Owner Hotel Belvedere Riccione
I started taking care of the Belvedere almost for fun, at nineteen. I did not have a family of hoteliers behind me – my father was a building contractor – and it’s important for me to say that perhaps mine was a love story rather than a story about work.
The Belvedere and I grew up together. I changed it and it changed me.
How did I do it? I can identify three steps.
The first one, I traveled a lot abroad. This gave me a practical advantage – speaking languages well – and a more abstract but crucial one: I saw what makes the world go round, what they want abroad, how they think. When and why they move, attracted by what.
The second, I have always believed in the expansion of services. I believe I was among the first, if not the first, to bring the idea of an entertainment staff for children into a hotel with those services that were typical of tourist resorts: sports, entertainment, Mini Club and Baby-feeding facility. It was 2001 when, together with other family-oriented hotels, I founded the Italy Family Hotels consortium of which I am the President.
The third. I gave a lot of importance to the concept of wellness and I realized that it has a (wonderful) complementarity with that of sport. That’s why we are a Bike Hotel and we have a high-level Spa, thought out in every detail.
Looking back, what I can say about myself is this: I have always placed my bet on quality. I know, everyone says that. But you can’t just talk about quality: you have to “do” quality, and that costs money. It costs money, time, energy. You have to put yourself on the line, keep going even when you want to give up, not be satisfied with excellent results and aim for the excellent ones. We, at the Belvedere do not sell a room: we sell a holiday, and we do everything to make it unforgettable.
