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Staff and guests alike are treated like family by this luxury hotelier.
I like this job; I suffer when I don't come to work." That's Patrizio Cipollini, general manager, Four Seasons Hotel Firenze and winner of the Top General Manager award in the Luxury Travel Advisor Awards of Excellence.
It's easy to see why our readers voted this hotelier best in class; he lives and breathes hospitality. Indeed, when Luxury Travel Advisor interviewed him for this profile, Cipollini was a bit busy; it was high season in Florence and he was actively greeting VIP arrivals at the hotel nearly every day of the week.
And, oh, what a hotel. Four Seasons Hotel Firenze opened in 2008 after more than seven years of restoration, its 117 rooms crafted lovingly from the 15thcentury Palazzo della Gherardesca and the 16th-century Conventino, a former villa that had served as the residence of a noble Florentine family before being converted into a convent in the 18th century.
As our Italy-based correspondent Sharri Whiting de Masi wrote in 2009 after her visit to Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, "Guests enter the hotel through a soaring frescoed courtyard and continue through public spaces, such as the light-filled Atrium Bar, that balance Renaissance sensibilities with contemporary color moods. The hotel is surrounded by 11 manicured acres of historic private gardens, away from the bustle of the city center. The setting is a fantasy."
An Urban Resort, a Living Museum
A fantasy setting is an appropriate venue for one's dream job, and that's just what opening and running the hotel has been for Cipollini, who grew up in a very small village near Lucca. Just prior to opening the Florence hotel and coming back to his roots in central Italy, Cipollini was at the Four Seasons Hotel Milano for more than 10 years.
"It has always been a dream of mine to be...