The Martinians? ''They are a breed apart, they have their own style, their own way of speaking, they always look you in the eye and are never distracted. Their brain is like that of the great captains of industry, made up of many separate compartments that allow them to be perfect in every situation, whether it is important business or if they are talking to people who may have just met, who are nevertheless able to put always everyone at ease''. This portrait was drawn by Mauro Lotti, the undisputed king of Italian barmen, protagonist of the first of a series of meetings promoted by the newly formed "Martini & Friends", a cultural association dedicated to the world of the Martini cocktail (of which Lotti himself is honorary president) with based at the Gin Corner of the Hotel Adriano in Rome and with the aim of spreading the culture, history, spirit and passion of the Dry Martini.
Stimulated by the journalist and president of the association Valerio Berruti, Lotti told some curious anecdotes about the personalities that in his more than 60-year career, spent between the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne and the Gran Hotel in Rome, he got to know. As "the martini champion, the meanest, the most vindictive”, the writer Somerset Maugham, ''who came to Lausanne 15 days a year for geriatric treatment and every evening – says Lotti – he drank two frozen Martinis and smoked Gauloises cigarettes, until the nicotine was gone and until your fingers turn yellow".
Maugham inspired his colleague Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, the famous Martini "shaken not stirred" (shaken, not stirred), but he, on the other hand, preferred the Martini ''stirred and not stirred because, he said, the molecules of gin and vermouth must sensually adjust to each other on the others". Regarding James Bond, the most famous British spy, Lotti recalls that Fleming had initially thought of calling him James Secretan but, passionate about ornithology, when he happened to read the book 'Birds of the West Indies' he was struck by the name of the author, the ornithologist James Bond, and so he decided to call the protagonist of his books''.
And speaking of ornithologists, there was one who was at home at the Beau Rivage and with whom Mauro Lotti had become familiar. '' Sometimes – says the barman – he invited me to his house where he had some rare parrots. One day he told me 'let me introduce you to my collaborator' and showed up with a giant raptor weighing 50 kilos that he had trained as a bodyguard. The bird's name was Cesar and he too was a martini drinker''.
They were also at home in Lausanne in those years Tennessee Williams and Georges Simenon, who, however, only drank straight scotch and ''said he had 1.500 women''. Heiress Barbara Hutton, on the other hand, had had seven husbands and ''she gave each one a million dollars just to make them feel at ease''. At that time, says Lotti, ''Lausanne was at the height of the international jet set. There were the best schools, the best clinics, the best banks. Plus you could also have a diamond crown that people didn't even notice. It was no coincidence that when I worked at the Beau Rivage, even a well-known mafioso, wanted by all the police forces in the world, went around undisturbed''. Among the most powerful clients were the Greek shipowners of the time, such as Onassis. ''They forced me to get up early in the morning – recalls Lotti – because at 8 they wanted to have breakfast at the bar with caviar, which they ate with soup spoons''.
After five years spent in Lausanne, Lotti returned to Italy at the Grand Hotel in Rome, where he remained for 34 years. “It was the 1970s. Many films were shot in the capital and many of the most famous names in the stars and stripes cinema – explains Lotti – loved to stay at our hotel''. Many drank Martinis on the rocks, “like Billy Wilder who drank it with his wife even while having a meal''. But the Italians didn't disdain the Martini with ice either. ''Umberto Eco drank it like this, for example. There are many – explains Lotti – the intellectuals who prefer it on the rocks. Because it's softer, it has less brute force. Intellectuals love to talk at length and with ice they can go through the evening and go home feeling good. I think that's a very civilized way to drink. Alcohol belongs to the pleasures of life, we must know how to use it”. At the Gran Hotel in Rome Lotti also met Moravia, Pasolini, Callas, Goffredo Parise, but none of them drank alcohol. “The only one who drank a little whiskey was Fellini, but he put it in Milanese risotto”, while Gianni Agnelli, “who had an apartment at the Gran Hotel for 15 years, only drank vodka with a little lime” .
