As a child growing up in Lake Como, Valentina De Santis spent time with her grandfather in his office. But it wasn’t just any office; it was the office of the famed Grand Hotel Tremezzo, which her grandfather acquired in 1973 and which is still owned by the family. Like a modern-day Eloise, De Santis spent her formative years on property.
Today, De Santis serves as the CEO and owner at Grand Hotel Tremezzo as well as Passalacqua and the Sheraton Lake Como. But her journey as an entrepreneur began long before she officially joined the family business, “My journey actually began when I was just a child, without my even realizing it,” De Santis tells GRAZIA USA. “In a primary school essay about my future as a grown-up, I described myself sitting in my grandfather’s office managing hotels. It wasn’t until two decades later that I officially joined the family business, in 2010 to be exact.”
This is when De Santis truly immersed herself in the family business, helping to develop the sales and marketing strategy for the hotel. “But it was in my DNA right from the start,” says De Santis. “[2010] was a very special year for the hotel and my entire family, the centenary of the Grand Hotel Tremezzo. A lot has changed since then: I moved from marketing manager to CEO, and the company keeps evolving, right through to adding Passalacqua in 2022. What never changes, however, is the passion. This is what I love most about my life and my journey – I don’t even like to call it a job, it is a labor of pure love and passion.”
For De Santis, her main source of inspiration, “the thing that made me the person I am today, is my family,” she shares. “Making the dream come true that my grandfather and my grandmother envisioned 50 years ago has been my greatest honor; it’s also the engine driving everything I do. I look to my mother as an inspiration in elegance, and my father in what it means to be an entrepreneur.”
De Santis continues: “I try to live by three core principles that inspire me every day: reverence for the past, the pursuit of bellezza, and an honest vision grounded in strong values. But there is inspiration in everything and everyone that surrounds me.”
De Santis’ latest project has proved to be a true testament to her vision and commitment: Passalacqua, which opened in 2022, is already topping lists as the best hotel in the world. De Santis and her family purchased the former private estate on the lake in 2018 with an eye toward turning it into a resort. With only 24 rooms, Passalacqua — set on seven acres amid stunning terraced gardens — is the perfect mix of neoclassical elegance (Murano glass chandeliers, marble touches, and taffeta curtains) mixed with modern touches including a state-of-the-art “tness center and spa, tennis courts and staff uniforms by Giuliva Heritage.
But none of this would be possible without De Santis and her unwavering dedication.
“I am a person who always has “le mani in pasta”, as we say in Italian, my hands literally wrist-deep in the dough,” says De Santis. “This image is a good description of how I go about bringing ideas – and dreams – to life, because I’ve never been scared of getting my hands dirty. Clearly, it takes time to obtain the perfect result, and patience is a hard-won virtue, but I never stop investing energy and creativity until I achieve what I envisioned at the start.
My motto is: ‘If you can dream it, you can do it’, and I intend to keep on dreaming and dreaming as long as I can.”
Read GRAZIA USA’s Spring Issue featuring cover star Kacey Musgraves:
