If You Want to Live a Hundred Years without Suffering, Take the World as It Comes

This year, Grand Hotel Miramare celebrates its 120th anniversary. We’ve distilled the past twelve decades into twelve principles that now guide our approach to life. Each principle is a lesson learned from each decade, with our twelfth and final principle below covering 2013 to today.

In previous articles reviewing our past 12 decades, we’ve started each one with a summary of Italy during that particular decade. From the booming fifties to the excessive eighties.

Now that we’re writing about the 2010s there is perhaps less need to paint a picture of what’s gone on outside the Miramare - you likely know about that already - so hopefully you’ll forgive us if we turn our gaze inwards and talk all about ourselves!

The past ten years at the Miramare have all been about creating a community.

Thanks to the hotel’s family-owned history, we have always had a strong community of guests: those friends and families who return every year to say hello and explore a new corner of the Miramare. So really the past decade has been about creating a strong community amongst the staff.

Andrea - the Miramare’s owner - has always been passionate about staying fluid and flexible. When he first started working at the hotel, staff were very much treated as colleagues. Now they are treated as family.

Andrea has spent our twelfth decade creating a common language between those working inside the hotel so that everyone knows what’s going on, feels supported, and feels free to express their mind.

Of course this benefits everyone working here, but it also has a positive effect on those staying here. It translates into a relaxing, regenerating, and authentic experience for guests. Everything is more personal, almost home-like.

All of which leads us to our twelfth and final principle for life: se vuoi vivere cent’anni senza pene, prendi il mondo come viene. Or in English: if you want to live a hundred years without suffering, take the world as it comes.

In a world of change, and with challenges such as the Covid pandemic, we do our best to avoid drama.

Even as a grand hotel, the Miramare has a relaxed air and outlook on life. We’re all about living for the moment. Taking time. And celebrating life for all its beauty: food, wine, design, art, outdoors, music and family.

Everything here is social, straightforward and stylish.

It’s life as it should be. Full of joy. And a place where you can live your memories, feel safe, and spend your days in the best way possible.

This is all encapsulated in the lifestyle and mood of ‘Estate Italiana’. A mix of dolce far niente (the sweetness of doing nothing) and la dolce vita (the good life). Sunbeds and secluded beach coves. Bright blue seas and calm green gardens. Spritzes and sunsets.

As we come to the close of our 120th birthday celebrations, we’re proud to showcase our place in Italy’s noble history but also excited to present a contemporary twist that will guide the hotel into its thirteenth decade and beyond.

With that in mind, next year we’ll be introducing a reinvigorated look and feel for Grand Hotel Miramare that recognises this balance between past and future. This will start with a refreshed website, and continue with small new touches around the hotel.

We’re excited for you to see it all but, for now, thank you for being part of our 120-year-old (and counting) story. Here’s to many more summd many more birthdays!