The Grand Hotel Villa Medici
is possibly the most relaxing hotel in Firenze, for two simple reasons:
It’s slightly out of the way location and its swimming pool. Firenze is
lovely, but in the summer, with tourists jamming the streets and
aggressively hot temperatures, you may easily reach your limit of
cathedrals and Botticellis. And if this is indeed the case, the Grand
Hotel Villa Medici is the perfect place - at least in the city centre -
to retire.
Though this former palazzo is decorated in eighteenth century fashion,
it is without that blinding baroque heavy handedness so often associated
with that period. The gold brocade on the walls lends an unexpected
light and summery feel. Most of the rooms have terraces and glorious
views - just stay away from the rooms at the back, which offer up the
cheerless prospect of a convent under renovation.
Also, in a city where hotel gyms are few and far between, there's a
fitness centre where you can whittle away those few pounds you got from
indulging in the local pasta. Though you can work them off on the half a
dozen or so exercise machines, we prefer sweating them off in the sauna.
Carrot-chewing health freaks take note. You can book yourself into a
non-smoking bedroom, which, in Firenze, is the only thing harder to find
than a gym.
And of course, there's the pool - the only sizeable, outdoor hotel pool
in Firenze, surrounded by a small, but lovely garden. Lunch at the
poolside is a truly soothing experience, and they have a piano player (a
touch chintzy, true, but enjoyable all the same) here for cocktail hour. |
