Image courtesy of Valentina De Santis
When you enter the resplendent Passalacqua, voted the world’s best hotel in 2023, it feels like coming home. Part of that has to do with the fact that the Lake Como hotel was originally a private villa, but most of it has to do with the passion and genius of the woman behind its magic: Valentina De Santis.
Valentina and her parents also own and run the famed Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a veritable Lake Como landmark. Her grandfather acquired the glamorous icon in the early 70s. Valentina essentially grew up in the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, visiting when school was no longer in session, staying there with her parents in a small house on the property. She was the Italian equivalent of Eloise at the Plaza: Valentina at the Tremezzo.
She loved everything about the hotel: its staff, its location, its activity. Her favorite spots to explore were the kitchen (of course), the pantry (she loved labeling the wines, and ensuring each product from the day’s delivery had its proper place) and the reception’s back office.
“I was making people crazy, and they were all losing so much time because of me,” she said recently, with a nostalgic smile. “But I felt so useful. I thought that the whole world was going on because of my help.”
In a way, Valentina, who is an only child, always knew she would one day enter the hospitality world, as both her father and grandfather had.
“I think that I had already in my heart the fact that this was my destiny. It was my DNA,” she said. But Valentina didn’t officially join the family business until her father asked her to, on the occasion of Grand Hotel Tremezzo’s centenary, in 2010.
A gradual love affair
Valentina De Santis as a child & Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Lake Como's hotel icon
After Valentina graduated university, she wanted to forge her own path.
“I wanted to take my first steps in the world of work by myself. And of course I love the hotels, but I was not really understanding the whole thing that is behind the hotel,” she said.
After graduating, she worked at a top management consulting firm, and found that the joy she experienced as a child at her family’s hotel still trickled into her daily work.
“I always had in mind hospitality,” she shared. “I was very lucky because the team I was always working with specialized in luxury and fashion. And all the hospitality projects that by chance passed in the company arrived on my desk.”
Although Valentina’s passion for hospitality was innate, when her father asked her to join the family company, she was driven more by a sense of responsibility for keeping Grand Hotel Tremezzo’s rich history alive.
“The thing that keeps you attached is really the sense of privilege you have to bring on this incredible story,” she said, adding how the story is not only that of her family, but of the family that came before her. “I always felt privileged and the sense of responsibility in a nice way, not in a heavy way. It was never something that was a big weight on me, but actually something that made me feel honored.”
Valentina read the diaries of the daughter of the previous owners, which only further sparked her sense of responsibility.
“You really feel what's behind it,” she added. “It's not a normal business. A hotel is a love affair…Even the family before us, it was their life. It was not a job. It was a mission, something that they embraced as a lifestyle.”
Although Valentina was exceptionally grateful for and excited about this new adventure, the transition was a challenging one.
“At the beginning, I was desperate,” she recalled. “The first week I was crying all day saying, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do in a hotel?’ So it was not love at first sight when I started.”
But eventually, everything clicked.
“I fell crazily in love with this job and with this industry,” she said, adding that, regarding the hospitality world, “I always knew, but it was a gradual love affair.”
She enjoyed exploring the numerous ways she could take the hotel in new directions, and meeting a rotation of endlessly fascinating people. She loved learning from others, and she loved bringing joy to others.
“When I started to see all these horizons and these opportunities that I didn't know existed, then it was like exponential love,” she said.
Valentina especially loves being a host, which her contagious warmth, kindness and passion make evident. And, mirroring her interests as a child, she fell in love with all the intricacies and inner workings behind the hotel. So when the opportunity to open up a sister property presented itself, it’s no surprise that Valentina succeeded in creating something supremely special, a unique gem in Lake Como’s crown.
The birth of Passalacqua
Images courtesy of Valentina De Santis & Passalacqua
Valentina and her parents weren’t necessarily looking for a property to accompany Grand Hotel Tremezzo, but some things — like Passalacqua — are too perfect to pass up. The 18th-century lakeside villa was, before the De Santises, most recently owned by an American. It was rumored to have the most expensive price tag ever for a villa in Europe. The family expressed cautious interest in the property, and learned that it would be sold at an ultra-exclusive auction in a short three weeks. It would be difficult to even get into the rapidly approaching auction, but the property spoke to them.
“We entered this gate,” Valentina recalled. “I almost had a heart attack. You know, when you feel the vibration of a place… It was totally love at first sight.”
And she wasn’t alone. After touring the grounds individually, she and her parents reconvened.
“We were all crazy in love,” she explained. “We said, ‘We want it. It's beautiful. This is our dream destination.’”
Valentina was drawn to the villa’s lush gardens, its fountains, the colorful flowers, the pervasive sense of calm… In fact, on the day she visited, she explained that it was rather dreary, but as she was entering the gate, a ray of sunshine broke from the clouds, illuminating the entrance. She insists that she is not into the woo-woo, but she nonetheless felt this was a sign.
But she and her parents knew that the auction would likely not result in success. The villa was too perfect, too in-demand and likely too expensive. How could they compete with the roster of bidders?
“I remember the day, taking pictures, saying, ‘Oh my God, this will be the last time that I enter this beautiful place,’” Valentina said. “And I don't know how it happened, but we made it. We got it during the auction.”
Preserving Italian excellence
Images courtesy of Passalacqua
Everyone was cheering the De Santis family on. The locals wanted the family to acquire the villa, as Lake Como — beautiful as it is — has quickly become awash with tourists and foreign owners. It’s increasingly rare to find a hotel owned by Italians, let alone local Italians. The De Santises sought to disrupt this trend.
“Passalacqua was completely the opposite because it was a villa that was already owned by an American, and came back to the hands of a local family,” Valentina said.
To further give back to their own destination — their home — Valentina and her parents focused on imbuing the villa with an Italian spirit. They didn’t want to cater to the whims of tourists, nor did they want to add another grande-dame hotel to Lake Como’s shores. They wanted to create something special — combining luxury, history and intimacy — and to do so in their own way.
“We just wanted to respect our soul. We wanted to put our taste, our soul, our idea into that, hoping that the rest of the world liked it,” Valentina added. “We wanted to please ourselves first.”
They treated the villa as if it was their own house. And that’s how they wanted it to feel to future guests: Passalacqua would be no mere hotel, but rather a home.
The family had fun designing the property, an exceptionally tasteful curation of things that brought them joy. Valentina’s parents visited many antique fairs and markets, collecting what caught their eye, and Valentina would inevitably find the perfect place for each gem.
“When we were working on a room, we didn't know the end result,” she said. “So from an interior design perspective, it sounds totally weird. But it was just a layering of choices.”
A beautiful layering of choices, we might add. In each room, antique ceilings and floors created a cozy, luxurious atmosphere. Then came the wall colors. They would experiment a bit before settling on the one that felt right (a handsome olive green, a soothing blush, an elegant burgundy). Then, each room would be adorned with the treasures the family found over the years.
“We just chose things that we loved, and when you have beautiful things and a beautiful place, there is always a good match somewhere,” Valentina said.
Passalacqua is also an homage to Italian craftsmanship. When designing the interiors, Valentina worked almost exclusively with Italian artisans. (One notable exception is the spa’s elaborate hand-made Moroccan chandelier, where intricate etchings scatter the light just so.)
The garden is itself an elaborate piece of art. The villa came with an already gorgeous expanse of flora; when designing the gardens, Valentina sought to respect the past.
“We just looked at the history and we restored what it was meant to be,” she said. “What we also discovered is that every terrace had its own soul.”
At Passalacqua, the gardens are meant to be an extension of the hotel. Just as each room is unique, each plot within the garden is itself unique. There is an olive grove, a zen garden, a rose garden (the setting for romantic al-fresco dinners), a collection of fruit trees, a garden where guests can enjoy spa treatments. Every space has a purpose.
The outdoor environment’s tranquility is enhanced by the property’s intricate water network: Passalacqua means “passing of the water,” after all. With the property’s array of fountains and waterfalls, guests are always serenaded to the sound of water.
“There is not a single corner where you cannot feel the sound of music,” Valentina said.
The music is quite literal — staying at Passalacqua feels akin to a real-life fairytale — but it is also a feeling, the result of the care and love Valentina and her family have poured into their home away from home. As Lake Como continues to attract tourists and investors, places like Passalacqua and Grand Hotel Tremezzo become all the more special. Despite the change, however, Valentina remains grounded, ever passionate to treat others to the experience of a lifetime.
“I think that the key for the future is to stay very rooted to what our real essence is, which is family,” she said. “We can give an experience which is authentic and made with the heart, and which is rooted in our family traditions.”
