Press Articles
The Times, 27 January 2007
Marble, gilt… it’s the simple things
Lisa Grainger joins the Krug set – and quickly gets used to a life of luxury lived in grand villas
…I soon found, on three days away together visiting friends on Lake Como and in Venice, that the Krug lifestyle could hardly be described as simple… In front of a pair of magnificent 18th-century stone villas, set in 3ha of landscaped gardens [on the banks of Lake Como], a yacht bobbed in the inky waters, with Donatella Versace’s rather less mellow yellow villa shining brightly on the opposite shore. A handful of glamourous guests swanned about sipping champagne. A butler, in black tie, proffered a silver tray of nibbles (local prosciutto, deep-fried courgette flowers, langoustine tails). Baroque music poured through double-height French windows on to the sunlit terrace. All they needed was the talented Mr Ripley to make the lavish scene complete.
“Ohmygod, it’s like the set of Sleeping Beauty,” I hear an American gasp, as she steps inside the gargantuan, intricately painted, gilded, frescoed and carved ballroom [in Principessa Arrivabene d’Aosta’s private palace on the Grand Canal in Venice], whose 30ft table decorated with balls of blood-red roses, crystal and silver, is overhung with cow-sized chandeliers.
It’s not like Sleeping Beauty at all. It’s overwhelming romantic. And as classically tasteful as could be, with courses of lobster, veal and green tea sorbet accompanied by 1980s champagne, a string quartet, then a tenor, then a soprano. It’s so perfect, in fact, that I see two guests wiping away tears during the performance....