We're publishing this news item from Il Secolo XIX. To gain publicity, the owners of the restaurant described here didn't hesitate to confuse gender with sexual orientation.
To the Sea Hotel in Savona The men's bathrooms are marked with a drawing of a child on the door. The ladies' bathrooms are marked with a stylized image of a little girl wearing a skirt.
But There is a third door that has a particular design: half a boy and half a girl. It's the drawing that marks the entrance to the first gay baths in Italy. Inside are other surprises. A plasma monitor that continuously transmits “The vice” by Édouard Molinaro. Cold water with blue lighting and hot water with pink lighting. Magnifying mirrors. Refined and sophisticated color schemes and sinks that allude to the phallic symbol.
An idea of the owners, the brothers Pervinca and Claudio Tiranini. "It's a provocation, a game," says Pervinca Tiranini, "that's part of a broader interplay of spaces and colors. For the design indicating the bathrooms, we reproduced a drawing of a boy and a girl left in the guestbook by one of our young clients. For the third bathroom we chose the middle way; half girl and half boy, exactly. But there's nothing that makes you say: this is a gay bathroom. It's all a game.".
Privacy laws prohibit us from revealing which and how many guests have already visited the Marhotel's gay restrooms. What's certain is that they piqued the curiosity of all 500 guests who attended the inauguration the day before yesterday, eager to make the most of this new experience.
"Customers were both intrigued and amused," Pervinca Tiranini continues. "For us, I repeat, it's just a provocation. We wanted to show that there are Savonese people who want to redeem Savona. Our city is a beautiful place to live.".
The redemption Pervinca Tiranini speaks of extends through other unique spaces. From the men's and women's bathrooms with sensor-controlled water dripping from above, to mirrors framed in camel bone, Arabic influences, and "elephant skin" tiles resembling the pachyderm's hide.
There's the "Cromo dinner," the room where the floor rises to become a table and the lights change in intensity and color based on the dishes presented. Dishes have names like "Tempo massimo" (Maximum Time) because they're served in a glass of ice and must be eaten before the ice melts, or drinks served in a bottle cut in half.
The "Cellar Theatre" is the room containing 15,000 wine labels, displayed in a way that resembles a theater curtain. Drink in moderation, lest you get a little tipsy and wander into the wrong bathroom.
