The instructions on how to get to her hotel were specific: they were located directly opposite Cartier. True, but it might have been equally easy to say it was just down the street from the 14th century Palazzo Strozzi -- about five stories high by current standards and built in massive stone -- which dominates this block in central Florence.
The Strozzi is a “piece of work” as Americans say, but then so in its own way is the family-run Hotel Scoti on the second floor of this 16th century building where their foyer opens out into an enormous sitting area with floor to ceiling frescoes painted in the 1770s by a member of Florence’s famous Gherardini family. They depict the three country properties of the original owners.
The Scoti -- which was seven neglected rooms which hadn’t been painted for 30 years before its current owners took it over -- has a fascinating story to tell. And so does its owner Doreen who was born in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne in Australia, to Sicilian parents and who at 20 went with her father to Sicily.
She never went home again. She met her husband in Sicily and worked 15 years for an American pharmaceutical company while he ran a small tabacchi. Coincidentally when her company planned to relocate to Rome he sold his shop so they looked for a business to live and work in -- and found this beautiful but then run-down place.
Against the advice of an accountant they took over the hotel and began renovating. They refitted the sitting room and large dining area with appropriate décor.
“We give people a key so they can come and go as they please,” says Doreen, ”and it is just like having guests in our own home.
“We live and work here and this is the kind of place people who come to Florence seem to want, especially if they have seen Room With A View,” she laughs.
The hotel is a quiet refuge in a busy city, the building a character-filled place, and the fresco offers a frisson of the elegant past this place enjoyed.
“We were probably crazy, and you wouldn’t buy a business like this if you just listened to the accountants. But sometimes you have to take a chance. You never know where life will take you.”
Well, from Footscray to Florence for a start.