10 Stimulating love nests for enamoured couples in Italy

Fall asleep with Marilyn and wake up in Pompeii
Maritime love nest for adventurous treasure hunters and passionate weekend buccaneers 

Ahoy sailors! If you've ever dreamed of hiring on a pirate ship, you'll find the fulfillment of your dreams in this suite. 
In the captain's luxurious quarters even hopeless landlubbers can prove their qualities on the high seas without having to do without the amenities of a shore leave. 
The luxurious equipment on board includes a blue tiled whirlpool, a funny flickering fire in the sweeping fireplace and a bottle of Californian wine. 

In the cosy captain's berth you need fear neither seasickness nor mutiny. On the 'big caper ride' red signal lanterns give orientation for the decisive pillow fight to the sound of seagull screams and stormy waves. 

On deck, of course, a real cannon is not to be missed. However, its final battle takes on a new function as a practical coffee table. And if you solve the secret of the treasure map on the wall, you will find a veritable rum barrel in the well-hidden bathroom, which serves as a wash basin. 

In order to pass the time in the doldrums, you can either get cinematic inspiration from 'Pirates of the Carribean' or 'Captain Blood' or learn to cheat from playing Kribbitsch cards. Hand-painted tiles, colourful glass windows, wooden ship's hatches and a well-filled pirate's chest make this trip into the world of pirates and corsairs perfect. 

More than 200 experienced craftsmen, craftsmen and artists spent almost 10 years designing the unusual hotel rooms. The fresco painter alone took more than two years (with over forty hours of work per week) to complete the wall decorations.

Hidden bathrooms, cast-iron spiral staircases, a 340 kilogram cannon coffee table, a gypsy cart, an Egyptian sarcophagus, a solid stone door weighing more than half a ton, a chariot and an original 1956 Cadillac convertible are just some of the many curiosities that make the Victorian villa an imaginative synthesis of the arts.

The original owner was a creative visionary. He renovated the neighboring hotel, a former Wells Fargo stagecoach stop, and thought up the theme suites that soon attracted guests from all over the world before the Santa Ynez Valley became a famous wine-growing region.

After his death, the present owner took over the hotel in 2007, which he himself had visited many years earlier. He not only saved the gem from decay, but also brought back the old splendour through an elaborate restoration. He shares his dream of a'Disneyland for adults' with the actual builder. Two more suites are planned for the future, a tree house suite and a'Castaway' suite, for which a sailing dinghy built in 1914 for the King of Denmark will be used.