand-painted Vietri ceramics. The Beach Club also has a Mediterranean restaurant, which the hotel says is supplied with organic produce from the family farm.
For the civil rite the hotel says that every one of its spaces is recognised as civic premises, a casa comunale, so the beach, the park and the salons are all part of the conversation. How that works for a couple’s own nationality is a question for the events team, who also take couples through the paperwork. A flower-lined walk into the gardens, shown below, is one of the routes a ceremony can take.
A white terrace and a veranda of Gio Ponti tiles
Evenings begin on the White Terrace, a stage above the park where century-old palms rise from the edge of a large pool of black lava stone and a walk-around bar serves the aperitivo. Beside it the Veranda sits between the park and the salons, its ceramics drawn from patterns in the archives of Gio Ponti, with nine food stations where cooks work in front of the guests and show the range of Italian cooking.
The Maiolica Garden, at the centre of the park, is set with hand-painted Vietri tiles and divided into themed areas that adapt to each celebration. The hotel’s pools each have their own character: one with an infinity edge in lava stone, one stepped in the shape of the Greek agora a little way off, and one of salt water looking towards the beach.
Three salons with a character each
Indoors, the event rooms are named and dressed rather than numbered. The Sala dei Cristalli is intimate and formal, with floors inlaid in four kinds of Italian marble and installations of late nineteenth century crystal; it looks on to the veranda and the lit park beyond. The Sala dei Coralli pays tribute to the sea, furnished with corals, shells and late nineteenth century pieces gathered from European collections, a modern cabinet of wonders in the hotel’s own words.
The Sala delle Foglie turns to green. Planted installations and Italian marble give it the feel of a late nineteenth century glasshouse, which suits couples who want an evening of elegance without the obvious. Each room is dressed around its own idea, which gives a wedding at the Savoy three distinct indoor settings to choose between.
A table from the family farm
Dinner is prepared in the hotel’s own kitchens, in Cilento and Campanian cooking, and the family says its wedding offer draws on organic produce from San Salvatore 1988, its award-winning farm in the Cilento, which keeps vineyards, olive groves and water buffalo. The hotel’s restaurants include the Ristorante Tre Olivi, and the cellar holds around eight hundred labels, among them the family’s own wines.
The hotel lists a starred dinner with a view of the park, fish menus on the beach and pizza by moonlight among the ways to eat at the Savoy. Its own photographs show a candlelit wedding table laid beneath the pines, and on the Veranda the same dinner can take the form of the nine food stations.
After dinner, and the days around it
When the dinner ends, the White Terrace Bar becomes the evening’s second room, lit by an artistic lighting scheme and serving cocktails, wines and champagne, the family’s wines among them. Other bars look over the sea with Capri behind it, or towards the Cilento National Park. Dancing, as in the photograph below, belongs to the evening, and between the bars the hotel has a palm-filled atrium and a rooftop terrace lounge.
Staying at the Savoy
The Savoy is a working hotel and spa, not an exclusive use venue, so a wedding shares the resort with other guests. The event rooms, the beach and the gardens are set aside for the day, and the hotel holds rooms for the couple’s party. Its Classic rooms have a balcony over the Cilento National Park, its Executive rooms look out on the pinewood beside the sea and can be arranged as communicating rooms for families, and its Terrace Rooms open on to a flowering veranda on the garden.
The Beach-Club Suites are small apartments, each with a bedroom, a living room and a garden veranda, and some have a private pool among the pines. Bathrooms are tiled in Cilento maiolica. The Pagano family also runs the Esplanade Boutique Hotel on the same road, which is worth asking about if the guest list is larger than the Savoy’s own rooms.
The spa, Holos SPA, has an outdoor spa pool and a fireplace lounge, useful for the days before and after the wedding.
Planning a wedding at the Savoy
The hotel says thousands of couples from around the world have passed through its doors, and that it will dress a wedding in any style, retro, chic or contemporary. Season still shapes the choice of setting. Beach Club 93 is open from May to September, so a ceremony on the sand points to those months. For the cold months the hotel offers winter weddings in the colours of Christmas, red, gold and green, and it says guests travel to it from five continents. A wedding planner on the hotel’s own team guides couples through details from music to the dressing of each space.
Guest numbers are arranged with the hotel around the date and plans, so seated dining and ceremony capacities for the beach, the park and each salon are the first figures to ask for. Indicative wedding menus start from €110 per person, and full packages are put together with the hotel for each wedding. The hotel is about forty minutes from Salerno and an hour and a quarter by road from Naples Airport, and rooms include free parking.
Who the Savoy suits
The Savoy suits couples who want the sea and the Greek temples in the same weekend, and who are comfortable marrying at a family-run working hotel that offers a choice between a beach, a large park and three dressed salons. The principal planning consideration is numbers: capacities for each space and the shape of a full package are agreed with the hotel, so it is worth asking early. For more of the region, see weddings around Naples and wedding venues across Italy.
Check your date with the Savoy Hotel & Spa.
