Midday with friends in Sóller. We are getting ready on the terrace for the drive ahead. Sun above us, behind me the tiled painting with the big octopus among the fish that I like every single time. I am wearing a pink Hovman dress, my favourite purple sunglasses by Raffaella di Montalban and a ring by Ekaterini, with the leopard bag by Cute Stuff for the day.
Then we get into the car. The MA-10 winds its way through the Tramuntana mountains, one of the most beautiful coastal roads in Europe. Olive groves on steep slopes, gnarled trunks as old as the village itself. Pines with the sea flashing silver between them. A viewpoint, a stone wall, silence.
Deià appears between cypresses on the hillside, a cluster of warm ochre houses above the Mediterranean. We turn off onto a farm track and arrive at the Hotel Sa Pedrissa, a country estate from the seventeenth century that once belonged to Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Old walls, a well with an iron lattice, a palm in the courtyard.
At Es Pi, the reason for the drive is waiting for us on the terrace: white sun sails above us, the view across the Tramuntana, a chilled Rosé Flor de Muga Rosado in the glass. The food is unusual and still rooted in tradition: pan-fried meagre on a pale foam sauce, with chard and Mediterranean side dishes. Marcel Ress cooks here, and you can taste what he is after: Mallorcan roots with a modern approach. The service is warm and attentive without ever becoming intrusive.
Late in the afternoon a walk through the garden, old stone walls in the evening light.
This is Deià the way it should be.
Hotel Sa Pedrissa · Restaurant Es Pi · 2.5 km before Deià · sapedrissa.com
If you would like to know how the day began: at our arrival ritual at the Portixol in Palma.
Warm wishes from Hamburg
