EVERYTHING CHANGES NOTHING CHANGES

Today’s title takes up in simplified form the concept of an emblematic phrase from a famous 1958 novel, ‘The Leopard’:

‘If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change’. This passage probably reflects the thinking of the author, Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, who lived in a Sicily in noble decadence, averse to change and sceptical of progress.

I have always appreciated those who in a fickle, fast-paced and changing world decide to remain themselves, not to follow the fashions of the moment, those who in the face of the change that surrounds and envelops them, put their feet on the ground to remain who they are, remaining true to their values and credentials.

This is one of the reasons why many of us nostalgics continue to love historic shops, places of resistance and resilience that experience change but do not suffer it by changing their nature.

I remember with nostalgia the historic centre of Rome when it still had an artisan and not only tourist vocation, the streets were named after the trades, in ‘via degli impagliatori’, the Italian word for the artisan who works with straw, chairs and other articles created with this raw material were made, other streets had kept their names, honouring past times, but the boot and suitcase makers of ‘via dei baulari’, meaning those who made boots, had disappeared, as had the blacksmiths of ‘via dei chiavari’.

On the other hand, the old salsamenteria Franchi had renounced to gastronomic flattery and kept its 50’s aesthetics, the butcher’s shop Feroci proudly kept its marble counters. The ristornate Alfredo praised its fettuccine, served by waiters in bow ties, with the same recipe/format for over 100 years. These places, so faithful to their beginnings, have always attracted my attention…

The first time I entered the BonSol I had the same feeling, that of a place that had been suspended in time, well looked after but still the same as the day it opened, a classic hotel that was not afraid not to change when everyone else was changing, when everyone else was growing vertically, when cubic spaces were being cemented and enlarged, transformed into new rooms, when modernity in the form of ‘new design’ was entering the halls to create new styles, when everything around it was moving fast, the BonSol had decided to stand still and make this stability and classicism its strength.

For this and many other reasons, we can only be proud of The BonSoul’s collaboration with various small and large artisan brands, with whom they share an endangered authenticity and for which they bet everything. A reality, that of these brands, that we also feel as our own, a shared history of excellence, work, hospitality, art and craftsmanship that we will never stop telling, defending and extolling. This is why we join forces to defend a common cause, that of showing that the future, for the eternal nostalgics, lovers of the love and dedication with which things were done back then, is to go back.