The free-spirited co-founder of San Lorenzo institution La Paloma has spent over two decades in Ibiza, following an itinerant childhood between Italy and India at the heart of the fabled Rajneesh movement.

&lsquo;I grew up in Tuscany. My mother is a Sannyasin and lived in the Osho commune, so&nbsp; I split my time between there and my father&rsquo;s place. It was quite a different upbringing, because I was the only child who was based in the commune. Other kids would come and go but I was the only one who lived there, so everyone helped to take care of me while they were doing their <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/soul-spirituality/the-trees-represent-the-spiritual-strength-of-the-12-zodiac-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spiritual</a> work. I went to a regular school outside the commune, but I wore all red like the rest of the Sannyasin community and I felt different to the other kids. I felt like a little alien in this tiny town in Tuscany. My favourite times were when we would go to the ashram in Pune or to the Rajneeshpuram ranch in Oregon. When I was eight, I went to live with my dad in Florence and I stayed and finished middle school, but I always felt strange in the system. At 14 I had had enough. I left Italy and went with my mother back to <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/soul-spirituality/india-makes-amazing-pictures-of-the-moon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India</a>, to the ashram in Pune. I spent most of the next four years living there and that&rsquo;s when I discovered Goa. I would go there to go partying and that&rsquo;s how I heard about Ibiza, because a lot of people were living in Ibiza in the summer and Goa in the winter.'

'The first time I came to <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/the-most-beautiful-hotels-for-autumn-in-ibiza" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ibiza</a> was 1997 and I still remember that feeling of landing here. Some people I vaguely knew picked me up at the airport and drove me to some tiny finca in San Juan and I just remember looking at the red earth and thinking this is it, this is home. I met {ex-partner and co-founder of La Paloma} Amit soon after. He was already living here. I was only 19 but I had been such a gypsy all my life, it just felt like the right time to settle.&nbsp; It was a great era in Ibiza. There were a lot of trance parties and a real free-spirited community. A lot of the people I met back then are still a part of my life. We had a baby soon after and then when I was pregnant again, I called my mom and I asked her to come to Ibiza. She had been in the ashram all those years and it was a very beautiful life but also intense and sometimes chaotic. She was ready for a change. We had no money, coming from this kind of traveling life, and my mother had always been a passionate cook. We'd do a lot of dinners and host a lot and we always thought how amazing it would be to just have a restaurant. A local guy told us he knew somewhere to rent and he brought us to where <a href="https://palomaibiza.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">La Paloma</a> is now. It was awful. It had been a trashy bar in the seventies and later a theme restaurant. It had not been loved. My mother was very good friends with {Canadian architect and historian} <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/people-of-ibiza/rolf-blakstad-ibiza-architect-portrait" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rolph Blakstad</a> and she asked him for some advice on how to make it charming with no money. He showed us this special tone of blue and told us to paint everything that colour &ndash; all the chairs and tables and doors - with a few splashes of yellow. He also thought of the name &ndash; La Paloma - and he painted our sign, which is still the original. All our friends came to help. {Italian rose expert} Orietta Sala painted roses on our walls. People donated their money and their time and their love and energy. La Paloma was literally created by the <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/the-hopes-and-dreams-of-ibiza-s-community" target="_blank" rel="noopener">community</a> and think that&rsquo;s why it has remained at the heart of it.&nbsp; We had a dream and everyone helped us to realise it. I was 24 when we opened. My son Jai was three and my daughter Liana was eight months old. We were living upstairs in the tiny apartment and all working both shifts in the restaurant while my mother&rsquo;s sister Samvega &ndash; who is a miracle &ndash; looked after the children. We could never have done it without Samvega.'&nbsp;

'It was very hard at the start but we never wavered from the dream to cook and serve my mother&rsquo;s food. She cooks with so much care and soul and love and soul for every ingredient and she nurtures everyone who comes here. We were one of the first restaurants to serve something a little different to the local food and the international community really made La Paloma their home. Over the years we grew with baby steps &ndash; a few tables under the <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/the-scent-of-an-island-ibiza-s-natural-fragrances" target="_blank" rel="noopener">orange trees</a>, a little shop, a vegetable garden. We got bigger and - amazingly - quite famous and still now I don't quite believe it. The magic of Ibiza has always been spirit and the freedom of the people who live here: the artists, the creatives, the <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/peace-and-love-and-protests-the-evolution-of-ibiza-s-hippies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hippies</a>, the people that make this place fun and quirky. That's what it makes Ibiza special &ndash; that there is room for everyone. And Paloma is a bit like that too for me. You can come here barefoot, you can come with a Gucci handbag, you can come feeding your baby. You can be whoever you are, and that will never change. Ibiza has something I have never found anywhere else. There is still the same magic that I saw in that red earth all those years ago.&rsquo;

People of Ibiza: Mouji Longhi

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