«I live in Cattolica e I don’t miss Milan in the most absolute way. The television? Before it was a beautiful world, now I frequent it much less.” Raffaello Tonon, 44 years old, a face known to many because he is a guest on many television programmes, a former guest in the Big Brother VIP house in 2017 and a commentator (From Buona Domenica to Pomeriggio Cinque)already winner of «La Fattoria» today ago the innkeeper at the «Enio Ottaviani» winery in San Clemente, in the Rimini area, quite renowned in Romagna. “I am a depressed fighter – he reveals – and in the future I will not go where my heart takes me. I admit that I will follow the “money””. He regrets nothing of the past. «I did what I liked, paying the consequences personally. The best thing about Big Brother? The fee».
Raffaello Tonon, how do you become a “host” in Romagna like a renowned VIP like you were?
«I have been living in Cattolica for four years and I feel great here in Romagna. My relationship with Romagna originated in distant times, I came there on holiday when I was a child. In the past I also managed a hotel in Miramare. Then I came back, I met the Lorenzi Ottaviani family who manages the place where I work. Why did I start working here? I was bored, maybe I only worked a few days a week. But I had time to invest. As is known, in this period there is a lack of staff on the premises. The Ottaviani knew that I could work in the restaurant sector without problems and that I know how to work with people. It all started on a day when they were in an emergency and needed someone to cover some of their absences. I went, we had a good time. We ended up inventing this figure of the innkeeper.”
And don’t you miss Milan?
«I don’t miss it in the slightest. I feel great in Romagna, I embrace the thoughts of the people of Romagna. What I have learned from life was taught to me by my mother and Romagna. Some time ago I went on television four times a week, now twice or once. But I don’t argue, I don’t worry about why they call me less. Well, I learned this mentality right here in Romagna. Already fourteen years ago, I went through a period in which making television bored me very much. I asked myself what I would like to do and started working as a hotelier. In Romagna, years ago, people took leaps of faith, however with the awareness of wanting to do and not give up. The Romagna region is as hard as its hills but as deep as its sea.”
He said he used to work more in television. Do you have any regrets?
“I have no regrets. I liked everything I did. And I paid the costs personally for certain choices, if necessary.”
How did your adventure at the Maurizio Costanzo Show begin?
«I started with the Maurizio Costanzo Show on March 18, 2004. I was 25 years old. I met Maurizio Costanzo through a high school friend. He was the author on that program, he said that I was cut out for television. He put us in touch. My strong point was the naturalness with which I related to Costanzo, who for me could have been a butcher or a greengrocer. The meaning of what I’m saying is this. I wasn’t subjected to subjugation simply because I didn’t believe I had to profit from my relationship with him. From that moment on, television changed my whole life.”
She studied law…
«I took eleven tests. Then I gave up. Exactly, the television arrived and I jumped right in. Also because at the time it was beautiful, the work was really good.”
About what he said about the Romagna people. Was his leap into the unknown?
“No. A person like me who has always suffered from depression becomes weaned from a sensation, a feeling that we could also simply define as enthusiasm. When the red light of the camera appeared in front of me, however, the light of that feeling entered. And I knew it would be like this.”
Have you suffered from depression?
“I define myself as a combative depressive, like many others.”
Yet he does a job that requires considerable enthusiasm towards people. What future do you see?
«I have always been good at the art of knowing how to deal with people. At the moment Cattolica is in my future. And I freely admit that I don’t go where my heart takes me. Professionally speaking, I go where the money takes me, so to speak. I have learned to respect karma: it is true that we are the creators of what happens to us in life, but there is a hint of causality that we must necessarily listen to, or at least take into account. At the moment I see Cattolica in my future, from a professional point of view I have said what I think. I wouldn’t mind having my own business, I’m an individualistic centralizer. I don’t know how much I can be satisfied by depending on someone else. I am 44 years old and moving towards fifty years of age will require cunning. Istat tells me that I have lived more than my life. If there are the next 40 years, without any regrets I will have to structure myself in a solid way.”
He said that years ago the work on television was better. Has television changed for the worse now?
«Television has changed, the people who leave Rai do so because the government has changed. Whoever governs is in his interest, is now on the right, there is the mistaken belief that the “intelligentsia” is only on the left. Maybe so, but they don’t know how to lose in that area. I’m not talking about my political faith, it’s a factual question. Television has changed, of course, because before, to get into Rai there were competitions, just to give an example.”
Would you do the reality shows you participated in again?
“No. But I’m not spitting on the plate I ate from. I wouldn’t do them again in the present. But I would do them again by going back to my past. Luckily, today I don’t have the problem of making it to the end of the month. So when I say I wouldn’t make them again, it’s not because I consider them trashy shows. Rather, the problem is another: what am I going to tell another Big Brother? Nothing hilarious or anything catastrophic happened in the last few years of my life. I wouldn’t do the Island of the Famous simply because I don’t know how I would get out of it, it’s quite demanding.”
She said she enjoyed all the things she did. What did you like most of all?
«Everything, I don’t know what more or less. Working with many handlers: there is no school for handlers, you have to observe them, and maybe even steal something. I liked that a lot. I admit, I liked the cachet of Big Brother.”
