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Marcel Levy's Style Report
Marcel Levy, Managing Director of Hotel Eden, shares his personal style
By: Marcel Levy
MY STYLE
This month The Eden, Rome, celebrates its 120th birthday. Its forever-young Managing Director Marcel Levy shares his style.
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MY WORK CLOTHES
My suits are by Ermenegildo Zegna or by Brioni, who also dresses Gaddafii, by the way. We have a Brioni vitrine in the lobby of The Eden and it is so so stylish. My favorite ties are Hermès. My shirts are handmade by a lovely lady who travels from Naples every week to attend to her private clients. I have masses of cufflinks – they are the easiest present for a man! My favorites are Bulgari and Hermès, or any that are easy to put on (some beautiful ones are way too elaborate). My shoes are Edward Green.
MY WEEKEND GEAR
At weekends I feel quite comfortable in Zegna casual and Tod’s shoes but I also wear Levi’s jeans and Lacoste.
MY FAVORITE FOOD
I certainly hope it is very very far away but my last meal before going through the Pearly Gates would be a dish of spaghetti with tomato and basil, nice and simple. Of course I eat pasta merely with a fork, but I am polite enough to say no problem if you can't - Italians from the north of the country add a spoon, anyway.
MY DRINK
If I had to pick one favorite wine it would be Antinori’s Tenuta Guado Al Tasso, in the Maremma area along the Tuscan coast 60 miles southwest of Florence. This is a 2,470-acre estate that is Marchese Piero Antinori’s summer retreat: his parents, Niccolò Antinori and his wife, the former Carlotta della Gherardesca, called their house Le Sabine, after the indigenous Sabina tree. For Champagne, I would choose Cristal Rosé, from the house of Louis Roederer – though it should be poured by Paolo De Cicco, the sommelier at the rooftop Terrazza of The Eden.
MY RESTAURANTS
Honestly, chef Adriano Cavagnini's cooking in Terrazza at The Eden is a joy - he really understands products and cooking. He is a skilled
practitioner rather than a so-called 'celebrity chef'. And the views are magnificent, over Villa Medici to the eternal City of Rome, with the Vatican to your half-right. One of my favorite outside restaurants is Antica Pesa in the old Trastevere area of Rome. Simone Panella cooks, his brother Francesco is the perfect Manager. I might start with miniature bites of fish and chips followed by spaghetti cacio e pepe with Bibi Graetz Testa, atta 2006 Sangiovese, and a limoncello Afterwards, I always make sure to revisit the wine cellar that the Panellas have amassed.
MY PARTIES
Actually life is one long party, whether hosted here in The Eden, or at the annual meeting of The Leading Hotels of the World, this year in Venice, November 19-21, 2009: I am told the finale is a pink and black masquerade ball at the Teatro La Fenice. Before that, however, I am host, on Saturday November 14th, 2009, when The Eden is holding a party of the decade, if not more. We are celebrating 120 years of the hotel, and it will be very special, with friends coming in from all over the world.
MY LEAST FAVORITE THINGS
Coffee, garlic – what else? Cooked green vegetables and people chewing bubble gum. Ghastly.
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MY HOBBIES
When I was young I used to collect cigarette packs from around the world. My favorite reads are French Philosophers and art books, time
permitting (spare time is a real luxury, today). Just like Adrian Zecha at Amanresorts, I need books, everywhere. At The Eden there are piles of books in the lobby, and the mezzanine lounge, and in all 121 rooms and suites. Many comment how fabulous it is to be able to dip into such legendary tomes as Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis.
Culture does not make money, but you cannot have quality, or luxury, without it, and it presents authority. On the keeping fit front, I try to keep to a healthy regime when I do not have to attend to business meals. Running a hotel that is consistently rated best in Rome requires continuous attention. I am constantly walking the floors.
Luxury is ‘what can we do to help YOU?” Every day I am greeting and fareweling guests and I have to fit in business meetings, too. I am constantly on the move. I also need constantly to keep up to date with what is going on in Rome, day and night.
MY VACATION
This summer I visited friends along the Riviera, including Monte-Carlo, and then my wife and I went to Deauville, which we both loved.
MY GREATEST HONOR
Hotel Eden Roma was awarded Prix Villegiature's Best Hotel in Europe in 2007; (as it happened, one of the other nominees was Hôtel de Paris, Monte-Carlo, part of SBM-Monaco group, run by one of my best friends, Bernard Lambert). The 20-strong media jury was mostly French but did include the BBC's correspondent Caroline Wyatt, and the three hotel directors also on the panel were Ezio Indiani, Hotel Principe di Savoia, Milan, and two based in Paris, Alain Astier, Hôtel Raphael, and Jacqueline Secchi, Hôtel Baltimore. Prix Villegiature is sponsored by Air France, Champagne Bollinger, Ercuis Raynaud porcelain and Excel Place service quality assessment.
MY LIFE
My life is so international; I carry a French passport. I was born in Egypt, was brought up in Paris and Rome, have worked in such fabulous places as Acapulco, New York, London, Paris. Seychelles….. and now I have been what some say is ‘the king of Rome ’s hotel world’, here at Hotel Eden, since 8 March 1999. I married an Italian Doctor and we have a daughter. Thank goodness, along the way, I acquired manners. I open doors for ladies and I look interlocutors in the eye.
Marcel Levy is Managing Director of Hotel Eden, Rome.
Hotel Eden, Rome, Italy
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