The hotel was built in 1959 by my paternal grandparents, Bruna and Luigi Masi, obviously with great sacrifice, but also with a strong desire to create something that would stand the test of time and help people have a good time.
My father Paolo and his sister Mariella have always worked at the hotel alongside them.
In its first year of construction, the hotel had only one floor (there weren’t enough funds to build more), and then, year after year, thanks to the beautiful seasons of that time, the hotel grew, eventually reaching four floors of guest rooms (as it is today).
At first they lived in Cattolica, but a few years later, right next to the hotel, they began building their own home, which is where we still live today.
Unfortunately, I never met my grandfather Luigi: he died in 1970, before I was born,
But my dad always told me that he was a very kind man who spoiled and doted on them endlessly.
The true pillar of the family was my Grandma Bruna, a very strong woman with a strong-willed personality, who was so enterprising and determined. Before the hotel was built, she worked at the tuna factory in Cattolica, right across from where the hotel was built (the smokestack you see now was part of the factory), and she worked her way up from a simple factory worker to forewoman.
I remember my dad telling me that she wouldn’t eat tuna anymore because she’d eaten so much of it back then that she couldn’t even stand the sight of it. 🙂
My aunt Mariella has always worked in the hotel with her parents (front of house, housekeeping, and especially in the kitchen with her mom), while my dad Paolo has always handled the business side of things, managing sales and the room inventory.
It would take more than a book to describe my dad… He has always been a very unique character: extroverted and reserved at the same time, extremely direct (sometimes too much so for those who didn’t know him) but also the classic person who doesn’t fit in
patterns—you either adore her if you like her, or you hate her because you don’t understand her.
He lived an extremely happy and comfortable life, having a blast during the golden years of the Riviera (he was the classic “Romagnolo” who got up to all sorts of mischief with his friends—and maybe even more!!). He was always a key figure at the hotel too, because he loved it from the very first moment and always treated it like his own home. He always wanted the hotel to be modern and cutting-edge and for our guests to have the best vacations possible.
When my parents got married in ’81, my mom Rita came to work at the hotel with my dad, my aunt, and my grandmother. There’s an 18-year age difference between my parents, and when she arrived at the hotel, my mom was just a young woman (22 years old). My brother and I were practically born and raised here, and considering that our front door faces the hotel’s kitchen door, you can understand why, for us, this isn’t a business but our home, in every sense of the word.
Every summer for us was (and still is) like adding extra seats at the table to welcome friends who come back to visit us. We have guests who have been coming to the hotel since before I was born, and guests who have become friends, who in turn have had children who have become friends with our kids.
Both my brother and I started making our first coffees at the bar when we were kids, first climbing onto a stool since we couldn’t reach the machine, and then growing taller year after year until we finally took over the bar!
I then moved on to standing guard in the afternoon while my parents rested, gradually taking on sales, managing drinks during mealtimes, and working as a waitress in the dining room, until today when I handle the kitchen, sales, staff, and much more. Basically, a jack-of-all-trades 🙂
In the early years, my cousins and I lived at the hotel, but then my parents decided to part ways with my aunt, who was let go and became a partner with her husband (who owned another hotel).
Today, besides my mom and me at
a regular fixture; my brother Luigi also works at the hotel (and even though he has another job, he stops by to help me whenever he can), my partner Lorenzo, who runs the Rooftop, and of course my girls and my nephew, who have already been enlisted and, just like we did, are learning through play to love (or perhaps to hate—we’ll see in the future) one of the most beautiful jobs in the world!
