Hotel Il Pellicano - Porto Ercole, Italy

“This must be what it feels like to be George Clooney.”

That was my first thought upon arriving at the Hotel Il Pellicano.

We drove for two hours from Rome to the peninsula of Monte Argentario. An island-like comune connected to the mainland by three strips of land. The narrow road wound around one steep hill after another. As we took each turn, I couldn’t help but picture small Italian cars zooming uphill the way they do in the movies.

We parked at the hotel garage and were received with the warm smiles of the hotel staff. They didn’t care we weren’t celebrities. We still felt the VIP treatment. (Even though we were an hour late for our lunch reservation.)

Il Pellicano was a pitstop on our journey from the capital to the Chianti region. It was a place to decompress for a few hours while enjoying the beautiful Italian coastline. And that’s exactly what we did.

As we descended onto the terrace, the view from the top of the cliff was breathtaking. Below us the terrace continued to cascade sharply onto the Tyrrhenian Sea.

At the edge of the cliff, a set of stairs and an elevator await to bring you down safely from the summit to the beach at sea level.

We ordered lunch at the hotel’s Tuscan Grill. Fritto misto, spaghetti with clams, and my favorite dessert: affogato. The food was delicious, but it was the view that created a real feast for the eyes.

As I explored the venue, I noticed that their main restaurant Il Pellicano received one Michelin Star for 2019.