LOCKDOWN LEADER: Valentina de Santis
An interior designer, and CEO and owner of Grand Hotel Tremezzo, the multi-talented Valentina de Santis is keeping upbeat throughout the pandemic. Throughout the lockdown period she has been inviting fans to engage in the hotel’s history and legacy, commenting on the return of tourism to the country and recently donated the budget of this year’s lavish hotel anniversary gala to north Italian hospitals struggling to cope under the COVID-19 pressures.
“Italy has always been a favourite destination of travellers all over the world, and even coronavirus is not stopping the unconditional love we feel from overseas at this time,” she told the Telegraph earlier this month. “We’re gaining strength in receiving inspiring messages from all our friends, partners and guests who are ready to show their support whenever the recovery starts.”
If many hotel guests cancelled their spring holidays on Lake Como due to the lockdown, the positive news was most of them immediately re-booked for the following year: the hotel is seeing an unprecedented pick-up on bookings for March 2021. “The numbers make us confident that the distress we’re living in right now will be repaid by an unparalleled season in 2021,” she says.
Those future guests who reserve a room now will also be treated to preferable rates and special free add-ons, such as a private boat tour of Lake Como, worth upwards of £200 on its own. There’s also the opportunity to navigate the waters in a James Bond-inspired amphibious car, the Amphicar 770, that cruises past James Bond film location Villa Balbianello, and visit the Lake’s first premium beach club, complete with chic sun loungers and a floating swimming pool. Pre-payers will also receive a 15% discount off the best available rates until mid-May, and will be offered full refunds up to 24 hours in advance if they need to cancel.
But the Tremezzo is hardly dragging its heels until then: during the lockdown, it has created its own Spotify playlist, commissioned colouring-in print-outs for children by local artists, and are regularly sharing some of their favourite ‘love stories’ on Facebook, from a collection of guest letters discovered in the hotel through history – one of Valentina's most treasured archives.