This Spot in Northern NSW is the Stuff of Summer Holiday Dreams
An Amalfi-inspired stay brings La Dolce vita to Yamba.
A hand-drawn map guides me down a narrow walkway towards Scopello, my private bungalow at Il Delfino. The path is framed by white stucco archways that match the curve of a snow maiden shrub, tangled by decades of salty air. Beyond, a wedge of blue reveals how close I am to the ocean, as if the roaring surf hadn’t already let that secret slip.
Perched cliffside in the idyllic northern NSW town of Yamba, the simple beauty of this Amalfi-inspired seaside inn is captured in snapshots that lodge in the pleasure centre of my brain. Inside Scopello (the five rooms are named for Italian locales), my mental postcard is framed by original 1940s timber doors; a terracotta balcony juts directly over the water, the rolling waves punctuated by the bobbing caps of the local swimming group. “Rain, hail or shine, they’re out there,” says inn manager Bec.
There’s a nostalgia here that goes beyond the Mid-Century features retained in the 1948 property, previously a collection of holiday apartments. Designer Sheree Commerford, Il Delfino’s owner, grew up just outside Yamba and every detail in the painstaking restoration is a love letter to the holidays she spent here on the beach and wants her guests to experience now. “When people let out a small gasp of surprise – that’s when I know we’re on the same page,” she says.
Rustic monogrammed tableware begs you to grab prawns from the fisho down the road to eat on the sling chairs outside. The communal Lido Terrace, strewn with custom umbrellas, invites lingering afternoons watching the waves; binoculars hang just inside the wardrobe, ready for a visit from the resident pod of dolphins for whom Il Delfino is named. Woven bags for the Wednesday farmer’s market, oversized sun hats, a vintage backgammon set and a retro speaker all beckon with the same invitation to immerse yourself in the Italian concept of il dolce far niente – the sweetness of doing nothing.
