From bandits in Abruzzo to the hostile takeover of their empire, the Forte dynasty have seen almost everything in their family history. Talking to Sir Rocco Forte on the sofas of one of the hotels, now part of the company he managed to rebuild, what comes to mind is, however, the only immutable element: family.
The story of the Forte family in the UK begins with the kidnapping of a family member by bandits near Monforte, the village in southern Lazio where the family originates. They incur in heavy debts and, as there are not many jobs in the area, Rocco’s grandfather, whose name he bears, goes first to the US and then to Scotland, where he manages to open several cafèes and finally bring over his wife and three year old son, Carmine. Years later, the latter would be known as Sir, and then Lord, Charles Forte, Rocco’s father.
The success of the Forte family in the UK continues with Charles. He moves with the family to southern England, working in a relative’s café but soon starting his own business. He thinks that importing the concept of a milk bar, as many Italians did in Australia, would be a success. In 1934 he opens the first one and it is so rewarding that, after four years, he already owns five of them. In 1958 he has a hotel, tens of cafés, touristic piers and prestigious historic restaurants, such as the Criterion and Café Royal in London. By the 1990s the Forte family owns more than eight hundred hotels worldwide, four hundred restaurants and entire chains of road grills and catering services.

Apart from being the most famous hoteliers in the UK and close friends of Margaret Thatcher, the Forte family were a solid column of the Italian community in the UK. They financed the Italian hospital in London for many years of its existence, and it was Charles Forte who represented the whole community during the official state visit of the Italian president Cossiga to London.

Charles’ family was truly a part of this community, in particular because of their habits. Even in his last years, Charles Forte respected the traditions he thought to be sacred, such as the Processione della Madonna del Carmine in London, the Sant’Antonio di Padova procession in Monforte, where he carried the statue of Holy Mary even when he was in his seventies. Most of all, he never missed the traditional family lunch on Sunday.

In 1993 Rocco Forte became president of the company but, after just two years, he had already to face the toughest challenge for their empire. It was the hostile acquisition in 1995 by the competitor Granada.
Rocco Forte did not give up; he knew the business as only few do, because his father had provided him with a full, and often tough, education. «Covering each role, from cloakroom attendant to working the elevator, the best way to learn everything», he tells us while watching the lobby of the hotel where he can see the customers and the staff. It is difficult, but not impossible, to imagine Rocco, not yet Sir himself, but already son of the boss, gathering coats and serving at tables.

When the hostile acquisition was over, only 220 million sterling was left from the vast empire created by his, then eighty seven year old, father. Rocco obtained 26 of these and had the chance to retire, but decided instead to invest everything with his father and his sister Olga and begin to recreate the group. In 1996 he bought the first two hotels. In 2016 he has eleven, five stars hotels, on four continents, and he keeps expanding, in particular in Italy, as his father would have liked to. Nevertheless, probably the most important moment for him was the restitution of the Forte brand in 2001.

— Photo: Sir Rocco Forte in his Hotel de Russie in Rome.