The Lap Of Luxury

There is a dark blue Ferrari that is often parked, for weeks at a time, outside one of Beirut’s most prestigious hotels. The number plate is Saudi Arabian. The valets cluck around it like mother hens, dusting and wiping, as it sits, waiting for its owner to gun the engine and pull out into the tree-lined streets of Ashrafieh. A home away from home? Who knows? But distilled into this mini montage is everything modern Lebanon can deliver to the discerning: luxury, beauty, service, and ambiance. At the risk of sounding smug, I am going to venture that Lebanon and Beirut possess a cachet that other Arab capitals don’t. Fairly or unfairly, the Lebanese are known for their high living in a way that the Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis and Palestinians simply are not, while gleaming new cities of the Gulf – the thrusting, efficient, commercial powerhouses that they are –