How much is an ounce of gold?
About $2,000? Let me check… It’s $2,156!
How did you earn your first pay cheque?
I worked as a waiter in Turin while I was studying at university.
What’s your most prized possession?
My most prized possessions are my wife, Cristina, and my dog, Bosco, a German shepherd. I love them to bits. But in terms of physical possessions, it has to be the farm my wife and I bought in Colombia. That’s our happy place.
That was going to be my next question. Where is your favourite place?
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Colombia. I love it. My wife is Colombian and over the past six years we’ve been there regularly. I loved South America in general and Colombia felt very similar to Italy, in terms of the way people are. I love every single thing about it, so much so that we ended up building our family home there.
Do you live to work or work to live?
If you asked me two years ago, I would have said, ‘I live to work.’ I think that because I started life with nothing, there was a moment I was completely out of balance: I was just ‘work, work, work, work, work’. I couldn’t really enjoy much. But now I can tell you that I am in the process of learning to work just enough, while keeping an extremely balanced life.
How do you do that?
You grow. You understand that at the end of the day it’s the experiences and the people around you that really matter. I’m also an extremely disciplined person, so I started practising mindfulness; I practised being present, I took it extremely seriously. And now I’m at the stage where I feel like a completely different person.
Where is your favourite hotel?
Aman hotels in general are my favourite.
What’s your favourite hotel perk?
I love having my shirts ironed.
Do you have a favourite clothing brand?
Lately I’ve been loving vintage and I’m buying everything from a second-hand shop. My hobby is to try and restore shoes. I buy old Gucci shoes from the Seventies, for like £70, and then try and make them great again. I learned everything from YouTube!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Don’t rush.
You’re preparing to reopen Tramp, the legendary nightclub, as a private members’ club this September. How would you describe your ‘new’ Tramp in three words?
Discreet, exclusive, fun.
[See also: London’s best private members’ clubs: the definitive list]
How do you want guests to feel when they walk through the door?
Like it’s their home away from home.
Tramp has recently been associated with Prince Andrew. Is that negativity something you’ve thought about?
I never met any of these people and I wasn’t the owner when these things happened. The staff is all new and not even one member was working at Tramp when Prince Andrew used to come here. So in reality, it doesn’t affect me at all.
Do you feel a responsibility, bringing an icon back to the London social scene?
Yes, a very big one. But this is the exciting part. It’s a great honour and responsibility for me to restore Tramp to what it deserves. And this is what I’m going to spend the next couple of years, 24/7, doing. So it doesn’t scare me. I know I can do it – I’ll just do it!
This feature first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 92. Click here to subscribe
