It's the 1950's. The first tourists start to arrive at the beautiful village of Sant'Andrea.

As more and more sun umbrellas slowly appear on the tiny beach, the locals pluck up a little courage and decide to offer the tourists some cool, refreshing drinks and pasta.

One of these locals was Dino, our grandfather, and his wife, who come to realize that running a restaurant is probably one of the best ways to earn a living on the island; with this in mind, they start to give hospitality to the new arrivals.

At the beginning there were only one or two tables, but it became obvious that grandmother's simple, but carefully chosen dishes are much appreciated by the tourists, so much so that year after year more and more started to come. In the meantime, dad grows up and learns all gran's cooking secrets as well as the art of hospitality.


In 1962 mum and dad get married.

The first years are far from easy, so at one point they decide to leave Sant'Andrea in search of work, and maybe learn a trade and, why not, maybe even a foreign language.

So for several years dad works as a waiter in Germany while mum brings up their first child Giuseppina in Sestri Levante where she works as chambermaid in a big hotel. It's 1963.



When they see that our grandfather's restaurant is doing really well, they decide they have gained enough experience abroad and come back to help our grandparents.

They all work very hard and eventually manage to turn what was simply the "Trattoria Barsalini" into the "Piccolo Hotel Barsalini".

In 1969 their second daughter Barbara is born, and two years later, in 1971, the birth of their son Davide completes the family.

Following in the footsteps of the previous two generations in our family, we too decide to help our parents in their work. Needless to say, as the number of guests increases, so do our rooms.

Although the family has grown over the years, we all still live here, and still treasure our traditions and passion both for our work as well as for our hotel that has grown with us.

We will always find endless joy telling our children this story .........