My delightful blogging friends Susan and Wade from Come follow me to Italy regularly stay at Residenza d’Epoca, In Piazza della Signoria, a most beautiful boutique hotel in the heart of Florence.
The owners, Alessandro and Sonia Pini, bought an amazing 15th century building and lovingly turned it into a hotel with 10 rooms and 3 apartments.
Susuan and Wade were in Florence recently and introduced me to Sonia and I had a personal tour of In Piazza della Signoria.
Meet Sonia. She and Alessandro bought the house as an investment, but fell in love with it and decided to renovate it and turn it into a place where they could welcome people from all over the world to enjoy their little piece of Florence.
The position of the hotel is great. Stand behind the statue of Cosimo Medici on his horse in the Piazza Signoria and look towards the Gucci Museum. To the left is the door to In Piazza della Signoria.
During the renovations fresoes and decorated caisson ceilings were found and everything has been done to preserve and renew the old features. Each room has been individually decorated and furnished with exquisite taste…take a look at some of the rooms.
I love all the ensuite bathrooms.
The view from the window is very special.
They also manage a magnificent apartment in the nearby Palazzo Uguccioni.
There is a very interesting story involving a shoe. Sonia took us to the breakfast room at In Piazza where there is a reproduction of a famous painting in the Botticelli room at the Uffizzi.
In the bottom left hand corner of the middle painting is a shoe.
When the building was being renovated, a small box was discovered in a niche in the wall. It was almost lost when the builders threw it away by mistake. It was retrieved from the rubbish and this was inside.
It is an identical shoe to the one in the painting. Experts from the Ferragamo shoe museum have verified that it is about 600 years old. They wanted to buy it, but Sonia wanted it kept with the house where it belongs.
It would have been placed in the niche as a symbol of good fortune…a fortunate walk through life. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to sell it.
I am now looking for an excuse to stay in Florence overnight so I can stay at In Piazza della Signoria…but which room to choose???
Thank you Susan and Wade for inviting me to see the lovely hotel and a special thank you to the very gracious Sonia for sharing with us the story of this magnificent building.
Residenza d’Epoca, In Piazza della Signoria