La Nostra storia...

Nonna Alaide

On this page about the ‘Hotel Da Italo’, rich in history and tradition, I would like to tell you, using simple words and some interesting original photos, about how my grandparents "Italo & Alaide" opened and ran the ‘Hotel Da Italo’; and where I still work with my family today, following the work my grandparents began nearly 50 years ago…
Silvano Pancani

In the photo on the left, my grandmother Alaide in a moment of relax, at one of the tables of the Hotel……

On May 1^st, 1954, my grandfather Italo and my grandmother Alaide decided to open the first little restaurant in our small town. In that period only a little muletrack reached Seccheto and the first clients came to Seccheto by boat. At that time the coastal area was uninhabited and the sea was beautiful and crystal clear (just as it is today). After two years, that is in 1956, my grandfather decided to add on to the restaurant three hotel bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The hotel was enlarged and every year more "Clients" arrived.

My grandmother Alaide was a very good cook and she began cooking her best fish recipes – more and more tourists began to arrive. My grandfather Italo continued cultivating the land during the day but in the evening he helped out in the bar. In 1965 the hotel was enlarged to add on seven more bedrooms, most with private bathrooms, and the restaurant and the kitchen were made bigger. Then on to the 1970s and the 1980s when there was a boom in tourism……

My grandparents now ran a ‘pensione’ with 12 bedrooms. My grandmother Alaide was tireless in spending all her time in the kitchen, in the laundry and with all kinds of work in the hotel. My grandfather worked in the little family vineyard, grew vegetables and had little time to help my grandmother – and the years went by... Unfortunately in 1987, my grandfather Italo died from a serious illness and my grandmother, who is now 92, still remembers all the work they did and is happy to see that the hard work of a lifetime still continues...