My house is a hotel: the Italian hôtellerie is transformed
A tailor-made quality of welcome for international customers. From Rome to Palermo, from the Argentario to Lake Como, women are driving the change.
by Paola Dezza
7' min read
7' min read
Dwellings overlooking the lake and ancient farmhouses in the hills, structures by the sea or small charming destinations, excellences of the territory. Places where creativity and an all-female style of hospitality are expressed. Increasingly numerous in the hotel world, women who have taken the reins of family hotels or opted for a managerial career in luxury hospitality are interpreting and, in some cases, shaping the tastes of the most refined international clientele.
It is a story spanning four generations that has brought Bianca Passera and her grandson Luigi into the roles of president and CEO respectively of the LarioHotels group. The family business began with a restaurant in the early 1900s, then with the Hotel San Gottardo and the management of the Terminus. Grandmother Clelia is the forerunner of the current trend, "she lived and worked in the hotel," says Bianca. "For me, she was the emblem of the working woman rather than the classic figure of the grandmother. She took care of the reception, while my grandfather managed the catering". In the late 1950s, Villa Flori, a historic structure overlooking the water, was purchased and the group grew. Bianca studied at Bocconi and after an experience in advertising in Milan and a period in New York, she opened a branding packaging agency. But she returned to the lake, called by her brother Antonello. "I started to take care of the interior. I have always loved travelling and visiting hotels in Italy and around the world, thanks also to a collaboration with a travel magazine. I started to delve into sustainability issues in doing business very early on. Today our group is a Benefit Society and we are very satisfied with that, but Luigi and I have simply grounded a philosophy that our family has had very clear from the beginning'.
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Gender awareness is at the heart of the management policy. "In LarioHotels the general manager is a woman, we are taking all the steps for gender certification, and there are equal numbers of men and women on the board of directors. On the other hand, in the hôtellerie sector, the role and skills of women are becoming more and more important". Recently, Bianca and her nephew Luigi, son of Corrado (an Italian banker and founder of the illimity Group) have created a new brand of charming hotels, the Vista, opened in Como and soon after in Verona and expected to open in 2025 in Ostuni, in the fascinating former Manifattura Tabacchi.
Love for the lake is also the hallmark of the De Santis family's strategy. For Valentina, the only daughter of hotel entrepreneurs, the path was marked out. At the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a historic property on Lake Como that in recent months has celebrated 114 years since its opening, she has been at home every summer since she was a child. The colourful and cheerful furnishings, the purple, orange and green velvet armchairs in the grand salon, the elegant striped cushions on the terrace, the refined porcelain and the ability to welcome guests were born from the taste of Valentina's mother, Antonella, and before that her grandmother Maria. "The hotel was built by Maria and Enea Gandola, a couple of travellers from Bellagio, who, returning from the Grand Tour, chose to replicate the luxury of the grand hotels seen in Europe, and was bought by my maternal grandfather," Valentina recounts. The latest pearl of the family (which, today, owns three hotels in Como and the management of Villa Sola Cabiati), is Passalacqua in Moltrasio, which in 2023 was awarded The Best Hotel in the World according to The World's 50 Best Hotels, while this year it was named The Best Hotel in Europe. An elegant frescoed mansion, where Vincenzo Bellini stayed, surrounded by an Italian-style garden, it was inaugurated two years ago (it previously belonged to an American owner). Today, together with the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, it is the emblem of the Dolce Vita on the lake. "With pride I am noticing a growing female presence in managerial roles," Valentina points out. "I personally believe that in hospitality a touch of femininity can really make a difference."
At the Pellicano in Porto Ercole, the generational change has seen Marie-Louise succeed her father Roberto Sciò, founder of the group, which now also includes La Posta Vecchia and the Mezzatorre in Ischia. Marie-Louise brought to the company her creativity, supported by her architectural studies in a cosmopolitan environment such as New York, and inaugurated, together with the English investor Aermont, a strategy to replicate Il Pellicano's exclusive luxury formula in Italy. The expansion began with the Relais La Suvera, just outside Siena, which will open in 2026. "I started working as creative director in a strongly male environment, with a certain shyness," he recounts. "My father asked me to design a bathroom for the hotel, where I spent all my childhood holidays. Once the job was done, I suggested that he relaunch the hotel with a restyling that would attract a young clientele. He gave me carte blanche. During that winter I redecorated the hotel, on tiptoe because I wanted the historic customers, 80 per cent of the guests, to always feel at home. Little by little we revised the graphics, the uniforms, the dishes". The creative direction over time has led Marie-Louise to come up with projects out of the ordinary, from the 2019 collaboration with Birkenstock to books on the hotel's history and cuisine, the latest edited by chef Antonio Guida and photographer Juergen Teller. Plus the idea of an e-commerce boutique, Issimo, as 'an extension of our aesthetic philosophy, a cabinet de curiosités of Italy, not obvious'.
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