An extract from the Italy magazine - words by Liz Schaffer & Photographs by Mattia Aquila
Florence is a city with a past, a Tuscan icon synonymous with Medici intrigue, the Renaissance and art. What comes as a surprise though, is the fact that the latter is indebted to the guilds - corporations of workers such as merchants, bankers and silk weavers, established back in the 13th century, who funded much of the city’s artistic output (while also gathering taxes and keeping secrets). The wool guild sponsored the Duomo and David, while the Baptistry’s bronze doors were financed by cashed-up textile merchants.
Artists themselves were also part of the fold, in a guild with physicians and apothecaries. Although both professions used the same essential ingredients (herbs, minerals and wax), justifying their grouping, the crossover could also be an early acknowledgement that in order to heal the body, you needed to care for the heart and mind as well.
I discovered this connection on an art and apothecary tour, an experience that delves beneath the city’s grandeur and reveals that the past is rarely as far away as we think. It’s one of the many Tuscan experiences Villa San Michele curates for its guests.
Part of the Belmond collection, Villa San Michele is a hotel worth lusting over. Found in the Fiesole hills, where the Etruscans settled long before the Romans took an interest in founding Florence, the property was built as a monastery in the 15th century and remains wondrously atmospheric. There’s a lofty stone and terracotta facade designed by the School of Michelangelo, an ornate church-turned-reception, artfully-faded frescoes, cavernous fireplaces and vaulted ceilings. And sweeping past the infinity pool and terraced gardens (bedecked with sculptures, olive groves and a 400-year-old wisteria), you reach a woodland path that leads to Montececeri Park, where Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have experimented with flight.
Villa San Michele feels so opulent that it doesn’t seem entirely real. Its covered cloisters and stone archways instead become a stage, a fantasy brought to life, and you feel infinitely more elegant by simply swanning through the hotel’s halls. Thankfully, playing the part of a travelling glamazon is incredibly easy. You can lounge in your suite, unwind with yoga in the sun, or sip a Negroni in the bar (a fitting choice given that the cocktail was first mixed in Florence), before floating through to La Loggia restaurant. Every culinary detail here has been carefully considered, right down to the olive oil, which was sourced from a different farm every night of my stay. And while the fare is divine (a display of local terroir and sustainable producers), it’s the view that captivates. Far below you, nestled in the Arno Valley, Florence twinkles.
Given its position, it’s little wonder Villa San Michele is besotted with the city and committed to showcasing its treasures. Crockery hails from Richard Ginori (who made ceramics for the Medicis), biscotti is from Antonio Mattei (to look like a local, dip your biscuit into a glass of Vin Santo), and their excursions transform Florence into your playground. You can savour delights on a private food tour, spend an afternoon with craftspeople, raft down the Arno River, or explore the world of apothecaries - my own experience ending in Santa Maria Novella 1221, Europe’s oldest monastic pharmacy.
The Dominican friars who founded Santa Maria Novella convent in 1221 (hence the name) quickly developed a fascination with herbs, and went on to create cures and cosmetics, the descendants of which can be purchased in their Enlightenment Era store, still found in the convent’s cloisters. Santa Maria Novella’s rose water (made from a recipe that has changed little since 1381) may be one of their oldest creations, but the Angels of Florence scent is possibly the loveliest. With hints of rosemary and peach, it honours those who came to save the city’s art and architecture after the Arno flooded in 1966.
Returning to Villa San Michele, my bags filled with perfume and biscotti, I felt as if I’d come back from a jaunt behind the scenes. Awash with history, it’s difficult to fully know Florence, and perhaps the mystique is part of the allure. But when it comes to brilliant introductions, no one does it with quite as much panache as Villa San Michele.
