Host & Booking Manager
Susanna Boutique Home
I am Susanna Ferraro, a young lawyer from Vico Equense. My greatest passion is traveling, and from this passion, the desire to share my childhood home was born, creating an elegant and luxurious environment, but above all, one rich in family comforts, which I find indispensable during my travels to make me feel at home anywhere in the world. My family and I will be delighted to host you, offering a unique experience.
Among my passions, there is also history and mythology. The chosen logo for our home represents a mermaid that evokes the mythical Land of the Sirens, sung about by Homer, which is said to be none other than our Sorrentine Peninsula. Below, you’ll find some references to sirens and this fascinating story.
Host & Booking manager
la terra delle sirene
Legend of the siren Partenope
That our land is home to sirens is universally known and has ancient roots: in our land, the hero of Ithaca, whose exploits are sung by Homer, faced the terrible seduction of the siren Partenope. During the nineteenth century, renowned foreign artists drew upon the ancient myth that made the Sorrento Peninsula and Capri, its natural complement, the chosen homeland of these mythical creatures.
What did humans project onto these monstrous and enchanting figures? Over the centuries, the dual nature of sirens, both human and beastly, characterized by their power of seduction and destruction over men, has remained constant.
The placement of sirens in a critical point for ancient navigation, the so-called “bocche di Capri” (mouths of Capri), is perfectly consistent with the nature of these creatures linked to moments of extreme danger, the transition from life to death, and, consequently, to the grave and the afterlife.
Syrens in literature and art
The beautiful and seductive creature is the siren of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, which Waterhouse masterfully transforms into an image, but relocates from the depths of the sea, as Tennyson placed her, to the beach of Capri. This artistic operation, skillfully combining Tennyson’s verses and W’s painting prowess, has created a powerful icon of feminine charm and our land. In W’s paintings, there is a constant strong connection between sexual attraction, death, music, and water.
Even in our days, W’s painting continues to operate in our collective imagination. The famous illustrator and cartoonist Milo Manara gave his siren a name, Partenope, as a tribute to Naples. Behind her, there are always the same mysterious Capri sea stacks, with their eternal and magical enchantment.
Matilde Serao offers her own interpretation of the siren Partenope: “It is she who makes our city intoxicated with light and crazy with colors, she who makes the stars shine on clear nights. And when we see a white shadow entwined with another shadow, it is her with her lover, and her voice utters words of love that make us shudder. It is she who makes us quiver with her robe dragging on the sand, she who makes the city writhe with passion, languish and pale with love. Partenope, the virgin, the woman, does not die, has no tomb, she is immortal… she is love.”
