DEPARTURES TRAVEL THE GRANDE DAME 22 The property’s bar ridges in the opposing mountain range prolongs daylight – a unique perk, given the proximity to the Alps.) Most of the hotel’s activity revolves around Villa Roccabruna, the opulent 1799 palazzo; after Pasta bought it in 1827, she added the buildings now used as guest villas. It’s the home of CO.MO Bar & Bistrot, which serves traditional Italian fare (aubergine parmigiana, veal Milanese) and various aperitivi, which guests can enjoy in the sumptuous high-ceilinged salon and at one of the tables that spill out onto a series of lakeside terraces. Chef Vincenzo Guarino of the Michelin-starred Il Pievano restaurant in Tuscany shows off his chops at L’Aria, in the adjacent greenhouse. One standout creation is his “deconstructed tomato”, which explodes in your mouth with the flavours of a caprese salad. The Spa at Mandarin, Lago di Como measures 1,300 square metres and includes a cavernous wellness area with an indoor pool, a Finnish sauna, steam rooms, sensory showers and a Himalayan salt room. Another pool, this one 16 metres long and heated, with an outdoor hot tub, sundeck and small cocktail bar, floats outside on the lake but does not obstruct views or overpower the relaxed, dolce vita vibe. And if you can tear yourself away from all of this, there are Riva speedboats on call for excursions to such picturesque nearby towns as Bellagio and Varenna. mandarinoriental.com The ocean-view deck of the Arion Royal Suite at the Four Seasons Astir Palace Reservations Required Noteworthy hotel openings to put on your travel list. FOUR SEASONS ASTIR PALACE HOTEL, ATHENS For its first property in Greece, Four Seasons revived the 52-yearold Astir Palace Hotel, located on a stunning peninsula on the Athenian Riviera, half an hour from the city centre. The 300-room hotel includes a spa and six restaurants – the fare ranges from laid-back Italian at Mercato to just-caught seafood at Pelagos. fourseasons.com JW MARRIOTT MIAMI TURNBERRY RESORT & SPA This recently renovated golf resort in the Miami suburb of Aventura includes the 16-storey Orchid Tower (which added 325 rooms to the 121ha property), two courses re imagined by PGA champion Raymond Floyd, and Tidal Cove, a new luxury water park. marriott.com MASSERIA TORRE MAIZZA, A ROCCO FORTE HOTEL This 40-suite resort in Italy’s Puglia region is set in a 16th-century estate that has been painstakingly restored by local artisans. Activities include golf, horseback riding and sailing. The restaurant, Carosello, serves guests in the garden, poolside, and on the rooftop. roccoforte hotels.com SIX SENSES BHUTAN In March, Six Senses opened the first three of five new lodges in the country, including one in Thimphu, the capital, which is in the style of a traditional fortress, and another in Punakha that’s nicknamed the Flying Farmhouse and cantilevers over a hillside of rice terraces. Book the circuit to experience a variety of excursions, from hikes to temple visits. sixsenses.com ITZ’ANA BELIZE RESORT & RESIDENCES Each of the suites in this new retreat on the Placencia Peninsula is designed with old-world glamour in mind. After strolling white-sand beaches and snorkelling in the pristine waters of the Great Blue Hole, spend the evening sampling the resort’s extensive rum collection. itzanabelize.com FROM TOP: STEFANO TRIPODI, KEN SEET
AMIT GERON A Creative Crossroads In Tel Aviv’s Jaffa area, a bold new hotel melds the medieval with the modern. by Pip Usher WITH FOUR MILLENNIA to its name – and ruled by empires from the Egyptians to the British – the ancient port of Jaffa is used to change. Its latest iteration as Tel Aviv’s most stylish neighbourhood, though, has been hard and fast. The last decade has brought the arrival of upscale restaurants from celebrated local chefs, a revitalised harbour where industrial warehouses stand re imagined as galleries and cafes, and boutiques and bars tucked alongside the carpet vendors and antiques dealers of a century-old flea market that runs through its centre. And nowhere is this transformation more apparent than at The Jaffa hotel. A personal project of New York property tycoon Aby Rosen – who invested US0 million in it – the 120- room hotel is a dialogue between past and present. Rosen enlisted an A-list team to keep that balance: acclaimed architect and designer John Pawson, who brought his signature minimalism to the interiors; New York’s Major Food Group, of Carbone and The Grill, who are behind the hotel’s trattoriastyle Italian restaurant, Don Camillo, and its New York-style Golda’s Deli; and Ramy Gill, a local architect who oversaw the restoration of the 19thcentury complex and an extensive excavation of the archaeological sites hidden underneath. “I’m almost embarrassed to say that I spent 24 years of my life working on this building,” says Gill as he shows me around. Built as a hospital for Christian pilgrims arriving in the Holy Land, the horseshoeshaped building, with its honey-hued colonnades and pastel walls, has long The Jaffa’s bar is set within a former chapel; bottom: a pool near the central courtyard been a restful sanctuary amid Jaffa’s bustle. Despite having lost most of its Palestinian families during the wars surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948, the neighbourhood has retained an Arab presence, with Christians, Jews, and Muslims living side by side. From the road, the Jaffa’s neoclassical exterior sits comfortably among a jumble of church spires, minarets and Levantine houses. Inside, relics of civilisations come and gone are displayed starkly alongside new additions. An 850-year-old Crusadesera wall – a surprise discovery that necessitated the hotel’s redesign after seven years of excavations – cuts through a minimalist lobby adorned with art by Damien Hirst and George Condo from Rosen’s own collection. In creating the hotel’s bar, housed in the former chapel, layers of garish paint were painstakingly chipped away “by ladies on scaffolding with surgical scalpels”, says Gill, in order to reveal soft pastel hues. Now, beneath the ornate plasterwork and stainedglass windows, sit dainty clusters of Botolo chairs in burnt orange and ottomans in rosewater pink. At the far end, an illuminated marble bar appears dwarfed beneath the duskyblue vaulted ceiling. In the central courtyard, Gill realised his ambition to create an “old Biblical hidden garden” with oak trees brought in from Galilee. Beside the pool, while looking out from under the Unopiù parasols, guests have a view of the dainty church spire that tops the 19th-century Tabeetha School. Gill pauses to rub his hand over a pillar that bears the gentle nicks and grooves of its Ottoman-era origins: “These surfaces talk to you.” thejaffahotel.com THE MAKING OF 23 DEPARTURES
