The hotel is a pilot project because the two brands are combined in one building; usually in a combo the two brands are next to each other, and this one is ibis Styles from the 1^st to the 3^rd floor, and Novotel from the 4^th to the 8^th.

In addition, in this pilot project there is a third brand,- INSOLITO* is a new style of gastronomy for a restaurant hotel. We want to appeal not only to our guests but to people in the neighbourhood as well, breaking the issue for them to get in a hotel to enjoy the facility.

The hotel opened in late 1985; in 2018, it closed for a fully refurbishment and re-opened in October 2019. I joined Accor in August 2019, transforming not only the aesthetics of the hotel but also the staff.

I studied hospitality and catering business in Italy when I was young, and my father always joked by saying “I wasn’t fit to work in hospitality”. So I decided to get my first job in a hotel in the Adriatic coast close to Venice and at 15 I went to do the summer season and I loved it!

The interaction with people, being responsible for helping them to decide what to eat and drink, explaining about the wines and cocktails – the most important thing was, and still is nowadays, talking to customers. Now I am no longer on the operations side all day but I like to be close to guests, be their reference point. As a Heartist® I like to be there for the customer and for my colleagues, to put all my heart in what I do to make them feel look after; for that I consider myself an artist.

I always challenge myself to be better and one of my proudest moment was when I travelled to London. I lived there for seven years from 2001 to 2008. My English was awful so I had to start as a waiter and slowly grew to be a supervisor, then restaurant manager, later on bar and restaurant manager, and so on.

In a few years I developed quickly and having arrived without any English, that makes me proud looking back at what I have achieved.

My first love in this industry was bartending, and during this time I used to do cocktail competitions and I won quite a few awards because I was passionate about it!

Be patient – learn how to walk before you can run; that is my advice to people new to hospitality. To be the kind of person who offers service to someone else, you have to understand them first, you have to be empathetic. I can see a difference in most of this generation; they are very impatient, they want it now, but when you are offering a service to other people, you must be patient.

I can say that INSOLITO* is developing well, our cuisine is focused on cooking over charcoal and we using proximity and local products, we put a lot of value on that, in our bar you can taste handcrafted, classic and author cocktails. Definitely is a place to be.