14
Lifestyle
Massimo Nava
Italians Do it Better TEXT & PHOTOS BY: JANUARIA PIROMALLO
There’s a saying in Gstaad: Italians do it better. Anyone who has spent any time at all in the region knows the best of the best in hôtellerie is in Italian hands. As every hotel boasts a fair amount of staff who hail from ”the boot”, we are happy to mention just a few of the long-serving Italians who are responsible for making Gstaad the place it is today.
Gildo Romagnolo
The Granddaddy is Gianni Biggi, a Neapolitan who arrived fresh faced and freshly diploma-ed in Gstaad at the age of 23. Biggi started at the bottom, as maincourantier at the Palace, eventually working his way up to senior management. He first had the pleasure of directing and co-owning the Hotel Olden, then the Grand Hotel Park engaged him for its Board of Directors, where he still sits today. Never one to rest on his laurels, Biggi has recently taken a position as Co-Managing Director of the five-star Le Royal in
Gianni Biggi
Crans-Montana, which is due to open shortly. Biggi’s elegant appearance and exquisite manners make him a connoisseur of ways and worlds, even those which are diametrically opposed. In fact, as a trained reiki master, Biggi speaks of yin and yang and how to channel positive energies. Another treasure is Gildo Romagnolo, the gourmet voice of the Palace for 40 years. The Bistro at the hotel, a meeting place of the international jet set, is even named in his honour. Gildo is intimately acquainted with the guests – their likes and dislikes – and caters to them with specialities like slivers of white truffle of Alba on freshly made tagliolini. And if Gildo is the patriarch of the Palace family, then the other waiters are his beloved and adopted children. His “eldest” is Domenico, nicknamed Mimi. This immigrant from Ischia has worked the cloakroom for decades; he knows that furs, like diamonds, are a girl’s best friend. Tonino Pirina, from Sardegna, is the most powerful doorman in the Saanenland. He alone decides who will enter into the famous Greengo nightclub. At just a glance he can guess the correct age of the teenage