Our story

The story of your hotel

In 1945 one of the protagonists of the story I am about to tell you was born: Gilberto (oh… I will tell you a secret, his name should be Egidio but we will continue to call him Gilberto, as he likes it that way).
And it was at that time that his mother Maria and dad Ernesto, who was a builder at the time, decided to throw themselves into the world of tourism.

These were the years in which Rimini began to talk about welcoming and hospitality, when some people hosted the tourists in their own homes, the years we love to call “Golden”, thanks to their light-heartedness and positivity because everything was truly possible. And it was in this very period that the idea was born to build a bigger “home”, maybe with a “kitchen” that would be suitable for making something to eat for a few more “guests”.

The concept of “Home”

I would like to dwell on the concept of “HOME” for a moment.

I interviewed Gilberto’s Historic Memory (sadly I did not have the chance to know Ernesto and Maria) and I understood many things about the famous “Romagna welcome”. As well as being an attitude, believe me, I do not exaggerate when I define it a real vocation towards the truest and most sincere welcome.

The stories told are all true and you understand from the look in the eyes of the person who tells them, not from the words, that everything that was done for the guests was natural and spontaneous: “you opened the doors to home, they came into the family, you gave them a bed, you prepared the food and it was all a party” – remembered Gilberto with nostalgia..

The place that hosted the first tourists, families, was the same place in which Gilberto and his parents Ernesto and Maria lived. Even in winter naturally.

The seasons passed and the number of guests grew and the good Ernesto was already thinking of expanding this “home/boarding house” that had just been born in 1950.

Are you wondering from where the name “Aurea” came? Good, I will tell you now!

“Aurea” was chosen by Maria and some of her friends: at first they thought of Pensione Dorata (Golden Boarding House) but then, after a few changes and a couple of glasses of Sangiovese, someone suggested the Latin and therefore, Aurea.

And here is the Pensione Aurea 1.0 😀: 24 rooms, 2 common bathrooms situated in the corridors, kitchen with a cook and a lot of desire to discover this new world of hospitality.

It’s a beautiful story, isn’t it?

I however have only been doing this job for a few years and I do not know the dynamics of the “Golden Years”. I see Gilberto and I ask him: “How did the people book? There were no emails, Smartphones, Facebook…”

His answer is simple but not obvious: Ah…easy…Maria –the owner of the house and Gilberto’s mother – sat outside waiting for tourists to stop on the Sundays they came to Miramare to eat fresh fish (the classical day trips to the sea of our dear friends from Bologna and Modena)…and more, at that time Rimini and its coastline were a novelty for the cousins from San Marino and the surrounding areas as well.

They were thriving times – remembers Gilberto with a touch of nostalgia – we came from the war and we had a desire to live, to travel, to do. We were rebuilding the country all together and there was a huge spirit of sharing and positivity!

It goes without saying that Ernesto and Maria’s reception and the explosion of the “Rimini phenomenon” brought

them to their decision in 1962 to expand the Pensione Aurea to 40 rooms, a good 24 with private bathroom. The Hotel Aurea was born.

And are we stopping here? Absolutely not!

There was another step forward in 1970, the elevator and bathrooms in all the rooms. Yes… Grandmother Maria could not manage the complexity of having superior and standard rooms!

And if the guests left a negative review?!

Oh no, it’s true, we did not have TripAdvisor at that time! 😀

… but that did not mean that there was not yet the rule to “treat the guest as we would like to be treated”

the family tradition

A few hot seasons passed and in 1974 a wonderful thing happened. Gilberto, together with his wife Natalina decided to carry on the family tradition and took to the wheel of the Hotel Aurea with great passion and dedication, just like the parents Ernesto and Maria before them.

Anyway, despite the change of the guard the common denominator was that of always treating the Hotel as a “home”. – Just think, Gilberto’s parents will stay to physically live in the hotel in both summer and winter until about 1978.

“The” Giorgia is here!

These were the 1970s, the years of the tourist boom when the Riviera was assaulted by tourists and year after year the solid core of enthusiasts at the Aurea was being defined who today still remember those times by telling stories of the parties, the tournaments and anecdotes of the evenings together under the hotel’s veranda…

Deep down, as I said, it was always like that… a “big home”.

Before leaving the 1970s and starting the 1980s there is a date to remember: July 1975 when Gilberto and Natalina’s daughter was born, “the” Giorgia!

From that day on her birthday was always an excellent excuse for a party!

The years passed, the Hotel continued to develop and grow and in 1983 the Aurea found itself in a very important renovation and expansion project for the facility, increasing the number of rooms to 45 and the renovation of the hall, TV room and the restaurant.

From that time the Aurea’s image was never the same… we were on the road to the true birth of the Hotel Aurea that was to be defined even more in 1993 when the entire exterior, balconies and the closure of the veranda were renewed… Now we party even when it rains!

Oh, not only were Aurea (oh yes!) and Miramare becoming a point of reference for Italian seaside tourism and in our own small way, it strengthened even more the brotherly relationship with the friends of the Bagni Ricci…- that even you know well, they need no introduction!

… and even “the” Giorgia was growing up…

… and a bold authentic young man of Rimini

Eh eh… you already know how things went but I want to tell you my version of the facts…

A bold authentic young man from of Rimini with a passion for basketball by the name of Davide 😉 began to join the queue for her and after an approach in summer; on November 6, 2001 he managed to have a solo outing with her.

Barely a year later there were the celebrations for the 50 years of the Villa family running the Aurea.

I must tell the truth, despite my being a flooring tile salesman, being a hotel owner always fascinated me. Staying in touch with people, knowing their stories and telling them mine is something that fills my life. …

So, during the summer breaks I threw myself into the hotel and, as well as eating, I started helping in the bar, bringing water and wine to the restaurant and playing a little bit of an all-rounder only for the joy of learning a new “trade”.

Those were the years of the evolution with computers but I found myself immediately at ease with everything. I felt as if I had always been there, I felt at home!

Great credit goes to Gilberto and Natalina who did with me exactly what they always did with their clients, make the people feel at “home”.

The years of the turning points!

So in 2009 I decided to turn my life around.

–Rather, another turn around…the first time was in 2003 when I asked Giorgia to marry me and…she accepted!!!

I left my job and threw myself fully into managing the Hotel. Step by step I followed Gilberto who was very good at passing onto me all his knowledge (apart from the German) and a few years later Giorgia and I decided to become the third generation of hotel owners dedicated to keeping high the Aurea’s name…first as a boarding house, then as a small hotel and today as a full-blown Hotel.

In 2003 we began to slowly redesign the facility, the first floor, the hall and the restaurant, and then the second and (today) we have the renovations of the third floor.

The changes in the facility are obvious, some are radical, but what remains is always the concept of a ”big home”. We would never want to lose this because it is the “Tradition”.

Ideally we are still always there to welcome you, as Maria did: on the chair, outside the main entrance.

… to Ernesto and Maria who with a lot of sacrifices built our “big home”  one piece at a time.