Catherine de Medici and her personal perfumer, Renato Bianco, brought the tradition of using aromatic blends to the French court in the early Renaissance
Among the Tuscan hills, a few minutes from Florence, a restored 15th-century villa – geometric shapes dealing with nature
A hotel along the Arno overlooks the Ponte Vecchio – the Portrait of Florence. It turns to the east, in the morning the sun enters from a wide open window on the third floor room
Borgo San Frediano is across the Arno river, or ‘diladdarno’, as the Florentines say. Rooms as big as private apartments. It’s a choice, not luxury