The Bernini Palace in Florence: a blog to discover the secrets of the hotel and of the city
Lifestyle
Mon, 01/25/2021 - 11:00
David Foschi, general manager of the Bernini Palace Hotel
Welcome to Bernini Palace Hotel
The Bernini Palace Hotel is opening its digital doors. At the entrance David Foschi is welcoming the blog’s visitors, he is the General Manager of the hotel and knows all its secrets.
I professionally and humanly grew up in this palace, where I’ve been working for more than 30 years and I held various positions. This palace is a concentrate of histories, legends, anecdotes and curiosities that I can’t wait to share with you.
The Bernini boasts a special location in the heart of Florence and in the centre of the city history. The origin of this ancient palace merges with the story of the De La Pera family, which Dante mentions in his Divine Commedy.
A lot of political intrigues and plots took place here when Florence was the Capital of the Italian Kingdom, from 1865 to 1871. The Hotel was the buvette of the chamber of deputies and of the senate which were respectively situated in Palazzo Vecchio and in Palazzo Pitti. Garibaldi, Cavour, Gioberti, Balbo, Lamarmora, Daniele Manin have walked in these halls, their circular portraits decorate the Sala Parlamento, our breakfast room.
A series of niches decorated with female heads coiffed with curious hats frames the hall, in memory of a former exhibition in the lobby of the hotel in the early 1900s. Continuing the virtual tour, we can enjoy the garden terrace, the xv century portico, which has been recently renovated and we will be surrounded by the colors of the precious fabrics of the Tuscan floor.
The Bernini is closely tied to Florence and the city will be the other main character of this blog: the hotel is located in Borgo dei Greci, between Palazzo Vecchio and Santa Croce, just behind Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi gallery.
We will walk through the centuries of beauty, of art, of monuments and we will enjoy an authentic atmosphere. We will discover the prospective and the lights which have inspired many artists of the world history.
As Proust said: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.". These virtual pages will be your eyes to visit the city and our hotel.
