TRAVEL FAR
SALVIATINO SPLENDOUR ‘LIVING THE LIFE’ IN THE HILLS ABOVE FLORENCE BY JENNIFER ALFORD
I
’M IN A THICK WHITE ROBE walking through the hotel’s elegant gardens toward the pool — the glory that is Florence lies before me and the 15th century villa where I’m staying arises just behind me. Now called the Il Salviatino Hotel, this villa in the hills above Florence was built by a banker who wanted the Medici, Curry dishes prepared by Chef Heidi Fink his competitors in the city below, to have to crane their necks to look up at his luxurious house. It’s lost to history whether or not the Medici even noticed the beautiful villa — busy as they were financing the Renaissance and making Florence a world-famous
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destination for art and culture. As I descend the stairs from the gardens and head down the road for the short walk to the pool — passing rose bushes that were planted 500 years ago — I can see the Duomo, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, in the distance. I look forward to exploring the city a little later, after a dip in the pool and a glass of Prosecco in the sun. After all, one should rest up before immersing herself in art history and joining the throngs of tourists admiring such treasures as the Fountain of Neptune, Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.