Three generations of a Bergamo-area family have built one of the region’s most enduring salons — not through reinvention, but through an unwavering commitment to craft passed from hand to hand across six decades.
On 3 June 2026, RVP Parrucchieri marked sixty years of continuous activity in Ponte San Pietro, the principal town of the Isola Bergamasca. The anniversary is less a milestone than a portrait of persistence: a family business that has outlasted trends, survived personal tragedy, relocated, expanded, and ultimately renewed itself — all while remaining, in the truest sense, a family affair. The story begins in 1966, when Roberto Pesenti, originally from Brembate, opened the first version of the salon as an exclusively male barbershop. His training ground was the Accademia Bergamasca Acconciatori, where he would later serve as a master instructor, while also sitting on the jury of national and international coiffeur competitions. From the outset, the venture was shaped by a particular philosophy: that hair is a form of art, and art is, at its core, a means of communication.
The first major evolution came in 1990 and 1991, when Roberto handed the business to his children, Valeriano and Paola, who broadened the salon’s scope to include a women’s department, giving rise to RVP Acconciature as a fully rounded establishment. Under their stewardship, the salon moved beyond the purely local: the Pesenti siblings pursued advanced training through courses, seminars, and shows with Italian and international brands, eventually earning the titles of Maestri d’Arte — Masters of the Craft — in both artistic direction and scientific cutting techniques. Their creativity found expression in fashion shows, runway presentations, and editorial photographic work. In 2004, they opened a new salon in nearby Treviolo, described at the time as one of the largest in Italy.
Then came 2008, and what the family describes simply as a terrible misfortune. In the aftermath, Roberto and Valeriano chose to return to Ponte San Pietro and start again — reopening RVP Parrucchieri in its current location on Via San Clemente, inside the Sport Gallery. What they built this time was deliberately conceived as modern yet intimate, professional yet deeply human. The salon that rose from that difficult period carried the weight of everything that had come before, and the loyalty of a community that had stood by the Pesenti name.
The most recent chapter belongs to the third generation. In 2022, Sabrina — daughter of Valeriano and Patrizia, herself described as a cornerstone of the business — joined the team, having qualified as a Maestra d’Arte in her own right. Then in 2025, the salon entered a new legal and creative phase: Sabrina and her brother Manuel formally took the reins, establishing RVP Parrucchieri snc di Pesenti Sabrina e Manuel. With them came new techniques and an attentiveness to the aesthetics favoured by younger clients, without any severance from the decades of knowledge that surround them daily. Roberto, Valeriano, and Patrizia remain present — three generations working in the same space, side by side.
Sixty years after a single barber’s chair opened in a Bergamo satellite town, the salon on Via San Clemente stands as a quietly remarkable study in continuity. What the Pesenti family has constructed is not simply a successful local business, but a living record of how craft is transmitted — not through manuals or franchises, but through proximity, patience, and the daily act of showing up.
