MEDITERRANEAN MIRAGE

Regent Seven Seas Cruises goes to sea with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team. Pedro de la Rosa, with 100-plus F1s behind him and now Team Ambassador, is among the rev-up VIPs aboard Seven Seas Splendor’s Mediterranean Spotlight Voyage cruise in July 2025. From Barcelona to Rome, stops include Monte-Carlo for a private tour of HSH Prince Albert’s personal car collection. Onboard simulators, experiences, masterclasses, and networking are geared toward revising the fascinating fun.

VERSACE TODAY, VERSACE TOMORROW

Join the crowd or be different? When Donatella Versace appointed controversial Korean actor-dancer Cai Xukun, known as Kun (above), to be Versace's global ambassador, her post garnered 370 million views on the Chinese site Weibo. One comment said, ‘I've always wanted to buy a bag. Now I don't have to choose the brand; it’s Versace.’ But differentiate and stand out with a bag from Burberry, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, or anyone else.

EYEFUL OF EIFFEL

International Klein Blue IKB – see ELF 47 - hangs over the Patrick Jouin-designed bar at Hotel Plaza Athénée Paris. The bar’s resident DJs include the colourful Harvey Ambono, next working the Pioneer CDJ 3000 Nexus on 19-20 and 28-29 June. Stay over, say room #744. Tomorrow, breakfast on your Eiffel Tower-facing terrace, a delicious Dior Spa facial, and a private cellar wine tasting before a Jean Imbert dinner—no time to feel blue here.

FISHING FOR GOLD

Gleneagles’ ghillie Gerry Rattray’s your man to succeed in salmon-fishing in The River Tay. Stock up on waders, hats, and other gear in the elegant shopping arcade in the rural Perthshire hotel opened June 1924 for £20,000 by Caledonian Railway Co. Rizzoli’s commemorative book, Gleneagles, The Glorious Playground (its ongoing moniker), a just-published centenary celebration, has a foreword by HRH The Princess Royal.

THAT'S A WRAP

There’s a Diane von Furstenberg Suite at The Amigo in Brussels—it’s #121, and the Belgian-born designer decorated it herself. This year’s the 50th anniversary of her unique wrap dress, which still sells like hotcakes worldwide. The Amigo opened in 1957 for the first post-war world expo and can also offer Magritte and Tintin suites. The Magritte bar served nightly canapés precisely in 1913 when Magritte met his wife. 

PINCH OF BALI BLISS

Fitter than ever in Bali. Spa Village Resort Tembok’s next Soulful Sojourns is Invoke Creativity Muses with Chang Fee Ming, 20 - 23 June. The Bijou Spa Village has two 90m suites and two 180sqm pool villas. It’s owned by Kuala Lumpur-based international conglomerate YTL, whose holdings in the UK, for instance, include Wessex Water and, in Bath, Bath Spa, plus the adjacent Gainsborough Hotel.