Drinking coffee in a clear sea

A knot of people around the coffee vending machine; they are pleasurably chatting, during a break at work, about families, holidays, weekends, politics, the Cannes festival.
While the coffee slowly pours out and its magic aroma fills the nostrils, the eyes are fixed on the wall behind the machine – which is white, dull and sad.
This is wrong: the world of hospitality is the carrier of proposals of beauty.
Now, while waiting for the coffee to pour, people dive into a transparent sea, where a lucky man is leisurely floating on his back, and his shadow is projected onto the sea bottom. Around, a wooden structure with large colourful cushions, alternating with see-through walkways that allow to spot the many- coloured sea fauna. At the bottom of the mural, which we obtained from a photo, appear the words: The happiness of expressing yourself, Club Med.
Every time you drink a coffee, you take a plunge into that crystalline sea.
Coming out of the office, you are greeted by five joyously smiling girls, only covered in a bed sheet, with the wording: “forget home!”. It is the image of an advertising campaign developed by Oliviero Toscani for Starhotels. It is a pleasure to greet them.
On the wall, Santa Claus – or rather eight framed Santa Clauses – are smiling. They are the Merry Christmas images of Principe di Savoia in Milan, large-sized, against the background of the hotel’s different areas and working situations. We collected them with patience, one every year, and framed to create a pleasant gallery.
Sometimes we do not realise how lucky we are to operate in a world that has beauty and comfort as its raison d’être; caught up in our day-to-day activity, we neglect the impact of feelings, and relinquish the pleasure of giving and receiving emotions.