How Marie-Louise Scio Turned The Iconic Italian Pellicano Hotels Into A Global Lifestyle Brand

It was late afternoon in Rome at the commencing of a lengthy, warm summer months in the Eternal Metropolis, and the very trendy Marie-Louise Sciò was barely breaking a sweat from her 15th-century condominium near the Castel Sant’Angelo, near to the Tiber River. One of the most fashionable and fantastic hoteliers I have ever fulfilled, this single mom operates an empire overseeing the Pellicano Group of motels, which involve the iconic Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, La Posta Vecchia in Ladispoli, and The Mezzatorre in Ischia. All boutique motels with a rabid pursuing of lovers eager to working experience the lavish however easy details of her stunning houses.

Marie-Louise is additional than the Innovative Director and CEO of Pellicano Accommodations she is a accurate tastemaker and has been instrumental in evolving the resort team into a lifestyle manufacturer with ISSIMO, the digital extension of the inns. Her trendsetting, decadent take on lifetime was motivated by the pandemic lockdown that had us all dreaming of the terrific escape. “It really is seriously about exploring Italy, the non-noticeable Italy,” she claims of her online shop, which offers the most effective Manufactured in Italy goods. “What can make it so distinctive? It is really a region with so substantially excellence and so quite a few various fields. Architectural style and design, manner, food stuff. It can be a container for all of that.”

Marie-Louise was inspired to curate a dialogue about the finest factors in lifetime, from equipment which includes her famed striped Pellicano towels to other higher-excellent Italian-created items that supporters of Italy (and her hotels) would motivation. It is, as they contact it, “A love affair with Italian natural beauty.” What I adore about ISSIMO is that it also presents up Marie- Louise’s travel suggestions with decadent destinations as effectively as vogue, decor, and guidance on how to are living the top Italian life style, bringing me at any time so near to the country I like so dearly.

I to start with heard of Pellicano Motels through a near close friend and made the decision I desired to explore them for myself. As a result of my magical summer months sojourn to the island of Ischia, I really identified why the Pellicano model was so exclusive and why Travel & Leisure just lately awarded the spot as the Very best Island in the Environment.

Following an straightforward 1-hour ferry journey from Naples, I arrived at this spectacular property on the island of Ischia, surrounded by the heat Tyrrhenian Sea. The beach locations are preferred with Italian and worldwide tourists, as People in america commonly undertaking to the glitzy neighboring island of Capri.

Ischia is an authentic Italian paradise stuffed with deluxe thermal sizzling springs and winding cobblestone streets brightened by bougainvillea, all attracting a expanding range of the jet established arriving by private yacht. I initially seen the island as the locale for 1 of my most loved movies, “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” filmed at the most important port, Ischia Porto, with its bustling square towered around by the 12th century Aragonese Castle and together the sandy Bagno Antonio.

With the arrival of the 5-star Mezzatorre Hotel & Thermal Spa, the island has develop into even far more common, with the jet set experiencing the seclusion of a resort giving its personal bay and seashore. The 57-space lodge is drenched in outdated-college elegance with its retro peach umbrellas, surrounded by 17 acres of pine forests and below a 16th-century watchtower. You would just about be expecting to see Truman Capote reclining at the cliff-hanging salt-water swimming pool as Elizabeth Taylor regaled him with scandalous stories of her filming “Cleopatra” on the island.

The vacation resort delivers suites in the watchtower and very low-rise privately positioned bungalows, ranging from substantial two-bed room cottages and double bedrooms with sights across the sea. Pierre Frey fabrics fill the open up, and breezy rooms and terraces are plentiful. “My most loved area is in the tower, place 124, with sights of a distant Mount Vesuvius, the sea, and the total vacation resort,” suggests Marie-Louise.

There are two eating places at the resort, the poolside La Baia, where I appreciated some of the ideal pasta I have ever experienced, and La Torre on a terrace overlooking the sea, for breakfast and a high-quality dining evening meal expertise. There is also the most fantastic outdoor Torre bar with live piano enjoyment though you sip your martinis. Visitors can easily venture out for several eating solutions, such as a take a look at to the charming, picturesque fishing village of Sant’ Angelo and the pretty Ristorante Casa Celestino close to the marina and straight on the h2o.

I used several hours experiencing the outstanding thermal spa and mud treatment options where you can check out out mineral-abundant water and seawater, extremely very hot Kneipp pools, and a steam room for a good well-getting expertise.

Lodge Il Pellicano is on a cliff over the Tuscan shoreline of Monte Argentario, near the city of Porto Ercole, Italy, only 90 minutes from Rome airport. The Sciò relatives has owned and operated the assets given that 1979, wherever celebs and fashionistas have been flocking for decades, and now Roberto Sciò has passed the baton to Marie-Louise.

The home has long attracted the jet set from celebs to royalty. Quite a few of the massive rooms have terraces with sea sights, 50 rooms in the main building, and 27 much more scattered by way of six cottages. The two-bedroom Argentario Suite with a personal pool is also my most loved.

“I put my fingers on every one bedroom due to the fact I started off,” states Marie-Louise. “I would say the two new great grasp suites are my favourite. But I also have a comfortable place for home 14. I enjoy the spot in the principal creating, and the check out is incredible. You are increased up, and you can see if there are individuals at the bar, and you have the check out of the sea and the pool.”

There are two places to eat, which include Peligrill, for casual eating and Il Pellicano, a Michelin-starred possibility headed by Chef Michelino Gioia. As the vacation resort easily states, “Piano songs drifts by way of the evening air brushing exquisite shoulders in evening costume, the moon rises into an impossibly big orange orb, fishermen’s lights flicker on the inky bay down below looking for out one thing clean for the morrow.” The Il Pellicano working experience is fully tasteful.

La Posta Vecchi was developed in 1640 higher than an imperial Roman villa and, for centuries, was used by aristocratic people and their esteemed attendees en route to Rome. The previous household of Jean Paul Getty is just 20 minutes from Rome airport.

The former Renaissance palazzo is filled with Italian artwork treasures and stunning 17th Century tapestries. With only 19 suites, it is as personal and stylish as achievable. There are 8 suites, which includes the Getty Master Suite overlooking the sea furnished with a 16th-century Venetian upper body, a 17th-century armchair from Northern Italy, Meissen porcelain on the walls, and prosperous woven carpets on the floors the Medici Grasp Suite, when 3 extravagant suites overlooking the sea or gardens.

“We have a whole lot of functions here, which is normally actually exciting,” suggests Marie-Louise. “There is certainly a Roman Emperors villa in the basement with extraordinary mosaics on the ground. So the property has this sturdy masculine power.”

Beneath the terrace, the sea laps the palazzo partitions, and the Cesar Restaurant, headed by Chef Antonio Magliulo, offers the freshest of regional substances from the hotel’s gardens. There is a spa, seashore club, and a spectacular indoor stone pool.

“We have one of the biggest private collections of Renaissance furnishings,” says Marie-Louise. “My father purchased it from Getty and purchased the home particularly as it is these days. So, all of the furnishings, tapestries, and materials are from that time period when Getty had it furnished from Connecticut.”

And the options of rooms are similarly as diverse and historic. “My favorite area right here would be the crimson area,” she provides. “It truly is received this unbelievable lavatory, which is marble and mirror. I enjoy the Park Room, which is a compact home, but it really is obtained this replica of the Madonna and kid of Raphael, which is just unbelievable. And then we have the huge Medici suite overlooking the sea with this unbelievable marble bathtub.”