Slim Aarons famously mentioned he photographed “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” It’s no marvel, then, that he used to be interested in Hotel Il Pellicano, at the Tuscan coast of Italy, and captured its romantic allure and glamorous visitors. Il Pellicano has been part of Marie-Louise Sciò’s circle of relatives since 1979, when her father received it from Michael Graham, a British aviator, and his spouse, the socialite Patsy Daszel; the couple had grew to become the valuables from their non-public villa into an intimate lodge in 1965. Today Sciò serves because the CEO and artistic director of -Pellicano Hotels Group, which contains two different storied Italian locations: La Posta Vecchia Hotel, close to Rome, and Mezzatorre, in Ischia. The motels have welcomed an extended checklist of notable guests, from Henry Fonda and Sophia Loren to Jackie Kennedy, however “we never spill the beans on guests,” says Sciò. After she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, her father, Roberto, tasked her with updating one among Il Pellicano’s toilets. The challenge resulted in Sciò spearheading a redesign of the lodge. “All our properties have that feeling of being real,” says Sciò. “There’s a dialogue between the past, the present, and the future.” This summer season, she’s webhosting a thumping birthday celebration to mark Il Pellicano’s 60th anniversary.
Roberto Sciò first visited Il Pellicano within the 1960s as a visitor of Michael Graham and Patsy Daszel’s. There, he met Charlie Chaplin. “Chaplin said to my dad, ‘Will you dance with my daughter?’ ” recollects Sciò. Above: For the lodge’s 50th anniversary, in 2015, Sciò (middle) paid homage to that hedonistic legacy with a bash that lasted a whole weekend.
Sciò (in her father’s hands) poses along with her grandparents, oldsters, and siblings. “Parties have been a thing in our household forever,” she says. She attributes her entertaining abilities to her mom, additionally named Marie-Louise, who used to be a manner editor at Harper’s Bazaar Spain within the 1970s and changed into Slim Aarons’s muse. On Fridays, Sciò’s mom hosted “gala nights at Il Pellicano,” with “a live band and everything.”
Sciò sunbathes on her father’s again at La Posta Vecchia. The assets were a Renaissance palazzo owned by means of the Orsini circle of relatives prior to it used to be bought and restored by means of John Paul Getty within the 1960s; Roberto received it from Getty’s heirs within the early 1980s. Initially, it used to be the Sciòs’ nation house. Growing up an hour away in Rome, “we used to go on weekends,” says Sciò, who recollects having all of her formative years birthday events there. In 1990, Roberto grew to become it right into a lodge.
Aarons, a standard at Il Pellicano, took the picture above in 1973. Later on, for his remains, he “used to pay my father in cameras,” says Sciò. “I asked my dad recently, ‘Where are the cameras?’ ” Turns out he threw all of them out. Now the lodge hosts the photographer Juergen Teller, whom Sciò invited to seize the valuables. His photographs have been featured in Hotel Il Pellicano, a e book printed in 2011. “Juergen is the only photographer I really wanted to work with. I liked his way of working, which is completely no bullshit. It’s very raw.”
Sciò’s oldsters, Roberto and Marie-Louise, are pictured lounging at Il Pellicano in 1980. The picture, taken by means of Aarons, used to be staged by means of Charlie Chaplin’s former cottage, on a sofa the couple driven out of doors. “They took this spare bit of Valentino fabric and threw it on top,” says Sciò. “I literally sat behind Slim just looking at this photo shoot, and I thought, Oh my god, they’re so divine.”
“Growing up visiting Il Pellicano was quite interesting, because it was like looking at a film set,” says Sciò. At the lodge’s lavish gatherings, “kids weren’t allowed, so we had to hide behind the rosemary bushes and peek. We were never actively part of it; we were always spectators.” Above: A 1967 picture of Il Pellicano taken by means of Aarons.
Sciò (a long way proper) is pictured at age 14 along with her older brother, Harry Charles, and older sister, Yvonne. “I used to be a terrible teenager, so misbehaved,” says Sciò. So a lot in order that she used to be enrolled in Aiglon College, a Swiss boarding college. “I used to go to all sorts of nightclubs because I love music, and I love electronic music. It was the ’90s, so it was full-on rave culture.”
To throw a memorable bash, “you need good music. You need a DJ who isn’t arrogant. A lot of times, you go to parties and they have all these big-name DJs, but their ego is so big that they don’t care if someone’s dancing or not.” Right: Sciò (2nd from left) poses with (from left) Bianca Brandolini d’Adda; her sister, Yvonne; Margherita Maccapani Missoni; and Delfina Delettrez Fendi at a birthday party at Il Pellicano in 2010.
In 2019, Sciò partnered with Matches Fashion to host a pop-up aboard a 1930s-era boat, which sailed to her 3 houses wearing a curated holiday edit. “At every hotel, there was something happening—a trunk show, big dinners,” she says. The “Italian Grand Tour” concluded with a birthday celebration at Mezzatorre, pictured above. Sciò (again row, middle) is lounging along with her longtime buddies (clockwise from best left) Miriam Leone, Igor Ramírez García-Peralta, Anna Singh, Lucinda Agar, Claudia Donaldson, Elisa Simonelli, and Andrea Valerio.
Sciò along with her buddies Eugenie Niarchos (left) and Margherita Maccapani Missoni (middle) at a birthday party she threw for the outlet of Mezzatorre, in 2019. “A good guest is someone who wants to have fun, who participates, who meets new people, who goes out of their comfort zone. I have a few staple friends who always come, and then I mix it up.”
In 2021, Issimo—Il Pellicano’s luxurious retail extension—created an Italian road-trip version of Monopoly. Above: Sciò relishes the board recreation along with her shut buddy Giorgio Guidotti, the top of PR and communications at MaxMara.
“Haider is the best dancer on the planet Earth,” says Sciò of Haider Ackermann, the not too long ago appointed inventive director of Tom Ford, with whom she’s pictured above. This birthday party adopted an extended, laborious week of labor. “I walked down to the pool, I sat, and when you’re so tired, you just cry. It was a release. Haider came down, and we just started dancing. Then everyone came, and we had a great party. Then I slept for two weeks.”