Il San Pietro di Positano Owner: Vito Cinque – Family, Farm to Table, & the Art of Making the Complex Look Simple

24:57And of course, our mother. And your mother. Which was very intelligent at the time to give us full responsibility.

25:04The Gstaad Guy:Why is that? She told us, you know, listen, guys, either you're able to run it or you don't. Now that's the time to show if you're able or not. And how did you and your brother separate your roles? We always separated these roles because we have different education. I did a business school. My brother graduated in accounting and economics. And so, you know, it's not part of a plan or you do this, you do that. Was naturally decided. I'm not able to do what he does. I mean, I'm not able to read the contract of 10 pages and lead all the lines. And I'm quite fast in my decisions, maybe too fast. And that's a good thing.

25:50I don't like to do what he does. He doesn't like to do what I do. That's great. But eventually we can exchange ourselves for a short time, let's say one day, two days. And we still share the same office. Since we work in the same room.

26:03The Gstaad Guy:Well, fast forward over 30 years. Yeah. The property today feels like a unique time machine, but not in a way that shows a side of the world that's dated, in a way that shows a time where I think form was respected and you've still maximized the function while respecting the form, which I think is very rare. you know you seem differently there's something that gets it's old or it's antique it's a different value it depends on the value you put on it exactly it doesn't feel antique it feels very current but you haven't changed anything that doesn't need to be changed sometimes I do stuff I don't even know why I do it yeah I don't know so you know but it's also that the biggest part of my job is planning the renovation with my brother but we have like people working, people who are taught they've been working with us 32 years.

27:04I don't need to speak to them. They already know. So many people already know what to do. When I speak to the marble guy, the guy who does the marble for the bathrooms, he already know what I like, what I don't like because, you know, we have been working. It's like you are in a marriage since, you know, the good side, the bad side of each of you is so wild. And this is the same. So actually, it's not even so complicated because we don't even even with Fausta and Gaia these followers we worked for the renovation and when we have to decide fabrics and so on they already know they already know what I like and I don't know what they expect me to tell them but you never have to take anything for granted we also like to take a challenge to change stuff because we also need to we also sometimes we change things also because we are bored we want to do something else you always have to be willing to listen to your clients and the best advice comes from the clients.

27:59I mean, what more can you expect? They book, they pay, and they also make free consultancy. It's pretty great. You can ask for more. You know, you listen to them. So we always take notes or whatever is said or whatever is written online or whatever clients tell us. And then we make all the points and three months before the closing, we decide which are the points that we agree with are the things that we have to change.

28:29The Gstaad Guy:What percentage of your guests are reoccurring guests? Between 30 and 35 it depends on the seasons. And I know many of the guests have been coming for 15, 20 years even. There are even clients coming since the first day of the opening. Wow. Yeah. Well, a lot of those clients I've had the pleasure of meeting some of them some of my old friends have been coming to the property for years. And they all say the same thing. There's nothing like the San Pietro. And they come back for that same unique feeling. They are often people from the Shtad Gai world that I like to communicate. People that have access to the world's most beautiful and unique hotels.

29:09The Gstaad Guy:And they find the San Pietro uniquely beautiful. Can you help explain what you think makes the hotel what it is? I don't know. I think they're no better than me. I'm so honored of these awards also because I know some of them, I visited some of them, I've been in their houses, I know where they live, I know what quality of life they have. And I think that the only thing, the only reason I come is just the human approach and the sense of the place. I don't even know why I go to St. Peter every day, but I need to, you know. I could also change my lifestyle. It's a kind of addiction. And it's meant, it's so many little things, one after the other.

29:59But what plays the biggest role is the welcome that Andrea gives to everyone, all the stuff, since from the road down to the beach area. And the fact that I always tell, I always say my guys, my staff, we cannot provide happiness to clients if we are not happy ourselves. So my first job is to make sure they're happy. Because if they're happy and their life is good, so mixing also to help them in fixing up whatever is wrong in their life, if you're not happy, you cannot give happiness.

30:31The Gstaad Guy:The hotel is uniquely known for very low churn in the team you have, which has grown with you like family. I think it's actually, you've been quoted to have a hotel of your size and a hotel with your price point to have some of the lowest churn in the industry where staff want to leave the least. They love staying with you. I like to change the life of, I like to have an impact of whatever they want to do. If somebody working in the kitchen tells me I want to do painting classes, okay, good. I pay whatever classes you want to take. We do. Even if you are in the wardrobe, you're also in the department, I want to try to train, and I become a sommelier.

31:24Yes, everything is going to be on us. We pay all the bills. That's all we do. Now, I have this very young guy that I like from Brisbane, working in the kitchen. After closing of the San Pietro, he's going to go to Alamo, a three-mission star chef for four months because he wants to learn more about the way about his kitchen the way he's cooking and so giving opportunities and also we have been always very attentive, we understood since the first beginning that things were changing and it's important that you change before they ask you to change

32:01The Gstaad Guy:there's so many different unique elements of the property that allow it to be what it is the gardens and the fresh vegetables the beautiful restaurants, the tennis courts, the views, the rooms, the uniqueness of the rooms, the constant renovations. These are all things that could in theory be optimized to make the property more profitable, to make it more exciting as a business for you. This is the wrong approach. Exactly. This is the wrong approach because I tell you something, because since we've always been in red numbers, it may happen that you have the money, you have not the time, or you have the time, you have no money.

32:39So whenever you have time and money, you have to do whatever you have to do. And that's the only way to keep a property, to maintain it. And when you have this spirit of doing, you have to do it. Because then time passes and you risk to be too affectionate of whatever you have done and you think that nobody can do better, any better, and you're not willing to change. We are careful because, you know, money, you need money, not only because you want to make more money, because I would ask you would, I mean, if you think of the value of a property like San Pietro and so many beautiful properties in the world, what is the profit of them is nothing compared to, if you have the same money invested in any fund or whatever, you make more money without working.

33:21It's true. That's true. I mean, that's why all these places, even Amalfi, all these hotels are unique. Also for this reason, you know? But if the vendor is something that you like and you think is right, that you have to do it, you don't have to look at the cost. you don't have to do a ROI return of investment because everything has to be long term

33:42The Gstaad Guy:I think it's a perfect way to introduce my thinking about these sorts of hotels because I think grouping all hotels under one umbrella is unreasonable some hotels are owned by big hotel groups and they're built for profit, some hotels I think can only be compared to art forms and creative outlets where they're built as a form of expression and they're built to create a feeling. And I think that's why the people I listed earlier come back to Il San Pietro because I think you and your brother and your family and your team, the family within, have collaborated to create a very unique work of art in a world of optimization, in a world of scale, in a world of business first and profits first, you have continued year over year to be human interaction first, ingredients first, substance first over the status, and to really take no shortcuts in the process.

34:52No, you can't. Not at all. No, you can't take shortcuts. You don't have to. You always have to take the harder way. Also, because we fight a battle, that it's enormous. We find a buy, you know, like, you know, how can you, so these big brands have big budgets and so on and so this, you know, it's always funny. And I'm very happy also to be in this part of the world where there are so many hotels run by families and they're always between the top 100, top 110 hotels. We all know each other, we're all friends. So, and sometimes we achieve, you know, some prizes from fighting against huge companies that have huge parts.

35:38Your hotel is more known than them. Just because it's recognized by your clients or by the travel industry. It's not easy to be so small and to be so known. It'll be so much better than so many others are so much more important than you. but it's only something you can achieve with hard work after so many years and when you take the right decision and when you are surrounded by the right people people is the most important thing

36:11The Gstaad Guy:you briefly touched on your passion for preservation for supporting the local community in the ways that you can while also benefiting from the incredible local community, artisans and talent so it's a beautiful mutual relationship you have, but you really do care about preservation, preserving art forms and methods that matter to you and to the world. I think there's one thing that lots of people in Positano and on the Amalfi Coast discuss with preservation. It's this idea of over-tourism as well, where some people come and maybe don't respect the coast as much as they could. Can you tell me more about what's important to you in preservation and also what are some things you've seen and maybe some positive actions that can happen?

37:02I've been fighting against overture in the last 20 years. And each single time I participate in meetings with people involved in politics, there are always big fights. But I always have the support of people. from my side. The problem is that when politics is so much involved in the choices and somebody in an office in Naples or Rome decides for you, it's very difficult. But in Pozidana things are changing because people living in Pozidana have understood that also their quality of life is is not as good as a couple of years ago. So now there is a new movement of people and we are already starting discussions with the Campania region to try to protect us, like to put a ZATL to control access, control number of people that can access from the road and by the sea, because we cannot have 10 ,000 people coming from ferries while the roads are just two meters and a half narrow.

38:17So you have to find a balance between what is... Because people come to Positano just because they want to enjoy not only San Pietro or any other hotel on the coast, but also because they just want to have a nice experience in the village or whatever the village can offer. I think when people hear a hotelier

38:38The Gstaad Guy:discussing the dangers of overtourism, they might be confused because people think, oh, more tourism is good, more business. Not at all. Not at all. No, but it's not made for numbers. But it's made for, you know, for small numbers. And this is, we have to work for the quality, not for the quantity. We can't, I mean, we can't work. There are some places that can work for. But, you know, it was not too bad before COVID. Everything changed after COVID. I don't even know why. I mean, it was pretty much okay before COVID, after COVID, everything. But do you know any place in the world that is famous and is so beautiful and doesn't suffer over tourism?

39:18Very few places were able to defend themselves.

39:20The Gstaad Guy:I think some places that have... That is so much better. ...topographical barriers. Yeah. Like they're hard to reach, they're expensive to reach. Of course, but we have the sea here, so it's very easy to reach. This is the thing. But we have a new mayor in Positano, fantastic lady, very bright with a big culture, surrounded by very nice guys. I think they're going to do well. For sure we're going to improve a lot of things. Amazing. And then she has all the support of all the hotelers on the area. So we have to change the mindset of the people because place is, a village is nice when it's true.

40:03Doesn't have to be like Disneyland. You know, there must be a place where you meet the people living in the place where you see people going to buy food to the shop when the locals do stuff. You know, at the beginning, when I was a teenager, people used to come here also because they want to imitate our lifestyle. So people that were not only coming to be in Pasadena, but they just wanted to do what we were doing. They wanted to ask for the go-off fishing for tortling at night. They wanted to eat the pizza down on the beach at the west. same way we're doing they want to play football with us in the beach area, they want to come to swim with us in the place where they were swimming.

40:41Maybe this is not, it can happen again, but something like, you know, the people, the place has to be real or it doesn't have to be only meant to be a place to catch a cash machine and that's it.

40:54The Gstaad Guy:What do you think it takes to be a good visitor and tourist, particularly in Positano? I think just the people who respect the place and we will respect the people living in the place.

41:06Thank God we have, we can offer high quality services to anyone, but unfortunately we cannot provide high quality services to everyone because it's a small village of 3 ,800 people. It's just a matter of numbers and there is space for everyone.

41:27The Gstaad Guy:Particularly at Il San Pietro. I think there's a unique dynamic we are doing the opposite everybody tries to put people into the cell we try to put people not coming to the cell exactly you literally reject reservations sometimes people make a booking through a service and you'll say actually we'd rather you don't stay sometimes you have to do the opposite or whatever inverse marketing I think we have to respect our clients very easy as that I mean you book a room you book a place, you want to use it, you have free access everywhere, you don't have to fight for space. So going to our clients, we are there for our clients.

42:08Of course, we welcome also clients from very limited numbers. And I don't think it's also right that you can enjoy the same moment at such a different price. just come for a coffee for a drink and you pretend that you are clients saying you want to stay there for 4 hours 5 hours so whatever we made the decision for us it's important that we are happy and the clients decide to stay in our house and we do everything for them so that's why we don't do weddings we don't do parties sometimes we do parties, small parties but clients and most of the time it's people who come at the same time together they just like to have big dinners together and so on.

42:56But we care about our clients.

43:00The Gstaad Guy:And I think your clients care about you. I see it. I mean, after you have been coming for so long, you know, you become naturally friends. Yeah, I've seen. We organize so many lunches and dinners home. Yeah. They want to come after you know them. So they want to come and be with you. They want to spend time, everyone spend time with them. So, you know, it's,

43:33and even that, I mean, you may, you may, it's like us, you know, maybe you got so many invitations, everywhere people would like to have you. We didn't do nothing special. We like each other, we became friends. Same principle, you know. It's true. things happens you know why you like somebody you don't like somebody else things happen

43:55The Gstaad Guy:this podcast is brought to you by pubel bringing you interchangeable charm jewelry hand painted with enamel on styling silver allowing you to celebrate all the things you love and all the things you might question through interchangeable styling silver bracelets bangles whoop charms mini charm bracelets rings cufflings and much more and all customizable through our 3d builder on poubelle.com that is poubelle p-o-u-b-e-l dot com thank you so much for watching and now back to the podcast i think you're showing how naturally this is to you but the audience can definitely feel how rare this is to the hotel business and to the hotel world and that's what i feel Like I, I spend over half my year at hotels.

44:47The Gstaad Guy:You told me. I feel sorry for you. I'm grateful and blessed. I stay at nice hotels. I'm comfortable in beautiful places, but I do at least 50 % of my year in hotels. And this is still a unique feeling. I've seen beautiful rooms. I've seen beautiful spas. I've met great staff. I've met incredible teams. I've met great guests, but the song and dance that's happening here is I think one that can be studied. It's one that should be preserved. And it's one that clearly comes from the heart. I think what I experienced today at lunch when I had a seemingly simple spaghetti pomodoro, which was truly complex to put together, serves as a great example of what's happening here.

45:33The Gstaad Guy:The reason why the spaghetti pomodoro was complex is not because it was complex to put together in the kitchen. It's because the tomato we used was grown in such beautiful fertile soil with no pesticides by a family that carefully brought it here from Sorrento. The basil was picked right here from the garden. The basil, again, no pesticides, nothing. We picked it. We didn't even wash it. We just threw it right into the pasta. You're not supposed to. Well, I grew up in London. We're supposed to. We're supposed to wash it twice. Yeah. I mean, here you're not supposed to. Here you're not supposed to.

46:07The Gstaad Guy:And that's exactly that. but there's so many of these complexities that allow for this to happen. Listen, if you, so far you haven't come home in Praia, if you come to our house, you understand why. I just, we don't do anything particular or special. We do what we do for ourself. I would never allowed a dish to be served to clients that I don't like, that I wouldn't eat, that I wouldn't offer to my best friend, that I wouldn't make home, you know? As easy as this. I remember when I got the mission style, was already 23 years ago, we got it just for a very unique simple dish. This kind of seafood that now is even this people are making this spaghetti with fresh tomatoes.

46:51I mean it was... and the guy on mission then after I spoke to the guy, I didn't know who he was. I understood he was three years after and I asked him why did you give us the why did you give us the mission start of time? Because I don't think we deserved. Because we were the only one we were trying to make different food from the normal standard to sell food at the time, you know? And even home, we grow our vegetables. We do our stuff. Some period we do the same. I mean, it's not, for me it's normal. For me it's normal. You cannot fake for so long. Because after you spend so much time If you have a client that stays with you for a month or for two weeks, I've been coming for 20 years, you cannot fake, because otherwise you'll be destroyed.

47:39Your soul will be broken. You wouldn't even recognize yourself in the mirror when you see yourself in the morning. The day I won't have this pleasure, the day I don't think this is important to me, the day I will not be able to do what I am, I would go. We could go even now and we are done. I don't need to prove anything to anyone. So when you have this freedom, I mean, it's the best thing that can happen in your life.

48:06The Gstaad Guy:Why do you show up every day? Because I'm OCD. I need to check everything. I have to make sure that everything is fine. I have to look at my people. I want to have coffee in the morning outside by the elevator. And I have my routine. And I like it. And I like the way that now that it was not like this at the beginning. At the beginning, I didn't have so many great people working with me because it was a different time. But now that I do, I feel so happy that I can decide what I want to do. I'm not forced to do things that I have to do. Also because so many other things, they do so much better than me.

48:47I let them do it. And then the other good thing, I'm not jealous. I don't know you've seen him in there, but I don't want to show around being that everybody's from the owner and the first one, I don't care.

48:58The Gstaad Guy:Actually quite the inverse. If somebody, yeah. Some people even ask who is this guy? I like that, I love it. I mean, can you imagine somebody, everybody runs everything for you. Everybody's happy, all is good. You just can, you can enjoy watching this happening like at the theater, but you're not involved in first person. is great. You can ask for more. I'd love to talk about your general manager, Andrea. Yeah. Who does such an amazing job. He has the perfect balance of family and professionalism and making you feel so welcome and tailored. And he has that Swiss precision that I feel actually the Bedruth's palace.

49:41The Gstaad Guy:But with the Italian hominess, family feels, it's a whole different Italian approach. And professionalism because Andrea is always very updated on everything. incredibly yeah and he has very cool colors I like the colors on his shirts always he's the one who designed the shirt the shirts but even the shop you know the shop is the result of things that we've done with you things that Giuliana does my brother with Andrea and me and Agostin and this and that I would like to go to these places around Naples and they do everything custom made for us you know so that's called Camisa Andrea because this you know we feel that it's really something that he did you know and he saw her beach and we set shorts.

50:22The Gstaad Guy:I love tasteful hotel gift shops. They're few and far between. I haven't seen many in the world. Your gift shop is beautiful and I'm really honored to have Pubelle as a part of it. It's our pleasure. We have now the Pubelle set. And we did a very big, big personal, you know, the Jolly. Exactly. And the logo. Jolly, you know, this was my Carlino's car. The famous Carlino car. I learned how to drive with this car. So we have the blue car, the blue Fiat. We have the iconic Dolphin logo. We have Carlino's hat. The iconic sun hat. The key? The key of the room. The key of the room. The lucky chili. Yeah.

51:03The Gstaad Guy:Which is actually a horn, a red horn. It's lucky chili, it looks like a horn. Exactly. It's again, it says for bad luck. For bad luck or for good luck. It brings good luck against the bad luck. Fine. It's like the Greek eye, I guess. yeah we also have and then we have the the the Bue yeah how do you call that in Italian uh Materassino the Mater very different to French Bue Materassino so we have the big orange and white HSP Hotel San Pietro Materassino then we have the dolphins we also did one with the dolphins it is part of our logo exactly I think those are the six charms I'm not missing anything six exclusive charms we had so many ideas we made so many samples that now you see we're missing one the sushi truck the sushi truck yeah it's true right the tuk-tuk yeah came by helicopter you guys craned it in by helicopter yeah only way it didn't fit through the lobby no not at all wow well so we have seven exclusive charms exclusively available at the property people have seen them on our instagram and on our websites but only the the customers and family of ilsa and pietro can wear them which which I love because I, my whole vision with Pubell and even with Shtadgai is to allow that commonality between people and that family feeling between people where they can bond over similar things and carry those bonds around the world.

52:33The Gstaad Guy:And I have that. I have, I, the first time I visited three years ago and I was just a day guest, I bought a crew neck sweater. Ah, yeah, yeah. Because I was cold. I was visiting a friend who was staying here. Yeah. and i wore it around the world for that year and every time i wore it i'd have one person oh my god we have a new one we have some new shirts coming uh in a week i sent some i'd love to see it speaking of andrea yeah what do you think it takes for a general manager of a hotel to be an exceptional general manager? You have to be so patient. And you have to have a natural skill of being with people.

53:20You really have to like everything in life. There is not a secret. Why are you successful in what you do? Because you believe in what you do and you like to do it. And it doesn't take as big effort to be like somebody. You have to be skilled, like a pianist, like a soccer player, like everything. Certain things, I understand, I've been in business school, but certain things you cannot learn and nobody can teach you. Either you have it or you don't have it. You are born, even in this work, you cannot impose to be an otelier to somebody who doesn't like to be an otelier. You will never be good as any other job.

53:57And Andrea had a very important background because it's important that when he came, he already knew all the departments that make an otel. So he already knew them all. He already worked in different departments, had different experiences. But the reason why I think he did his job, he's doing his job so well that he loves the place. He loves to grow together with us and with his family and with his daughter. And they like to live here. They love Naples. And just last week, he told me I could never work in a hotel where people are not happy. I cannot work with people that are working with me that are not happy.

54:40I cannot work with clients that are not happy. So really, you get a special charge, you know, when a client pays so... I mean, it takes a lot, you know, like now we have the CEO of one of the most important company in the world and he had just spent one hour and a half that just wanted to be with us, get to know more about us, you know, want to know about the history of the place because his uncle was one of our clients. He said, can you tell me where my uncle used to sit? I know he was a heavy drinker, he would like to drink, where he was sitting, what was his habits? And I made this, it helps to build up memories that eventually can help you or will help you in bedtimes.

55:24This is really something important to me. Sometimes it happens that we have couples that been coming for so long, one of them dies. So the reaction is very brutal. Either they want to come back right away because they want to try to have the same feeling, even that they're alone, or they don't want to come at all because it hurts them too much. And so they call, but we never cut the communication.

55:49The Gstaad Guy:You briefly mentioned the CEO that likes to spend time with the team. One of our mutual of friends who will remain unnamed. He's a very private man. And I met him at Ilsen Pietro and became a close friend of his and he's become a close friend of mine. And he recently told me that how you do anything is how you do everything, or at least is how it should be. Same love and attitude you bring into a task should be how you approach all tasks with that same passion. That is something that I see at the property. And I think that's something that really attracts productive people like CEOs from around the world who come back to Ilse and Pietro over and over again.

56:30I think it's the only thing that makes sense to me

56:34The Gstaad Guy:because I don't think they're passionate about hospitality. I don't think they're passionate about swimming or tennis. Maybe some are. But for the most part, I think they're really passionate about the detail across the board, the breadth with depth, which is very rare. But whatever they do at San Pietro, they could do it anywhere else in the world. Some of them wouldn't even need to say, they would say home, you know, that's the time they got everything. Listen, it's like, if you are fortunate to have a grandmother and your grandmother is very nice, very welcoming, cooks, she keeps for you the best food she has and she makes the best recipes she knows and she enjoys spending time with you, you go and visit her.

57:25If the grandma is nasty and always complains and always speaks about her not feeling well and being sick and getting old, you don't want to see her. You don't go to see her. I think that's what it is. That's true. Sometimes, you know, we're still animals. We feel these things. Yeah.

57:44The Gstaad Guy:I guess that's why we come back to the hotel. I think so, because even me, I sometimes don't even believe them when they're so complimentary. I mean, they're just one of fun on me, you know? They run so many big companies. They're so important. They can move economies. When you have some of these super important people that they write you letters, they're three pages long, handwritten. It's actually surreal, by the way, to be a guest, to sit on the chaise longue by the sea and to see who's on my right and who's on my left. It's like Davos, like the WEF. And they're just chilling in Positano. That's what makes our world so interesting.

58:28Every day is different from the other. You go, you never know what is going to happen.

58:33The Gstaad Guy:What I love about our generation and the current time that we're in is the access people have to knowledge and to information and the passion people feel towards that. I think we spoke about this yesterday. consumers and guests of Eats and Pietro, for example, are getting younger and younger. Yeah. And I think they're actually becoming more and more discerning. They care more about those five attributes of Eulet and Chateau you spoke about. That's why our clients are getting younger and younger. They know value at a younger age. In a world that you can trust anyone and there's something you can trust.

59:06You see this there, you know, but you know, it's easy to say you don't have to compromise. But the world has changed so much that whatever you were able to do 30 years ago is so more complicated now.

59:18The Gstaad Guy:It's like you have to make an effort to eat organic. Back then everything was organic. I know. Can you afford to be organic? If you live in New York, if you live in Paris, how can you be organic if you don't have the means? Impossible. How can you? I mean, even when I go to the cities and I have to buy food, I mean, it's crazy. I don't want to look like I'm posh or whatever pretentious because, you know, I'm lagging up, but since I have the possibility of doing it, I do it. Some people have the same possibility. They don't do it. I think you are a multi-hyphenate. You have many skills and you can wear many different hats.

59:54The Gstaad Guy:But as an outsider who has had the chance to spend more and more time with you, I think your greatest skill is choosing great people and investing in great people. I think you have an amazing talent and process, I assume, at understanding someone and making people who you feel value aligned with lifelong friends, partners, and family. I think a lot of the listeners struggle with that. I think a lot of the listeners sometimes choose to work with the wrong people or choose to befriend the wrong people. Can you maybe help extend the framework that people can use to find value aligned? I, you know, now we have all these ad hunters, all these people that eventually they interview you.

1:00:48I participate in some interviews because some interviews not even happen online, you know? And since I am an usual hotelier, I'm so good friends with people, you know, there's always distinction. I'm a hotel owner, I'm a manager, but it's not an owner, the owners stick with the owners, managers, they know I don't belong to any of these two groups. So for me when I interview somebody, I speak to somebody, it's not important what he is able to do now. For me it's important what he's able to do in the future. For me it's important commitment, for me it's important these values. I don't care what he's able to do now because we will train him.

1:01:29This is the nice thing. When you come, even the new employees, you know, the bid lost because everything is so different, you know, from the place where they've worked before. But after two weeks, they feel part of the family. And they don't even need a big training because there are so many good examples around them. And if they do something different, everybody's going to notice. So it's important what you want to do. Andrea, when he came, he was food and beverage manager. And step by step, he became the general manager. And this is the same with so many of them. Even Mimo here that now is running the Palazzo Antagros, he came as a waiter.

1:02:13You know, you have to be forgiving. It's always two hands. One you give and one you take. Never use one hand, always use both.

1:02:22The Gstaad Guy:What about when it comes to the feeling you look for in people? like ignoring the skill when it comes to an emotion so I for me it's very important the way you your body language because if you are an educated person you behave in a certain way if you're not an educated person even your body language shows and I think the substance has also form both things are important one without the other is not worth it. So this is for me it's the education and the approach and to be humble. Sometimes I don't even think I'm the owner of whatever. I also had the first interviews, it's always Andrea and Massimo runs the interview.

1:03:15Then you know then there's the second and then there's the last one together with all of us because it's important that your team makes the team. You can impose somebody in the team if the team doesn't allow them to get in. So you have to be very democratic. You win together, you lose together. Otherwise you create differences and this is not good. You want your kids home all to be happy in the same way. They're different so you may run in a way with another way but you have to respect their personality.

1:03:52The Gstaad Guy:I'd love to briefly talk about italy i think italy is topographically the most beautiful country in the world i think it is maybe as diverse as the united states in terms of topography except it is i think it's a 50th of the size maybe even less so you can experience any emotion any landscape and it all comes together in a very unique and beautiful way thanks to its people and culture You know, it's like sometimes like in the families, when the father and the mother are divorced and they're two bad parents, you know, the kids sometimes either they get, they got destroyed or they get, you know, they grow up fantastically.

1:04:33This is the case in Italy. Nothing works for the terms of the government. They have to try to make it work by themselves. So this is what happens in Italy. You know, people have this proudness of the belonging of the region where they are. And there is this sense of hospitality, even here in Positano, we have been invaded by the Turkish, by the Moorish, by the Germans, by the Romans, by the Greeks. Hey, by the least, so we have, you know, we have all kinds of

1:05:03invasions and we don't feel we belong to our only place, we belong to the world. Just look at the architecture of Positano, Byzantine, Black Madonna, domes. We still We are Arabics, we are Sicilians, we are Romans, we are Germans. I mean, I don't look Positanese at all. But Southern Italy, in a way, is like in Spain, you know, it's a different lifestyle. They make risotto in Northern Italy, they make risotto with butter, we make risotto with olive oil. It doesn't mean that one is better than the other. It depends where you cook it. because if you cook it here that it's 40 degrees, you better use olive oil.

1:05:44If you make a risotto in Northern Italy, in Milan, in the wintertime, you need to have butter. So we are different in a way, but I think that it's so nice to be different because you can experience, as you said before, in such a small nation, so many different experiences. Even in the Amalfikos, you come to Iskia, you have one feeling. you go to Cabo you have a second one you come to Amalfi because you go to Poisson you go to Ravello it's totally different where else you can just move 20 kilometers and and live you feel like living in a different world

1:06:23The Gstaad Guy:it's fantastic yeah it's very rare on this podcast we always play a game of a la poubelle versus fantastique where our guests share the things they find to be a la poubelle which in French is to the trash I don't know and the things they deem to be fantastique and want to celebrate Ah, la poubelle est fantastique. Okay, you decide whatever is good enough. Exactly. Okay. Can you please share a few things that you deem to be fantastique and a few things you deem to be a la poubelle? A la poubelle, for sure, over tourism. First one, to me. A la poubelle, aussi, not taking care of the environment, not respecting the place where you live and the people around yourself.

1:07:02A la poubelle, also, the entrepreneurs only think that the only value is money, and not the added value that you can create around you. It's not the end. Money is a mean to do things. Fantastique, people who value. Fantastique, people who listen to you. Fantastique, people who think before saying anything. Fantastique is playing a good role to improve somebody else's life. Fantastique, try to be an example. Not only for your success, but just for the way you drive your life and the people around you. A la poubelle, people follow fashions and trends. They don't last long. And you always have to change.

1:07:53If you are yourself, you don't have to change. You just have to listen to whatever's happening, adapt yourself in the way you think is better.

1:08:01The Gstaad Guy:Be timeless and not timely. Yeah. That involves so much. It's such a big effort to be, you know, because then you have to be not what you are. A La Pubelle is also people who speak about tourism. In Italy, tourism becomes like soccer. Everybody's own recipe, everybody has something to say. Everybody thinks it's not better than anybody else. People have been traveling, all the politicians speak about politics, tourism, and they've been maybe not even in Rome. a la pobelle is not being responsible for the role you can play in the society fantastic is to feel part of a community of people that you respect them and they respect you fantastic is to attract the new generations and the new talents fantastic is that you have the mean to do what you want and you don't ask anything to anyone Maybe your brothers, your families, your wife, your family, but that's it.

1:09:09And fantastic is to have great friends that are friends of yours, not because you are the owner of San Pietro, but eventually because you're a good person.

1:09:17The Gstaad Guy:The last one is my favorite. Although they're all amazing. It's true, because this is the thing that always with, also when I was younger, with girlfriends, you know, but is she dating me because I'm the owner of San Pietro, she's on vacation, or just because she really likes me? it's usually a function of the time thank god all my girlfriends and my wife is people that I met on a different environment where she was not able to know who I was I didn't know who she was for quite a long time so to have you need when you live in tourism and some part of your life is not the normal day life normal other people you need to be grounded and live have a home normal life you need it if for your brain sanity also with your friends my friends always the same you know that I people have been in school with me friends that had four years ago and same friends that I have now of course there are some of that I've had it, but I still like to stick to my principles.

1:10:31You really have to feel very fortunate that you can do like this because of course, there are so many reasons why you can do it. So many other people would like to do it, but they can't. But since you can, you have to exercise your right of doing it. Is there a message you'd like to leave the audience with today? I feel so fortunate of my life. Sometimes I also feel tired because if I see whatever we have done with one body in so long but I still have the strength of going on and I think that I will be able to pass this legacy to somebody who will deserve and will show that he can keep it and improve it.

1:11:11Everything can improve I say I always say to tell like we are not if one Pope dies there will be another one. So nobody is indispensable. Everybody is replaceable. But in this work, I think it's more complicated that this can happen. So, but I feel blessed.

1:11:37The Gstaad Guy:I feel very blessed and grateful to be sitting here today to have this conversation with you. It is a really special part of the world. It's the most serious conversation we had so far? I think so. Usually we're just joking around and having a laugh. Thank God. Thank God. But it's great to be here. And I'm excited to see what you continue to grow Ilse and Pietro into. Big success to you too. And thank you for all you do. Thank you, Vito. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Start Guy podcast. If you're keen to learn more, please follow along by engaging with our social channels on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

1:12:19The Gstaad Guy:And we look forward to seeing you next week. Merci beaucoup. A la prochaine and a big hug from the Start Guy.