Even when resting, our doors are never fully closed

Dear guests,

While it is true that today, 1 April, is April Fool’s Day, we want you to take this message seriously. We want to take a moment to thank the people responsible for allowing us, and you, to live this absolute dream.

Larissa, Gaya, Samuele, Thiagaye, Baba Sarr…

Dear everyone. I should name you one by one and add your picture until the pages of this newsletter are heaving with information. After all, we owe you our thanks, to each and every single one of you. The winter season has just ended and, while we may be resting in the run-up to the next season, we have left the doors of our mountain Case ajar. And the only reason we manage to keep them open in the first place is because of you.

Being away from your home for months on end, choosing to stay with us, is not easy. I am well aware of that. We do hope, that despite the hardship, Casa Costa has become, at least partially, your home away from home.

It must have been hard working during the holidays, when you normally would have been together with your family and friends. And yet you were here with us, and with our guests – and we are truly grateful for that.

Wearing a smile 24/7 is not the easiest of tasks, and yet I saw you doing precisely that. You were committed to it. Giulan. Thank you for he smiles you gifted our guests, and thank you – because it is only because of you that Casa Costa, and the Hotel La Perla, Berghotel Ladinia, L’Murin, Stüa de Michil stayed open all these months. If our guests felt at home these last few months, it is no little part due to you. So, thank you.

I know how much you have missed out on in these months away from your home. How many wishes went unfulfilled. How many family outings you missed. Once upon a time, we would write letters and send postcards – luckily enough, today we can send messages and pictures on our phones, and the distances do not seem as vast as they did before. Our mountains were your constant companions in these months – the first thing you saw in the morning, a glimpse of them through the windows, and the last thing you saw before going to sleep. And our guests! How many of them you met, arriving at our Case to take a break from the whirlwind that is life.

We are sure melancholy must have gripped you heart from time to time, letting your thoughts roam who knows where. And some of you arrived here, alone, and will return home enriched with new life. Because the mountains, with their presence and beauty, can brush that fleeting melancholy away, and give you a new lease of life. You were alone, but now carry a new energy in you – and it fills us with joy to know this little miracle happened here, while with us. What a special moment for you and for your family, a memory to look back on in the future with fondness.

You never gave anyone a fake smile: your smiles always came from a place of peace and serenity. That is part and parcel of our job – to be a shining beacon of positivity that can inspire others. Our world is torn asunder as it is and if we add fuel to its flames, what will happen? What we do and believe in is hospitality – we welcome people into our homes. And hospitality needs to be done well – otherwise our raison d’être becomes debased. Thanks for having gifted us your time, your joy, your dedication – we will not lose touch, because time flies, and summer is just around the corner!

Thank you for having taken care of the Gran Fodà, our new Casa in San Vigilio, on Plan de Corones (many of our guests still do not know about this new member of the family – so why not take a look and find out more?)

Thank you for having taken care of the Costa Family Foundation. You said it inspired you to visit many of the projects. Some of you want to go to Uganda, others to Tibet, and others to see where the saffron grows.

Giulan, for having taken care of the Posta Marcucci: you are always open for business, and now that spring is in the air, Tuscany is even more magical. And you will be there to greet our guests.

Thanks, for having taken care of the work at the new SPA.

Thanks, to our sales teams in Bassano – you may not be in the thick of it, but you are just around the corner, and an integral part of what we do.

All this reminds me of Ulysses and his travels. You are all travellers in the world of hospitality, where comings and goings, meetings, and new encounters are part of your life. We travel and roam the world only to return to where we came from. To paraphrase Chatwin, another great traveller, who in an interview with Antonio Gnoli (published in La nostalgia dello spazio) said that returning somewhere means coming full circle, an experience which cannot be offered by travelling without planning to return; indeed, returning somewhere quells our restlessness. And the Odyssey is the story of a voyage, one to return home, which echoes the feeling that each traveller knows well: we long to travel but will always want to return to where we came from.

I wish you a safe journey back to your homes, cities, villages, countries. We will be waiting here for you in a Casa that, we hope, has become your home away from home. A Casa which would not make sense without you. See you soon – after all, our doors are never closed.

.m