40 years of Pappasole

A shared birthday

On 1 August we celebrated forty years of Pappasole.

An evening spent turning the pages of our story, written by the people who have lived this place: founders, staff, guests, board members, entertainers and families who for generations have chosen Pappasole as their holiday home.

A journey through emotions, anecdotes, vintage pictures and stories that brought forty years of life back onto the stage.

An opening that says who we are

The evening opened with every Pappasole team together on stage singing the Pappasole theme song, as one big team.

Institutions at our side

We had the pleasure of sharing this important milestone with the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, and the Mayor of Piombino, Francesco Ferrari, who from the stage underlined the part Pappasole plays in Italian hospitality and its contribution to the growth of the area.

Also present were the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Tuscany Region Bernard Dika, the Regional Councillor for Tourism Leonardo Marras, the President of the Regional Council Stefania Saccardi, the Deputy Mayor of Piombino Luigi Coppola, members of the city council and representatives of the FAITA and FIBA associations.

An important presence, and a sign of the bond between Pappasole, the area and its institutions.

Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscany Region, and Fabio Pini, President of Pappasole S.p.A.

It all began with a dream

The first story came from across the ocean. From Mexico, Massimo Pampaloni, founder of Pappasole, reached us with a video message together with his wife Elena Casentini.

With real feeling he retraced the beginnings of the adventure: a piece of land still to be imagined, and a dream that step by step would become the Pappasole we know today.

Massimo Pampaloni, founder of Pappasole, with his wife Elena Casentini

Those who were there from the start

Two faces then came on stage who are the living memory of Pappasole. Barbara Landi, Manager of Pappasole, and Massimo Demasi, long-time head of Pappa Beach, told the story of their first meeting with Massimo Pampaloni and of the years when everything was taking shape.

Massimo remembered being called in to build the campsite's first management system. His first impression?

“I thought Pampaloni was mad, wanting to build a campsite on land where there wasn't even a single tree.”

Among the funniest memories, one stayed with him more than any other: on the beach he heard some guests who had come back the following summer exclaim “Well look at that... the rocks are still here!”, as though every winter someone moved them and then put them back.

Barbara, for her part, told of a job interview as simple as it was decisive. Massimo Pampaloni asked her one single question:

“Do you speak German?”. “Yes.”. “Perfect. You start tomorrow.”

The next day she found herself running, on her own, the reception of a place she did not yet know. That place, though, would soon become far more than a job.

Asked which memory held the essence of Pappasole more than any other, Barbara chose a moment that contains it all: the party for Paolo Baldassini's retirement. A room full of people happy to be together, where the newest employee and the longest-serving one felt part of the same family.

For Barbara, that is the real strength of Pappasole.

Barbara Landi, Manager of Pappasole Camping Village

How Pappasole grew

The story then continued with those who guided Pappasole as it grew: Paolo Baldassini, long-time Manager of Pappasole, and Fabio Pini, President of Pappasole S.p.A.

Paolo Baldassini told how around 2,000 members decided to invest in a new tourism venture, choosing Pappasole as the place to build an ambitious project. Together with Costantino Goretti, President of Pappasole S.p.A. for over 25 years, he began a long path of development made of investment, innovation and care for guests.

Among the most groundbreaking ideas, he recalled private facilities on the pitches, a solution that made Pappasole one of the first in Italy to imagine a new way of camping.

Fabio Pini, on the board since 2001, retraced the boldest choices of recent years. First of all the expansion, which profoundly changed Pappasole with new accommodation, new pitches and new services. Growth that meant not only a wider offer and more room for guests, but also a stronger business and new jobs.

The expansion improved the company's results, making it possible to reinvest the profits in Pappasole and so keep developing facilities, services and new opportunities. A model of growth that has always allowed us to look ahead, turning what we achieved into new investment for the future.

A path that has helped make Pappasole not only a tourism business, but also an important part of the local economy and a significant employer.

Paolo Baldassini, long-time Manager of Pappasole, and Costantino Goretti, President of Pappasole S.p.A. for over 25 years

Paolo Baldassini, long-time Manager of Pappasole, and Fabio Pini, President of Pappasole S.p.A.

Growing and creating moments together

Since 2002 the fun at Pappasole has also carried the signature of Your Friends. Andrea Alberati, founder and director of the entertainment agency, told how it all started with a call from Paolo Baldassini, who wanted to build entertainment made entirely to measure for our guests.

From then on the journey has been a shared one. Years of ideas, shows and inspiration born when social networks did not yet exist.

Like the iconic human lettering formed on the beach for the Italia 1 programme “Sei come sei”, an idea only apparently simple: today a drone and a few minutes of preparation would be enough, but in the early 2000s it took serious organisation, people willing to hold their positions for a long time and someone willing to actually fly a hang glider with a camera in hand, ready to capture that moment.

Andrea Alberati, founder of Your Friends

Guests as the stars of the show

We remembered when the most eagerly awaited shows were not performed by professional artists. It was the guests themselves who took to the stage, and Ferragosto, the mid-August holiday, became the moment when anyone could be the star.

Lucia Lari and Daniele Poli took everyone back to that atmosphere, recalling a time when the village really was the theatre of a whole community.

A whole life at Pappasole

There are people who grew up here. They arrived as children and became adults. And today they sit on the board of directors.

Arianna Borri and Alessandro Cicerchia, board members, told us about the bond that can grow with this place.

Looking ahead

The board members of Pappasole S.p.A., Lucia Batoni, Brando Bigazzi, Arianna Borri, Alessandro Cicerchia, Tiberio Fedi and Luca Pierini, joined President Fabio Pini on stage to show us, in a video, the work and the projects of recent years, confirming their intention to keep investing in the future of the village.

Pappasole told by the people who live it

In the months before the event we asked two simple questions to the people who have lived this place: “What is Pappasole to you?” and “How do you imagine it forty years from now?”

Hundreds of photographs, videos, drawings and thoughts came in. A wealth of feeling that became one of the most moving moments of the evening.

A message for 2066

The key moment of the evening was given to the future.

We listened to a letter addressed to whoever will live this place another 40 years from now, in 2066. We decided to send it in a TIME CAPSULE. Inside it we gathered the memory of these first forty years: a hard disk with photos, videos and drawings collected over the years; the contributions sent in by our guests; the official event T-shirt; a newspaper from that day; a Pappasole wristband.

The group photograph too, taken with everyone who was there and the pinwheels in the Pappasole colours, will become part of this legacy. The capsule will be kept inside a monument built for it and will be reopened in 2066.

A bridge between those who built Pappasole and those who will go on caring for it.

A toast to the future

The evening ended with a toast all together and the cutting of the cake. It was not only the celebration of an anniversary. It was a wish.

That whoever opens that capsule in forty years' time may find the same enthusiasm, the same passion and the same love that have carried Pappasole to this day.

Because Pappasole, even before being a place, has always been a story about people.

The group photo at the cutting of the cake

Thank you to everyone who believed in Pappasole, to everyone who worked here, to everyone who helped it grow and to everyone who, year after year, has chosen to live it and to come back.