History
through the 20th century
A genuine icon of hospitality, class of 1903, the Grand Hotel Miramare glided serenely through the 20th century with all its charm and allure intact and, indeed, enhanced. The pivotal moment came after World War II, when Milanese entrepreneur Giovanni Fustinoni acquired the hotel in 1945 and set to work with his wife, Franca, to turn it into a legendary haunt frequented by the Italian and international jet set. The name of its bathing beach and nightclub, the Barracuda, lives on, a celebrity hotspot in the ’50s and ’60s for all the high society of the Italian and French Riviere.
Before then, another memorable milestone in the GHM annals happened in August 1933, when Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony signal in history from the hotel terrace.
Now as then, talk of Santa Margherita Ligure turns inevitably to the Miramare, a place that is simply unmissable or, in the chic French idiom, incontournable.
