Today we want to talk about the boutique hotels in Florence through a television program. This is Bruno Barbieri’s “4 Hotels” aired on Sky channel. First of all for our international readers we can say that Bruno Barbieri is the Italian chef who has collected 7 Michelin stars. He is the judge of Masterchef Italia and the author of successful books and blogs.
The program in the episode of 9 April 2018 brought to the fore the boutique hotels in Florence. The boutique hotels in Florence are an important reality of tourism in Tuscany. In this case, Maarja, director of Home, Chiara, manager of the Hotel Palazzo Castri, Piergiorgio, general manager of the Grand Amore Hotel and Spa and Matteo, owner of the Ad Astra, were selected. The hotels in the competition are in the same category and price range. However each presents itself with its own well-defined peculiarities
The television format is known and has been successfully tested on restaurants. Contestants are then colleagues and opponents at the same time. Led by Bruno Barbieri, after the check-in they spend a day and a night in each other’s hotels. For each hotel, Barbieri will experience firsthand its top qualities. They are warmth, style, cleanliness, facilities and, more generally, the hospitality provided by each accommodation provider. After checking out, at breakfast, competitors are judged against each other. A vote apiece from 0 to 10 for location, room, services, price.Maybe we will reveal the winner in the next article in this blog.
But let’s see, in detail, the competing boutique hotels in Florence. “Home”, directed by Maarja, lies in piazza Piave, in an ancient renovated building converted into a hotel. But, as the name implies, the peculiarity is to make customers feel at home. «Home» has the living area as the beating heart of the hotel. It is located on two floors and turned into lounge after breakfast time. Widely used, especially by foreign customers, is also the recreation room. It is complete with pool table, also white, with a special red carpet.
On independence square, is located the Hotel Palace Castri. It opened less than a year ago in a building of the XIX century.The hotel, directed by Chiara, is defined high-end boutique hotel with very attentive service to the customer and a good number of rooms.Great source of merit is the huge backyard garden, unexpected for customers.
The Grand Amore Hotel is located in another and historic building in Via Dei Servi. Also in this case we speak of a brand new boutique hotel in Florence that has Piergiorgio as Managing Director. Its aim is to experiment with new forms of hotel hosting. At the reservation, customers are invited to fill out an online form to express their preferences on matters of hospitality. The hotel uses a real team, called “comfort crew “, whose job is to investigate the habits of future customers.The rooms are modern and elegant. The spirit is that of a New York hotel, with friendly people who already know what you want.
Finally “Ad Astra” is the first “hôtel particulier” of Florence. It was opened by the end of 2015 and it overlooks the largest private garden in Europe. Ad Astra is the result of the work by architect Francesco Maestrelli with owners marco and Matteo Perduca.The hotel has seven rooms on the first floor of the villa and two immersed in the Torrigiani garden in the Oltrarno area. Matteo is a Florentine attorney who loves traveling. He lived for years in London and he and his wife collect antique furniture. Much of this furniture are part of the actual furnishings of the hotel.
Don’t go to see on google the result of the tv program but make sure you read the next article of our blog. We will present the winner of best boutique hotels in Florence contest.