T R AV E L4 OF THE MOST...112 Tatler July 2019 tatler.comlegendar ypoolsINTO THE BLUE
Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto
Ercole, Italy, August 1980PHOTOGRAPH: SLIM AARONSHOTEL IL PELLICANO
Porto Ercole, Italy
The doyenne of luxury hotels,
Marie-Louise Sciò understands
better than anyone that a good
dose of tradition and history mixed
with fantasy are vital to creating a
legendary poolside vibe. After all,
Sciò – the Creative Director of her
family’s retreats – grew up at La
Posta Vecchia, the romantic hotel
hideaway outside Rome, which
was once owned by John Paul
Getty and which has a pool built
from the Emperor Tiberius’ piscine
ruins. She also spent childhood
summers at the Pellicano Hotel in
Tuscany, with its sun-drenched
poolside atmosphere famously
captured by feted photographer
Slim Aarons (right). Sciò’s latest
hotel opening, Il Mezzatorre in
Ischia, will no doubt provide more
hedonistic times, with Missoni
bikini-clad beauties posing pool-
side and long, lingering lunches on
the terraces: cue Negronis and plates
of spaghetti alle vongole.
pellicanohotels.comTHE HOLLYWOOD
ROOSEVELT
Los Angeles, USA
This landmark hotel harks back to
1927, during Hollywood’s golden
age, and has hosted everyone from
Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe
to big-haired Helmut Newton
models who would clink Martinis
poolside. The building, designed in
the Spanish Colonial Revival style,
is shaded by 230 towering palms –
the ultimate symbol of blue-sky
California dreaming. Its Tropicana
pool is world-famous, transformed
by David Hockney in the summer
of 1988, when the artist turned up
with nothing more than a can of
blue paint and a mop and created amasterpiece, covering the empty
pool with his signature brush
strokes. The hotel has just recently
restored the paintwork of its aquatic
fantasy, so there’s no better time to
book into one of the Cabana Pool
Rooms and enjoy the thrill of diving
straight into a Hockney artwork
brought vividly to life.
thehollywoodroosevelt.comGRAND-HÔTEL
DU CAP-FERRAT
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France
This dazzling white belle époque
palace, with its 1930s Olympic-
sized saltwater pool, is home to the
nautical Club Dauphin. Here, over
the last 69 years, legendary swim-
ming instructor Pierre Gruneberg has
taught elegant underwater techniques
to everyone from Aristotle Onassis toBrigitte Bardot and Paul McCartney
as well as, most recently, the head
of Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine. ‘One
of the main reasons that people
don’t swim well is that they don’t
know how to breathe,’ Gruneberg
explains. Whether you decide to
book a lesson with him or not, it’s
worth staying at the Four Seasons
Grand-Hôtel Du Cap-Ferrat just to
imbibe the magic and myths of this
glorious grand dame of a hotel, and
listen to Gruneberg retell tales of
the place’s halcyon days, when Jean
Cocteau, W Somerset Maugham and
Jean-Paul Belmondo were all pool-
side regulars. fourseasons.comRAJMAHAL PALACE
Jaipur, India
For magical places to swim, you can’t
beat the Sujan Rajmahal Palace
Hotel. One of the oldest palaces in
Jaipur, it dates back to the 1720s,
and was the British Residency for
over 100 years before becoming
home to the polo-playing Maharajah
Sawai Man Singh II, whose jet-set
guests included Windsors, Mount-
battens and Jackie Kennedy. Now,
doormen in starched white jackets
and pale-pink turbans welcome guests
to this theatrical jewel-box of a hotel.
The property is packed with playful
reminders of its past, such as the
Maharajah’s splendid 1954 ‘Jaipur 1’
Thunderbird in the drive. The art
deco swimming pool, framed by
faded shell-pink walls, is where you
can sip a lassi or enjoy a post-dip
cardamom Martini. sujanluxury.com07-19TRAVEL-Pools.indd 112 02/05/2019 14:07