Marie-Louise Sciò Knows What Her Hotel Guests Want, and She Delivers

Eloise lives — but not at The Plaza.

Instead she’s in Italy where her counterpart, Marie-Louise Sciò, is running the family hotel business in the maverick spirit of the naughty 6-year-old in Kay Thompson’s famous book series from the 1950s.

Much like Eloise, who lived with her parents in the penthouse suite — along with a pug, a pet turtle and nanny — Marie-Louise grew up mostly at Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, on the Tuscan coast, which her father bought in 1979.

The hotel, which Sciò refers to as “the Pelli,” is the flagship property of the family’s burgeoning luxury hotel group. That group includes La Posta Vecchia near Rome, a 17th century Renaissance villa and former home of John Paul Getty, and the Mezzatorre hotel and thermal spa on Ischia in the Bay of Naples.

Sciò grew up at La Posta Vecchia and spent spring and summer holidays at Il Pellicano, where she had a front-row seat at the greatest fashion show in Europe.

From April to October she watched a stream of socialites, artists, designers, movie stars and business moguls flow in and out, dress up for dinner on a Friday night — the ladies all wore gowns — and sip cocktails with maraschino cherries, without a drop of irony — or concern for E-numbers.

Slim Aarons was there, photographing the scene at the hotel, which marked its 60^th anniversary in early June with a party where guests included Harris Reed, Roksanda Ilinčić, Angela Missoni, Tim Walker, Edie Campbell and Delfina Delettrez. Another guest, Haider Ackermann, loaned Sciò a silky, acid yellow gown from his first Tom Ford runway collection to wear on the night.

The glamorous guest profile hasn’t changed much since the hotel was founded on a rocky promontory of Tuscany’s Argentario coast by Michael Graham, a British Royal Air Force pilot, and Patsy Daszel, an American socialite, in the 1960s. They hosted guests including Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gianni Agnelli, Emilio Pucci and a host of European royals.

Unlike Eloise, Sciò didn’t create much mischief as a child, but she’s certainly breaking the rules now as chief executive officer and creative director of the family hotel group, which she joined 20 years ago.

Sciò didn’t approach the hospitality business in a conventional way. Instead of going to hotel school, she got an architecture degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, and began her career in New York with Costas Group. She later returned to Italy to work with the architect Massimo Zompa, gaining expertise in interior design, and started her own practice.

That experience, coupled with her first-hand knowledge of the hotel business, helped Sciò forge her unconventional approach to business. She’s not necessarily interested in what the customers — many of whom are repeat guests — want. She simply does what she wants — and her strategy works.

Il Pellicano, she says, “is not a home away from home. It’s an escape. You want to get out of your everyday life sometimes, don’t you? And the hotels are little dimensions, little worlds. Every time I leave the Pelli, I’m closing the door on a world, and I think I’m always missing out on something fabulous that’s happening.”

She adds: “I grew up here — it was like a film set — and you notice everything. I’ve seen the hotel’s evolutions, I know what’s in the layers of these walls. I know what people want, and I’m not afraid to take chances.”

Sciò curates every detail. She tapped her old friend, the stylist Robert Rabensteiner, and the Italian tailoring brand Giuliva Heritage to create “old school” double-breasted jackets for staff, fills the shelves with proper books and makes her own playlists instead of buying generic ones.

“We don’t do books by the meter — which a lot of hotels do — and we don’t have coffee table books. We put out books for reading — like ‘The Odyssey’ — or 100 books to read in a lifetime, curated by various authors. We curate the magazines, too. It’s all about caring and making sure that everything comes with good quality, and good intent,” she says.

The music is all hers, too, although sometimes there is no music. “I sacked the music in the restaurants because there are natural, beautiful sounds. We don’t need music — there are birds,” says Sciò, who looks after the interiors and operations of all three hotels, with another on the way near Siena.  

She’s on a mission to recreate her childlike sense of excitement about the day-to-day happenings at the hotel — and the anticipation about the people who might show up.

“When I was a kid, even the red cherries at the bar were so exciting, so I brought them back — and people have such a laugh about it. It’s a small thing, but the hotel experience is emotional.”

Reed is one of many guests who tunes into the vibe at Il Pellicano.

“There is no better people-watching than at hotel Pellicano, because it’s literally this melting pot of artists, creatives, lawyers, investors — and everyone really has this attitude of peacocking. You sit down for your aperitivo, and every single person is wearing a color, a print, a feather. You have the fabulous housewife from Palm Beach next to an amazing Italian painter being their most decadent. It has this really old-world glamour,” says Reed.

He adds that Sciò “has this way of connecting people that’s so effortless. She’s the matchmaker of a good time on a holiday. It’s just extraordinary. It never feels overwhelming or bombarding. It just feels so seamless.”

She took the Pellicano magic to Claridge’s in London earlier this year. Chef Michelino Gioia and barman Federico Morosi whipped up favorites including shrimp risotto with ginger and lime and the famous Teller negroni, an homage to Juergen Teller and one of Il Pellicano’s many signature cocktails.

Sciò describes the Pellicano experience as “restorative hedonism. It’s a mixture of sunshine and salty water, great people and great food — and maybe too much wine. But the whole thing makes you feel good.”

She adds: “You can go to the gym and to the spa. You get the sports, the hike and the massages and the clean food, which is all farm to table. That’s health for the body. Then there’s health for the soul — which comes from fun, love, laughter — and dancing.”

The entire family loves to party. Ilinčić, another regular, says Sciò’s parents Roberto and Marie-Louise Brulatour Mills, sister Yvonne, and son Umberto were all dancing at the 60^th anniversary party.

“It was three generations on the dance floor — and her mother is always the last one to leave. Marie-Louise builds this atmosphere within the hotels which makes you feel like you’re part of the family — a very special family. And that extends to the people who are working there as well,” says Ilinčić.

She adds: “She knows how to live in the moment, enjoy life and bring you along on that journey. That kind of inclusivity and understanding of her customers, many of whom are her friends, is very important.”

Sciò’s unconventional approach also applies to bigger projects. She forged ahead with Mezzatorre in Ischia even though people around her said it would never work.

“When we opened in Ischia, people said, ‘Are you mad? Why are you going to Ischia, a sleepy island from the 1950s where there are no luxury hotels?’ They asked me, ‘Why don’t you open in Capri?’ But why would I do that?” she says.

Although Ischia and Capri are both a quick aliscafo ride from Naples, they are vastly different islands. Capri is smaller and has the pedigree, attracting visitors from the Roman Emperor Tiberius to Jackie O to JLo. Ischia, known for its greenery and thermal springs, is a bigger island and has traditionally attracted a less-glamorous crowd.

Now Sciò is taking another gamble. Two years ago, she forged a strategic partnership with Aermont Capital to help build a group portfolio across Italy, and the next stop is La Suvera, an aristocratic home (currently a boutique hotel) near Siena that was built by the 16th century architect Baldassarre Peruzzi.

“I could see immediately when I walked in. I just sat there for a bit, and it started coming alive in my imagination,” says Sciò, who’s promising something bold, and eccentric.

“One room is Chinese, another has Japanese furniture. There’s a Baroque room and another with Napoleonic furniture. There’s a horse theme throughout one of the wings. It’s really eccentric. But there will be a lightness as well, a lightness of the soul, and of the design,” says Sciò as she prepares to shake up expectations once again.

Tuscan Vegetable Panzanella

Ingredients for 4 people:

Method:

Chef Michelino Gioia’s Note:
Panzanella is a traditional peasant dish meant to reuse what’s available in the garden and leftover bread. There are many versions throughout Italy, showing that tough survival conditions existed across the country. This dish is simple, refreshing, and perfect for summer — often served at Pelligrill as a salad. It reminds the chef of a similar dish from his youth in Campania called pane all’acqua pazza.

The Teller Negroni

A classic Negroni made with three parts gin (at Pellicano, we use our own gin, says barman Federico Morosi, but Tanqueray or Beefeater are also perfect. Decoration is a simple orange slice, and the drink is made in a tumbler, with ice).