USA: Miami nice

The swimming pool, decadent to the extreme, once had gold inlaid tiles. Photo / Supplied

When Gianni Versace was gunned down one sunny morning on the steps of his Miami house the fashion world took a collective gasp.

The flamboyant designer lived at the poshest address on Ocean Drive in the famous Art Deco strip of South Beach. The elaborate Casa Casuarina was built in 1930 and this year its new owner opened it to the public as a boutique hotel and restaurant.

I walked along Ocean Drive, retracing the fashion guru's steps to his favourite cafe. The hip neighbourhood crawls with convertible cars and oversized motorbikes and sprawls from South Pointe at the tip of the peninsula all the way past Miami Beach, eventually joining with mainland Miami.

Palm trees line the impossibly wide beach dotted with Art Deco lifeguard towers and Baywatch-style crew. Musclebound men in smooth sunglasses cruise the main drag looking at whoever is looking at them - that will be the leggy blondes with surgically enhanced figures and not a lot of fabric to cover them, making them the perfect accessory either in the car or on the arm. This is not a street where crazed gunmen roam about. It's a street where people on holiday drink mojitos from glasses the size of salad bowls and eat lobster pasta.

During the day Ocean Drive is decorated with tourists, rollerbladers, cyclists and leisurely brunchers.

Shopping is mainly to be had on Collins, the parallel street. At night the brunchers become drinkers and diners and spread themselves along the footpath as restaurant tables merge under awnings spraying a fine mist to keep indulgers from passing out in the Miami heat.

I sat people-watching at News Cafe where Versace bought his final coffee and read the Italian newspapers that fateful morning. Tables are arranged outside under leafy trees and inside they have a gift shop selling postcards, touristy knick-knacks and the international newspapers it is famous for. Framed photos of Gianni adorn a special corner wall dedicated to him.

Two blocks away is the Versace Mansion, Casa Casuarina. Originally built in the heady days of the Art Deco era, it is still the most opulent property in all of Miami. It had fallen into disrepair when Gianni bought it in 1992 for US$2.9 million on a trip here with his sister Donatella.

He set about restoring and extending it. He purchased the hotel next door, demolished that and put a decadent swimming pool in its place complete with Neptune head fountains and gold tiles inlaid on the floor.

Beside the pool is a circular communal shower room with four gold showerheads set in mosaic tiles between coral columns. One can only imagine the stories of lavish parties and shenanigans that these walls could wink and nudge about.

If I had the money - we're talking US$600 ($825) a night - I could stay in Madonna's suite. She was a great friend of Versace, and hers is the only room with a bathtub. Of course, it wasn't just any old bathtub, it was gold.

These days it is ceramic after the house and all its over-the-top furnishings were sold.

Or perhaps I'd choose the Baroque suite decorated for close friend Elton John in masculine colours and rich velvet fabrics. Elton was an interior designer before his singing career so he kindly helped Gianni design the room that was to become his.

The benefactor of half the Versace estate was his niece Allegra, Donatella Versace's daughter who was then 11. When she turned 18 she inherited her US$700 million share. Her other uncle, Santos, got 30 per cent and mum 20 per cent.

Gianni made no bones about telling the world who was his favourite, and Allegra had her own princess-inspired room, which still has pink stained-glass castle windows and hand-painted parrots and roses on the walls. Apparently this room is popular for girls' nights. Moneyed girls, that is. There is also a large daybed that can sleep two, so at a push you could squeeze yourself and three of your BFFs in here for US$600 a night. And you'll want to splash out on cocktails and dinner.

Gianni sounds as though he was a nightmare to work for. He was a perfectionist and would have labourers redo the mosaic or stone floors, walls and ceilings if he wasn't happy. He did this to the Italian family who designed and laid the elaborate pebble and marble walls with a giant Medusa head in his formal dining room. Medusa's famous snake hairdo is everywhere, but you do have to look carefully - try the gold drain covers.

The fashion magnate lived here for only five years before his murder in 1997. Eventually (and no doubt with the approval of Allegra, then a minor) Donatella Versace sold Casa Casuarina in 2000 for US$19 million to American telecommunications tycoon Peter Loftin.

She offered the new owner all her brother's wacky and gaudy furniture for a mere US$2.5 million but he declined so she auctioned it (keeping Madonna's gold bath for herself and leaving one of the two gold-leaf toilets) for $28 million. Ironically, Loftin then furnished the place with Versace designer furniture and linens - he just didn't want the originals.

If you go

Casa Casuarina has operated as a private club since 2005, but the 10-suite luxury hotel is open to all. If you're not staying here, you can book for dinner on the veranda or the formal dining room - and end with a cigar in the Davidoff cigar bar and lounge. Guided tours run each day and Thursday to Saturday evenings. Tours cost US$65 ($89) each. Casa Casuarina is at 1116 Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami.

* For more of Megan Singleton's travel musings see bloggeratlarge.com.