Sea rooms · six
A window seat as wide as the room and the open sea in it, from the pillows to the horizon. Shutters, linen, a shower in lime plaster.
- Size
- 24–30 m²
- Sleeps
- Two
- From
- €240 a night
A house wherethe sea keeps the hours.
Eleven rooms in a customs house of 1908, on the harbour wall of Marina di Serra.
Shutters open at seven. The boats come in at half past nine. Nothing else in the house keeps a schedule.
- Eleven rooms, six over the open sea
- Breakfast until noon under the vaults
- Four minutes on foot from the ferry
A customs house of 1908
For sixty years the Dogana weighed salt, wine and almonds at the end of the mole. We kept its vaults, its ledger shelves and the iron rings in the wall, and opened eleven rooms above them.
The walls are ninety centimetres thick, which is why the rooms stay cool in August without machines. The floors are the terracotta tiles of the original roof, turned over and laid again.
The ledger shelves on the ground floor now hold the books guests leave behind, and the old weighing tower is the one suite. Everything else is linen, lime and the light off the water.
Eleven rooms, no two alike, in three kinds of quiet.
The sea rooms, the harbour rooms, the tower.
Harbour rooms · four
Arched windows over the basin and the boats, a reading corner, floors laid from the old roof. The livelier side of the house until about ten at night.
- Size
- 22–26 m²
- Sleeps
- Two, or three
- From
- €190 a night
The tower · one suite
The old weighing tower on two floors: a bed under the beams upstairs, a stone bath under the skylight below. Breakfast is carried up.
- Size
- 48 m²
- Sleeps
- Two
- From
- €420 a night
A day kept by the sea
-
The shutters open
The first ferry sounds once. Coffee, ricotta and bread from the oven on Via del Forno wait under the vaults until noon; nobody asks when you came down.
-
The boats come in
The Maria Grazia ties up under the sea rooms. Rosa walks the mole with a crate and decides what lunch will be.
-
Down the ladder
An iron ladder goes down the harbour wall into eight metres of clear water. Towels wait on the landing; the sea is warmest at noon.
-
The long hour
Awnings come down, the town closes and so does the house. A hammock on the roof, a book from the ledger shelves, the key to the cold cellar.
-
The wind turns
The ostro drops at dusk and the swallows come out. Cold white wine on the roof, olives from the hill behind the town.
-
Lamps on the mole
Eleven tables along the harbour wall, one lamp each. The kitchen closes when the last table is ready to go, not before.
Lunch is what the boats bring
The kitchen writes the menu at ten, after the mole. Breakfast is long, dinner is late, and both keep the house's own time.
Book a table on the mole“I write the menu when I know what came in. Before ten, nobody can tell you what lunch is.”
Out from the mole
10:00 · daily, May to October
The boat to the coves
Davide takes the house's wooden gozzo along the cliffs to three coves you cannot reach on foot. Back for lunch, or not.
Any hour · at the foot of the house
The ladder in the wall
Eight metres of clear water under the sea rooms. Towels, a cold shower and a bench on the landing.
17:00 · Tuesdays and Fridays
The lighthouse walk
Forty minutes along the headland to the light, with a basket from the kitchen for the way back as the day goes.
06:30 · Thursdays
The market with Rosa
Follow the cook along the quay at first light, choose the fish, and eat what you chose at one o'clock.
Around the harbour
Marina di Serra is four streets deep. Everything here is ten minutes from the door, and most of it is downhill.
Nets on the mole Back at half past nine Tonino and the red nets Arco della Dogana The hundred steps Via del Forno, uphill Washing day, Via Lunga Thursday market The breakwater Gozzi in the old basin A rock for two Under Monte Serra The trawler quay The ferry landing Floats and crates
Before you come
Anything not answered here, ask Davide at the desk or by telephone on +39 0833 000 000, any day from eight to eight.
When are check-in and check-out?
Rooms are ready from two in the afternoon. Leave when the ferry or the train suits you; bags wait on the ground floor as long as you need.
Where do we leave the car?
The old town is closed to cars. Leave yours at the station car park for €12 a day; we collect you and your bags with the hand cart, which is quicker than it sounds.
Can we bring children or a dog?
Children are welcome in the harbour rooms and the tower. Well-mannered dogs stay in the harbour rooms for €20 a night.
Is the house step-free?
One harbour room on the first floor is reached by lift and has a step-free shower. The roof terrace and the ladder are reached by stairs only.
When is the house open?
From the middle of March to the start of November. In winter the kitchen closes and the masons come back.
Can we come for dinner without staying?
Guests of the house have a table every night. Others can write to us after two in the afternoon for the tables left on the mole.
What if our plans change?
Cancel free of charge until fourteen days before you arrive; after that we keep the first night.
We came for two nights and stayed until the figs were ripe.
From the guest book
Ines and Marco, the tower, September
Write to the house
Tell us your dates and the kind of quiet you are after. Rosa or Davide answers within a day.
- Address
- Example Mole 1, Marina di Serra
- Telephone
- +39 0833 000 000
- stay@ostro.example
- By train
Serra station, then eight minutes on foot down Via del Forno. We meet you with the hand cart.
- By ferry
The morning boat from the islands lands four minutes from the door.
- By car
Leave it at the station car park; the old town is closed to traffic.