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Rooms
A vision in white: sheer white curtains around the
immaculately-dressed (Frette) white bed, and sheer white curtains
billowing around the open windows, and white Frette bed mats and
white Frette slippers and white Frette bathrobes—and all this white
juxtaposed with bleached oak flooring, a staircase of which leads up
to the bath and dressing chamber, nearly an apartment unto itself,
complete with balcony/terrace overlooking the Arno and the Ponte
Vecchio. Who wouldn’t feel positively virginal and pure? It’s
perfection, complete with leather steamer trunk-desk, ingeniously
fitted with a chair. Who wouldn’t want to write a letter here and
lord it over those at home?
Public Spaces
Leave it the Ferragamos to get style just right. From the intimate
lobby with its wall-length movie screen focused on the happenings
along the Ponte Vecchio to the Sala Relax overlooking the Ponte
Vecchio, one is both immersed in the urban life, even while apart
from, and above, it. Sipping champagne, or espresso, above the
crowds, admiring the rooftops of Firenze—it hardly gets better,
although there is, in good weather, also a SkyLounge atop the
hotel—where the views are even more splendid—and the Tuscan
afternoons conceivably even more romantic. Heavens, no wonder people
faint here… And if that weren’t enough, there’s also a home
theatre—a room so comfortably stylish, you might consider viewing
the whole of Italian cinema.
Breakfast
Superb—and served in a small and chic dining room across the hall
from the salotto/salon. A buffet of the best of Italy’s bounty—to be
savored at your leisure, as much as you want. You’ll yearn for this
spread once you’re home—so much so that you might book the same trip
all over again.
Staff
Oh, so pleasant—and pleasing to encounter. Every exchange seems a
little amuse-gueule for the day.
Location
Perfect. Right where you want to be, near all that you wish to see,
and yet out of the fray. A cul-de-sac, an enclave, a private
entrance just off the main thoroughfare—unnoticed by the masses and
all the banner-led tourist groups. And directly across the courtyard
from another Ferragamo-run hotel, Gallery Hotel Art, with its
delicious in-house restaurant, (The Fusion Bar).
Overview
To encounter Firenze the first time, from this vantage point,
surrounded by all that is the Continentale, and its sister
properties, is to have obtained a slice of heaven—here on earth. It
doesn’t get better. |
