Gallery Hotel Art in Florence, Italy
Review article and photos of the luxury hotel
Article added on January 20, 2013
  
The Florentine shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo (1898-1960) studied shoemaking in Naples and later invented the cage heel and the wedge heel. He emigrated to Boston in 1914 and started dressing Hollywood stars in the 1920s, hence his title “Shoemaker to the Stars”. He returned to Italy in 1927, settling in Florence.

The Ferragamo empire includes not only shoes, clothes, handbags, interior design and accessories but, since 1995, also the Lungarno Hotels group. The Ferragamo family owns several luxury hotels in the heart of Florence. Gallery Hotel Art is one of them.

Florence is considered the quintessential Renaissance city, although architectural styles of other periods can be found with prominent examples too. Gallery Hotel Art is dedicated to the contemporary area, sometimes inspired by the city's heritage.

In the hotel lounge and library, temporary exhibitions are regularly organized. During my 2012 stay at Gallery Hotel Art, I admired about 20 photographs of Marilyn Monroe in an exhibition entitled On the Heels of Marilyn, organized by Galleria Brancolini Grimaldi. The actress was a loyal Ferragamo customer. Hence the nearby Ferrargamo museum owns many of her shoes as well as photos and other memorabilia, including a handwritten shoe-order by Marilyn.

Books about Florence from Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk.

Italian sheet music from Sheetmusicplus.

In 2012, I stayed at one of the best room of Gallery Hotel Art, its Penhouse Pitti Suite 707 with its fabulous terrace overlooking the city of Florence. The lower part of the terrace offers space for a table and four chairs, the upper part features two deckchairs, four chairs and three coffee tables. There is enough room for a party! You can overlook Forte Belvedere on the hill, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, Palazzo Pitti and more. The only thing I missed was a bathtub; it only comes with a shower. Anyway, Penthouse Pitti Suite 707 is a great place to stay in Florence!

I was told that Gallery Hotel Art was the first design hotel in Italy, created by the Florentine architect and interior designer Michele Bönan. At Gallery Hotel Art, he fused Tuscan and Asian design, timeless elegance, simplicity and refinement. The bed, the chairs and the handles of the furniture in my room were made of hog skin, the floors of dark teak wood. Minimalist furnishings, linen on the bed, flat screen TV, Tivoli Radio & CD player with iPod docking station completed the contemporary, timeless impression.

As a reviewer, I have to mention the Fusion Bar & Restaurant with its fusion of Asian and Mediterranean cuisine, although I have not eaten there. Both evenings when I stayed there, it was packed with people, very appreciated by locals too. The hotel remains trendy too, often booked by fashion people.

Gallery Hotel Art features 74 rooms and suites from very small 16 sqm to 54 sqm. Among the higher categories let's mention the four Gallery Studios, the two Gallery Suites and the three Penthouse Suites, including the one I stayed at.

Among the few details to improve is the fact that Gallery Hotel Art does not offer freshly squeezed orange juice as a standard item for breakfast, and this in Italy, a country that grows oranges. Of course, upon my request, I was offered a glass of freshly squeezed juice. Incidentally, freshly squeezed juices are standard at the sister property Hotel Lungarno, and you are free to have breakfast in any of the four hotels of the Lungarno Collection.

Last but not least, as a Gallery Hotel Art guest you are offered a free entrance to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum with its multitude of items, not just shoes!

Gallery Hotel Art, Vicolo dell'Oro 5, 50123 Florence, Italy.




Penthouse Pitti Suite, where I stayed in 2012. Partial view of the much larger rooftop terrace. Photos © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy. - Books about Florence from Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk.


The Fustion Bar & Restaurant. Photos © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy.

View from the Palazzo Vecchio Penthouse terrace towards Palazzo Vecchio. Photos © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy.




The Penthouse Pitti Suite. Upstairs is the large rooftop terrace. Photo © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy.


A guest room at the luxury hotel. Photos © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy.


View of the library, where breakfast in served. Photos © Gallery Art Hotel, Florence, Italy. - Books about Florence from Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk. Italian sheet music from Sheetmusicplus.