Besides being near unfindable, the hotel it turned out, was seriously luxe. The chic restaurant offered oysters, Champagne and soft-shell-crab sushi. The clientele, which came and went all the time, was a mix of bewildered locals, extremely beautiful young women, silent security types with Rolex watches, inexplicable groups of Italian men speaking English, and billionaires who parked their Rolls-Royce SUVs in the gated drive, just in time for the special “gastro” nights of whole imported bluefin tuna.

Who opens a hotel a few months into a devastating war?

damaskin @damaskin