MOGI Caffè takes you on a journey into Italian elegance: an experience of taste and hospitality, where luxury is shown through welcome and enthusiasm. The first stage takes us to the heart of Rome to meet Alessia Meli, who coordinates the offer of the exclusive Palazzo Ripetta with passion, know-how and empathy, savoring MOGI Caffè.
What is the atmosphere that distinguishes Palazzo Ripetta and how is it reflected in its proposal?
The atmosphere of Palazzo Ripetta is welcoming and refined: here luxury is expressed with the right distance and elegance, with smiles and empathy. This is a fundamental aspect for me, especially in the selection of the staff members: the basis is the know-how, which is not just technique but includes hard and soft skills. In fact, the technique is learned, the attitude – that is ease, honesty, a smile, kindness, grace – is innate: hospitality has all these elements in its nature. That is why I choose people who fit well and I feel good with in a team, people to be valued and whose individuality is given space in an alchemical whole that works for the guests and for their experience: in fact, each element of the staff has its own peculiarity in a relation with the guests. As far as the choices for the Food & Beverage offer, these are guided by research, curiosity and the imprinting that I received in the family since I was a child: I love everything that revolves around catering, it is a pleasure that has become work. My parents guided me to discover and appreciate exceptional food and quality wines. I am an enthusiastic user: I love trying everything, from cocktail bars to restaurants to hotels. I want to live experiences, study what happens in the industry and look for something to make customers feel good, the way I like to feel good.
How did the encounter between Alessia Meli and Palazzo Ripetta happen?
It was disruptive, dazzling, all-encompassing. I held the position of Food & Beverage Operation Manager with no handovers and without any similar experience in my past. I am a fire zodiac sign and I fully experience everything I do: every day, I experience Palazzo Ripetta as a home. There was mutual trust and esteem to build together a new and different idea of luxury, hospitality and hôtellerie: I have always been passionately researching, getting informed, wanting to anticipate and dictate trends. Since we started, my enthusiasm and that of the staff who supports me has grown and keeps growing.
What are the differences, and the challenges, compared to your previous working experiences?
This is for me the first all-encompassing experience. It is also the first opportunity I have been offered to take care of the well-being and customer experience in every aspect, taking care of the smallest details. I believe that hospitality must be freed from the stereotypes of the classic hôtellerie, which creates an imaginary often characterized by coldness and detachment: luxury and elegance also reside in the smile, in the empathy, in the nonchalance granted by the expertise and rigor, welcoming both those arriving from the other side of the world and those arriving from Rome.
Palazzo Ripetta, Italian style and MOGI: a story of taste and elegance?
MOGI and Palazzo Ripetta share a vision and a modus operandi that speaks about their identity: in both companies, every project that is conceived and created is felt, wanted, and guided by precise ethical choices, by the pursuit of excellence, by quality and from thought, narrating Italian taste and the culture of hospitality. In addition to offering them Italian breaks with MOGI, we will shortly be offering guests of Palazzo Ripetta a MOGI can to extend their experience of Italian luxury and taste even after they leave the hotel.
Finally, speaking of an aspect that is very important to MOGI, namely gender equality and women empowerment: in the past, you declared that you had not encountered any critical issues or discrimination in the world of food & beverage thanks to your disposition and an "attitude of neutrality" . What do you mean in practice?
I have many flaws that I admit and recognize but among the few qualities I value honesty and I like to say what I think: in my career, I have not perceived any obstacles related to gender. I only remember a slight initial distrust in remote times from a part of a staff with whom I found myself collaborating, but in retrospect I can say that it was not a resistance linked to the genre but rather to the individual components. I've had so many opportunities; I have met people who have sensed a potential and have allowed me to express it. Here at Palazzo Ripetta I have the greatest chance as curator of the restaurant division of the structure, a position that I hold for the first time. I feel like saying that today, perhaps on the contrary, it happens that we see excessive opportunities, even those that are not worthy, given precisely in the name of equality: opportunities should be based on skills and experience, not gender. By "neutral attitude" I mean this: a purely meritocratic concept.
