I've been thinking a little about our trip to Italy earlier this year, in March. This was no doubt partly procrastination on my part (I have been drafting my little fingers to the bone trying to get the extension plans finished for the builders to price), and partly inspiration.
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| Via JK Place Hotel website |
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| Library reception, via Lonny |
I started by looking at our photos of the hotel we stayed at in Florence,
JK Place Hotel Firenze. It is located on Piazza Santa Maria Novella, and is absolutely beautiful. I booked into it on the basis of the photos (I did all our bookings through Mr & Mrs Smith) - as it's pretty much exactly how I would like my house to look. When we walked in, I immediately started to gush about how beautiful everything was in a fairly overexcited manner, and Mr AV then said "I can see why we're staying here - you pretty much want to move in". Truly, I didn't want to leave.
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| Via JK Place Hotel Website |
The rooms are not big, but they are exquisite - all cashmere and silk and Frette bed linen. Marble bathrooms with beautiful chrome fittings. We spent a lot of time hanging out in the downstairs Lounge. Being a boutique hotel, it doesn't have a Lobby type feel (in fact, the reception desk is in the Library). There was black and white, chrome, zebra upholstery, candles and orchids galore and lovely waiters who plied me with glasses of Prosecco and Mr AV with glasses of Aperol Spritz after the many hours we spent walking the city.
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| Brunch on a Sunday |
The breakfasts were served in the atrium style Dining Room. It was all buffet style (with the most delicious museli that had chocolate bits in it) and then you'd sit at the communal dining table. There were always a lot of candles burning, which was very atmospheric, but unfortunately Mr AV managed to set his newspaper on fire one morning. This made one guest up the other end of the table go into absolute fits of laugher. At any rate, it was all very civilised aside from the near disastrous fire (as it always is when you travel sans kids).
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| Via JK Place Hotel Website |
And Florence itself is one of my favourite cities in the world. I studied Renaissance Art at University, but hadn't been back to Italy since I was 10. I was in 7th Heaven in the Uffizi, loved wandering in the Boboli Gardens, and viewing the Renaissance Architecture, and Mr AV visited his spiritual home, the Zegna flagship store (where strangely, we ran into one of his junior staff members who was on holiday. What are the odds?).
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| Boboli Gardens Parterre |
Anyway, I'm going to be borrowing heavily from the design of the hotel, and from our far too brief holiday there.
