Chic, Authentic, Philanthropic: Morocco’s Upcoming La Fiermontina Ocean

Images of Morocco generally cluster around medina alleyways, Sahara dunes and camels, riads with palm ringed courtyards and pools. The coastline doesn’t get as much attention but starting next spring it should, once La Fiermontina Ocean opens on a remote stretch of the Northwest coast. The oceanfront setting, away from major tourism sites, mixes serenity with natural beauty. That the team behind it, siblings Fouad Giacomo and Antonia Yasmina Filali, are responsible for historic, art-filled properties starting with La Fiermontina in Italy’s Puglia promises that the new one will also have resonant, tasteful design and a sense of place.

It also fills in a place of the family history, as all of their properties do. La Fiermontina began as a testament to their beautiful, free spirited grandmother Antonia Fiermonte who moved from Puglia to Paris in her youth and became the muse/lover/wife to one artist, René Letourneur, then his friend, Jacques Zwobada. She later traveled to Morocco where she met Cadi (Judge) Thami Filali, the siblings’ grandfather. La Fiermontina and the nearby 18^th century Palazzo Bozzi Corso in Lecce (also dedicated to Antonia’s brother, championship boxer Enzo Fiermonte) represent the beginning; La Fiermontina Vendome, an opulent apartment on Paris’ Place Vendome, represents her life in Paris; La Fiermontina Ocean represents the family’s Moroccan side.

Conceived as an eco resort, it’s situated on 25 acres within a protected national park 44 miles south of Tangier, near the villages of Dchier, Tcharouah and Mezgalef, villages linked to the resort for guests’ cultural awareness and the communities’ benefit. Four 1292-1938 square foot stone houses built using traditional methods and featuring antique doors, lanterns, rugs from Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains and leather furnishings with Arabic embroidery are located in Dchier so guests can have the authentic cultural experience of staying in a typical village; a hammam and Moroccan café are located there too. Other accommodations located in the resort include 11 one and two bedroom pool suites ranging from 753 to1281 square feet and two three bedroom 3,229 square foot pool villas with a full kitchen and personal staff. Design touches in those suites and villas include Taza stone floors, Berber rugs and other traditional Moroccan furnishings.

Activities include watersports such as surfing lessons off the private beach, horseback riding through the woods and olive groves, yoga sessions or time in the hammam being massaged with argan oil. Guests can stroll through the villages and invariably be invited in to see residents’ houses and share a meal. Cooking classes will also be available, held in the Cadi’s House, a reproduction of their grandfather’s house and located in Dchier; among the jars of oil and other ingredients in the kitchen, there are family photos from the 1930s and in his office, his phone from 1940.

The restaurant at the resort will feature Italian and Moroccan cuisine, reflecting the dual nationality of the owners, with many ingredients produced by local farmers. The boutique will sell artisan clothes, accessories and other products created by Migrants du Monde, the sewing and embroidery workshop based in Rabat that is part of the nonprofit organization Orient-Occident Foundation founded by Yasmina Filali to offer support and opportunities for refugees, migrants and young Moroccans from disadvantaged backgrounds and to spur community development in rural areas.

That’s one way that staying in the resort can benefit the lives of others. But overall, creating the resort in that location is intended to comprehensively improve the environment there and the lives of the citizens of the villages. The owners were behind the development of the national park, the reforestation of the property with the reintroduction of fruit trees on 371 acres of land, the protection of the sand dunes and the increase in essential services such as bringing water to the villages and health care and educational opportunities to its citizens. For an incoming guest, staying there will provide relaxation in a beautiful place but it will also achieve so much more.