Hugh Hefner, too, has paid careful attention to stone. In discussions with his architect, he decided history was most important: the grotto would rise from the water as if from millons of years ago, as if the waves of the ocean had created it. Builders visited museums and spoke to experts about ancient, prehistoric life forms. Like the rare red coral that dots the Blue Grotto, and that the servant boy forgot to mention, small reddish mosquitoes dot the surface of the water, reflected with varying degrees of clarity from the sun passing through an amber colored ceiling embedded with bugs.

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