Matilde is Elena’s youngest daughter. She’s 20 years old. She’s also the youngest cousin in our family, as her mother is the youngest of four siblings.
Linda is the older sister.
Aunt Elena has been working here since she finished school. How many years ago… well, we won’t say. And honestly, you wouldn’t guess it by looking at her either.
She simply doesn’t age ?
Her dedication to Brione is absolute. She notices every tiny detail, asks the most uncomfortable questions just to eliminate even the slightest chance of disappointing a guest.
She observes and listens. She has a strong, always positive critical sense. And she constantly questions herself.
The qualities of truly great people.
Of course, it also happens that Elena “brings her work home.”
Her husband Mario also works in tourism. When the girls were younger, they often stayed with Aunt Linda, and we regularly celebrate family occasions at the hotel… in short, the topic “Brione” comes out of everyone’s ears — including the whole Bommartini family.
For years we’ve been banging our heads against the desk, hoping that somehow, in the echo of the impact, a brilliant idea for better parking management would appear.
The reality is: we have an unsolvable issue — we simply have more rooms than parking spaces.
Even if we were crazy enough — and had the resources — to invest a huge amount of money in an underground parking project (which, near the lake, would be nothing short of a financial bloodbath — not to mention it would require us to demolish and rebuild the garden and pool), it still wouldn’t solve the problem.
The engineers tell us that between maneuvering space, structural columns, entrances and exits, we’d gain a few extra spots… but still not enough for everyone.
Reducing the number of rooms to match the parking spaces is, of course, not an option either. That would mean going from our current 71 rooms (81 before the recent renovations) down to fewer than 50.
We have tried a few workarounds.
Each week, some rooms are allocated to guests traveling with tour operators — arriving at Lake Garda by plane or organized coach.
We’ll spare you the detailed stories of family debates about why this or that idea might or might not work. Let’s just say… it can feel like the Wild West.
And then, quite simply, Matilde comes along:
“But mom,” she says one day at lunch at home, “why don’t you just put a barrier halfway through the parking lot, so at least part of it is controlled?”
We had talked about entrance gates, license plate recognition cameras, selling parking separately from rooms, even expensive agreements with the nearby underground parking of the shopping center…
But we had never thought of a “simple” barrier dividing the parking area?
To at least give some guests the peace of mind of having a guaranteed parking space?
Matilde… you’re brilliant ?
So we did it!
Of course, giving a privilege to some guests and not to everyone is never ideal.
But that’s why we remain optimistic — and keep looking for solutions.
Starting this year, in addition to guests staying in Green and Balance rooms (who can park in the private area on Via Belluno), those staying in the new 19 Oliva rooms will also be able to move their car without worrying about coming back and not finding a space.
(And with a bit of hedge-stretching magic, we even managed to create two extra spaces for everyone.)
