You're probably wondering how I got here. How a country boy ended up surrounded by luxury hotels, eating plates of lobster cheminée and surrounded by beautiful women while drinking Glögg. Well, the truth is that I always knew I was destined for great things, but becoming a country boy is not the only thing that I've ever known. king of tourism was not among them.
I was born on the island of Luttengraven in the year 1800 and they thought it appropriate to call me Mariano, like my father. It must not have taken them long to regret it, because to avoid confusion they ended up shortening the name and since then everyone knows me as Anno.
I've always been curious about nicknames and diminutives – like my friend Watch Dogs, who was actually born Driver but no one has ever called him that. What's the point of having a name if you're going to be addressed differently? In any case, that was mine: Anno, from the 1800s and the island of Luttengraven.
The story of Anno, the 1800s and Luttengraven Island
The little tags that accompany my name are the only thing that brings me closer to more important – and pejiguegas – personalities of status. I, despite the facade, have always been and always will be a humble farmer. A poor unfortunate man who has come to more than enough, who, surrounded by luxuries, is actually satisfied with a plate of fish, a piece of clothing to wear and a market in which to spend the little that is left after paying my taxes, if possible accompanied by a good liquor.
My grandfather was one of the founders of the city, a pillar of the community, whose work was only thanked with a letter of diplomacy and a position as a farmer. After building what is still our house, he was given the task of planting potatoes, a job that years later my father would continue without even questioning its usefulness. By the time I was old enough to work – and it was much earlier than I would like to admit before the law – the port warehouse was already full to the brim and There was no room left to store more potatoes.
![Bright Harvest](https://i.blogs.es/fcb5ad/2534345ed5586e2caef5.41154514-anno1800_dlc5_brightharvest_keyart/450_1000.webp)
Why on earth should we dedicate our lives to planting potatoes if no one actually eats them? We are more into fish, the workers delight in their sausage sandwiches and the artisans limit themselves to devouring those disgusting cans of food without judgment. But make a mistake with the potatoes.
I refused to waste my life among rotten tubers just because the great cursor dictated it, so as soon as I had the opportunity to leave that island, I did not hesitate for a second. When the captain told us in the pub about a mysterious route that led to that island, The new World that everyone was talking about, I took a diplomacy card to be useful with and joined his crew.
It was neither the first nor the last time I left the mainland behind to eat sausages for days while pirates chased us and storms besieged us, but thanks to it I was able to learn about other customs, places and snacks. Who was going to tell me that there would be something more than fish Across the ocean.
![Anno4](https://i.blogs.es/10f8e3/anno4/450_1000.webp)
![Anno4](https://i.blogs.es/10f8e3/anno4/450_1000.webp)
I visited dozens of cities, I saw capitals born and die, and I absorbed everything I had experienced like a sponge. knowledge gained through experience such as using sugar to make rum, drying meat to keep it in good condition, or growing exotic plants to harvest teas and spices.
By the time the waves brought me back to Luttengraven, I was someone completely different. Someone who had grown as much as my city, which by then was already the capital of an empire without fear of being coughed on. Someone who now knew what to do with all those potatoes that no one seemed willing to take advantage of.
A business opportunity
“But you're not going to distill liquor or die,” my father said when I told him my idea. “You'll plant potatoes as the great cursor dictates, as your grandfather did and as I have done all these years.”
You could say that my ideas clashed a little with the provincial lack of originality, but as the space I left in the warehouse was filled seconds later with dozens of potato farms with nothing else to do, my liquor distillery could work without raising suspicion or lowering the morale of any working class.
![Year 1800](https://i.blogs.es/0467a0/anno1800_speicherstadt_keyart/450_1000.webp)
![Year 1800](https://i.blogs.es/0467a0/anno1800_speicherstadt_keyart/450_1000.webp)
Just like our neighbors on the other side of the pond did with sugar and rum, I used the potatoes to create liquor and, to my surprise, the idea was so popular among the villagers that their smiles soon turned to discontent. It was impossible to meet the demand generated.
The first distillery was followed by a second, then a third, and by the time I reached the fourth, the excess liquor had become a perfect tool for trading in the newly opened port office. With the distilleries up and running, I would now focus on exporting my product and importing all those delicatessen that he had tasted in the colonies.
Before I could even figure out what to do next, the growth of the city that my products were causing handed me the next step on a silver platter. Hundreds of tourists They came by boat to see the exotic animals he had once helped hunt and the museum pieces he had collected from the depths. What if he could extend his visit somehow? What if there was a business opportunity among these wealthy people who came to marvel at what they couldn't find anywhere else?
![Anno6](https://i.blogs.es/0171d5/anno6/450_1000.webp)
![Anno6](https://i.blogs.es/0171d5/anno6/450_1000.webp)
To understand how I could help them, I just had to put myself in their shoes and think about everything I had missed when setting foot in other lands. I had to leave behind my humble perspective to think like a rich man, and make their comforts mine.
The king of tourism
The first step was clear. No one in their right mind wants to arrive in a city, tired from a boat trip that has sapped months of their life, and have to deal with an endless walk to the first tourist attraction, be it a zoo, a botanical garden or a world fair. A way had to be found. more comfortable and efficient to cross those mud roads and dilapidated houses without the visit losing its charm.
That vision automatically transported me to Enbesa And, remembering with nostalgia the first time I experienced water flowing from one place to another in the African village, I thought about how I could translate that solution into something that would solve my problem. While their network of canals gave life to their orchards, I had to create one that would breathe life into my city. They would carry water from one place to another and I would do the same for the tourists.
![Anno2](https://i.blogs.es/b9669d/anno2/450_1000.webp)
![Anno2](https://i.blogs.es/b9669d/anno2/450_1000.webp)
And so I did, taking advantage of what I had learned from the motor vehicles that had revolutionized our farms and roamed our streets, I set up a bus network that allowed you to get off the boat, get on one of them and travel wherever you wanted without worrying about its distance again.
With strategically placed stops at Luttengraven key points such as theaters and museums, the next objective was to give even more weight to each bus shelter with new buildings that would attract the attention of tourists. The solution was to devise a new structure of houses so that, around each stop, there would be the key points with which to expand the idea by building my first Hotels and restaurants.
I soon understood that the number of tourists grew as more hotels were built, but as was the case with my neighbors, if their needs were not completely covered, the hotels only operated at a third of their capacity. I had no choice but to entrust myself to the great cursor for help and, together with his power, we began to restructure and improve the city to attract more and more tourists.
![Anno7](https://i.blogs.es/7d5518/anno7/450_1000.webp)
![Anno7](https://i.blogs.es/7d5518/anno7/450_1000.webp)
Improve the zoo with new specimens, clean up the palace and, above all, create more factories that could exploit the interest of visitors in spending their salary on jewelry and fur coats while they were away from home. I never understood what the meaning was behind that – wasn't there pearl hunting or pearl trading in your city of origin? – but the important thing is that the flow of visitors did not stop growing and that meant adding more businesses to my network, which by then also had Cafes and cocktail bars with an increasingly exquisite menu.
My plan in each of the establishments was to fuse products from the island with everything I had found on my travels. The Montmartre 75 cocktail, for example – so called because it contains 3.75 centilitres of brandy, 3.75 of aged rum and another 3.75 of triple sec – was made with champagne, imported sugar and a touch of citrus that we took from the new orchards -a trifle that occurred to me to take advantage of plantations that served both as an ornament for the landscape and a source of new ingredients-.
The best of all is that, strategically placed, those premises managed unexpected effects. In the case of the aforementioned cocktail party, the nearby houses ended up with a couple of new tenants – in reality they were drunks who stayed to sleep on the porch – and the consumptions of cans of food, beer and rum were noticeably diminished.
![Anno5](https://i.blogs.es/d9a5b8/anno5/450_1000.webp)
![Anno5](https://i.blogs.es/d9a5b8/anno5/450_1000.webp)
The best of all is that we begin to use the surplus from the gardens for other purposes, for example to manufacture shampoos and colognes that tourists could use during their stays at the hotel. An unprecedented success not without a good amount of work and organization between colonies on the other side of the globe, but a success after all.
And that's how I got here, surrounded by luxury hotels, eating plates of lobster cheminée and surrounded by beautiful women while drinking Glögg. Tourism has been a blessing, an opportunity to renew myself and, given what is seen by the company that now surrounds me, also a way to attract the attention of potential investors.
I provide the ideas, they provide the money, and we both have a great time hand in hand with A city that seems to have no roof. Now, if you allow me, I have an appointment with a certain Gustave Eiffel who has a proposal for an iron tower that could be another good boost for my business. Let's keep our fingers crossed for what it means for me in the future.
![Anno3](https://i.blogs.es/0d7029/anno3/450_1000.webp)
![Anno3](https://i.blogs.es/0d7029/anno3/450_1000.webp)
P.S. If you are interested in learning more about my travels and adventures away from Luttengraven, some historians have written about it with varying degrees of success in the past. Below are the documents.
In VidaExtra | Anno History Collection is another valuable step in the uncomfortable but necessary fashion of preservation and nostalgia
At VidaExtra | Not all tutorials have to be slow or boring, and Anno 1800's campaign mode is proof of that
In VidaExtra | Tierra de Leones is the perfect goodbye for Anno 1800, and a great excuse for those of us who don't want to say goodbye