I want to sweep her off her feet...
Luca Di Mauro, Client
Luca Di Mauro had a special reason for coming to
cazenove+loyd. He didn’t exactly say it, but it was
clear his plan was to propose to his girlfriend Michela and he was looking for the perfect setting.
Oh, and he also wanted a diversity of landscape, local culture and to be in close contact with nature, as well as a degree of luxury. Jo Mollet, our Destination Expert, led him to Indonesia, and it was, he says, “a much more beautiful and amazing experience than I could possibly have hoped for”.
Luca and Michela’s first destination was Java, where they spent three days in luxury near Yogyakarta. From here, they took private excursions to the spectacular Buddhist monument Borobudur and the Hindu temple complex Prambanan, which fascinated them. “Java is a culture that’s seen most religions and they’ve co-existed, especially Hindus and Buddhists,” says Luca. “Temples were preserved even when one religion took over from another.”
From Java, they flew to Bali for a night at the beach,
where they were surprised to find the coast as beautiful as everyone had told them it would be. Then it was on to Moyo Island, via private seaplane, to Amanwana, their home for the next week. Exceptional even by Aman standards, Amanwana melds into the jungle on the coast. “We were stunned by the difference from anywhere we’d ever been,” says Luca, “you were immersed in nature with only the sound of birds and monkeys. It was luxury with adventure.”
They fell in love with the place, with its combination of luxury and family feeling – and with the island itself. They visited a local village, explored the waterfalls inland and dived among the vivid corals and stately sea turtles around the island.
As for the proposal itself, that took place over dinner on a boat floating under the stars, arranged by attentive staff who had been primed by c+l. “The clearest sky imaginable, so clear you could see the Milky Way. And just the two of us,” says Luca. “And she wasn’t expecting me to ask at all.”
