the
story

A little secret, hidden from most. A gem of those you don't expect. A spectacular location, unique in the world, a very personal charm, Italian courtesy, and a view that will take your breath away.

Welcome to Hotel Hermitage

whose history and style are an example of that colorful eclecticism, culturally rich in beauty and surprises, which has been the heritage of an unexpected Florence for centuries.

You are surprised as soon as you enter the lounge of the Hotel Hermitage. And not only for the spectacular, truly private view of the Arno river.

And here's why.

The Hotel Hermitage was born as a residence for English people, not as a real hotel. His is a story halfway between "A Room with a View", the famous film by James Ivory which sanctioned the Anglophile love for the city of the Medici, and a contemporary film by Wes Anderson

But let's go back: Florence, 80s, an entrepreneur falls in love with this location literally overlooking the Vasari corridor and Ponte Vecchio. A long, narrow building, where British citizens holidayed at the time. Taking care of them is an oriental lady, a sort of manager housekeeper, with a decisive attitude and great grace.

The entrepreneur is Vincenzo Scarcelli, a man with a dream: to make the Hotel Hermitage a jewel of hospitality. In those years in Italy everything seemed possible, the economic push was strong. Mass tourism does not yet exist, and Florence is loved by a select public and great travellers.

Thus was born a hotel with a British vocation, with its comfortable lounge, the always well-stocked honesty bar, that domestic yet country chic, silently chic flair. The luxury here is looking out and seeing the rowers on the Arno, it is seeing the sunrise over Ponte Vecchio, seeing the hill that protects the Oltrarno, with its houses and buildings illuminated by the sun.

Luxury at the Hermitage is having coffee in the room with wooden paneling, and feeling at home. It's being between Piazza della Signoria and the Duomo, and seeing the life of the city go by. Just like in a movie.

The years pass and unfortunately he passes away still too young. But she has raised a talent at home, her daughter Alina. Who promptly takes the reins of the hotel and begins a conscious and far-sighted relaunch. Florence has now become a very popular destination, at the center of every route of a trip to Europe.

is a young woman with taste, a curious one, an interior decorator at heart, with her head divided between the practicality that is necessary to be a number one host, and the imagination of someone who dreams of embellishing the home to her taste. paternal legacy. Respecting the rules of history and tradition. And so she begins to instill a rich and evocative taste, a maximalism that combines antiques and objet trouvè, passions of the moment, flashes of color, fine fabrics, wallpapers.

She frequents auctions and antiques fairs, rummages through markets and searches online for what makes her eyes shine. And everything becomes part of the life of the Hermitage, everything is for the pleasure of its guests. In fact, they immediately come running, and love, and take photographs. The Hermitage elevator becomes the most photographed in the city thanks to its wallpaper by Pierre Frey.

And so this small hotel with a real and beating heart takes shape. Palm trees, lots of palm trees. And colors, prints, bamboo, rattan, oriental ceramics. Vintage leather armchairs, porcelain vases, art, fashion, photography and travel books. And animals: lots of animals, painted or depicted on porcelain, prints, lithographs. Exotic animals: elegant, hippos, leopards, monkeys and monkeys, lions. Giraffes and gazelles.

The unwary will say: but what does all this exoticism have to do with Florence, on Ponte Vecchio?

It definitely has something to do with it. And Alina knows it well.

This is the history of the city that tells us of the Medici's - one would say unbridled - passion for exoticism, for distant cultures, for the New Worlds which slowly revealed their beauty. Collectors and scholars of these realities, the Medici, already in the 1400s had begun - like the Roman patricians - to bring exotic animals into the city, to graft non-native plants, to thus recreate worlds of never-seen charm. Certainly, this display was also part of their plan to bring themselves on par with the historic European dynasties, it was a way to show everyone their power.

Economic and also cultural. But it wasn't just an affectation: looking to the East, searching in Africa, casting an eye also towards the Americas - newly discovered - was truly a sign of the strength of their curiosity. Of the expansion of a Florence that knew it had a global role.

This is why the Hermitage Hotel is so full of symbols and tradition.

On the one hand, that English allure, with mahogany wood paneling, leather furniture, marble fireplace, porcelain. And on the other the riot of palm trees - also beloved by the Medici - and the spots of some leopard that escaped from some Renaissance bestiary, and then here is an elephant, the horn of a rare animal, a cute little monkey that reminds us to laugh.

Even the rooms, recently renovated, reflect this eclectic mix & match of good taste and subtle extravagance. They all have their own identity, and are united by visual pleasure and special comfort. Pleasant places, where you can feel at home, as is right when you live - even if for a few days - in a historic home.