With nearly 60 million arrivals in 2018, Italy is the fifth most visited nation in the world. It’s 50 UNESCO World Heritage Sites are the most of any country on the planet, and visitors can spend months viewing endless attractions. Travelers marvel at Italy’s impressive collection of antiquities, works of art and remarkable cuisine.
Rome, Venice, and Milan may receive endless notoriety, but Italy’s most enchanting city is the alluring birthplace of the Renaissance, the Tuscan capital of Florence. Small in stature, the homeland of Leonardo da Vinci is jam-packed with architectural wonders like the Duomo Cathedral, named in honor of Santa Maria del Fiore. Divided by the Arno River, the city comes at you with unlimited shopping and dining with a multitude of pizzerias, gelato cafes, food and wine, and shop-until-you-drop encounters.
One hotel that flawlessly blends into the fabric of the metropolis is the sophisticated yet undefinable 20-room J.K. Place. Nestled in the center of Piazza Santa Maria Novella and overlooking its namesake Gothic church, it seems as if the pied-a-terre is merely a holding of a rich Florentine’s home.
You might walk on by the stellar domicile without an inkling that a symphonious melding of styles exists behind its closed doors. Indeed, the entrance is nothing more than two large handcrafted wooden doors, akin to a grandiose Georgian family estate in London’s Mayfair or Bayswater, or maybe an aristocratic manor in the French countryside.
The boutique residence hotel — founded in 2003 by father and son Jonathan and Ori Kafri — stands out in the crowded boutique hotel market. Ori Kafri said he always intended to mimic an exclusive home feel. “I have spent much time in Amsterdam,” he said, “where I stayed in a townhouse hotel called Seven One Seven. There are fewer than 10 rooms, and I liked the level of service. An amazing gentleman greeted me. I was treated special.”
Accommodations rarely take center stage in such a timeless venue as Florence, but this is no ordinary hotel. It’s uber-cool, casual and contemporary, all rolled into one, and ever so dolce vita.
The genius design of the Italian masterpiece is the work of renowned Florentine architect and virtuoso interior designer Michael Bonan. No stone was left unturned in converting a crumbling structure into the dazzling and whimsical J.K. Place.
You enter the property through unobtrusive, black-lacquered doors. The friendly staff greets you with a cocktail as you stand perplexed, wondering where the reception check-in area is. A stately library with neoclassical bookcases, along with a small desk and a laptop computer, serves as the front desk.
On the ground floor are a seductive living room, dining room and lounge area, with period lamps from the 1950s, muted wood-paneled ceilings, gold-plated mirrors, a Charles X fireplace, and animal-print armchairs. It definitely feels that you are in a refined home, surely not a hotel. It meshes an ideal past world with a contemporary, comfortable urban townhouse setting.
You might sit in the living room in front of a burning fire, sipping a spritz or Campari, while reading the evening paper. You might even decide to come down from your upstairs room in your robe and slippers. The common theme — that this is your home in the Renaissance city — resonates well throughout the Florentine crown jewel.
It seems contradictory that a hotel with just 20 rooms can have eight lodging categories. But each of the satiny private rooms reflects Bonan’s notion of blending contemporary with classic. Meticulously designed with subtle taupe, cream color or pastel-green schemes, rooms include four-poster beds with cashmere blankets, plush drapes, tasteful artwork, decorative fireplaces, flat-screen televisions, minibars and wi-fi.
The spacious sky-lit dining room has a communal, oval-shaped breakfast table. It’s meant for mingling with fellow guests, just like when a family sits around the table and is a quintessential beginning for days of exploration in the Tuscan capital.
J.K. Lounge is the cozy and chic outdoor terrace restaurant at the entrance to the property. It’s perfect for light bites or cocktails while people watching. A rooftop terrace offers inspiring views of the Santa Maria Novella Basilica and the resplendent duomo.
Perhaps the real Renaissance man of Florence is J.K. Place general manager Claudio Meli. The hands-on GM received his training at various hotels in Florence, learning to understand guests’ needs as a concierge. It appears that hospitality runs through the dapper Florentine’s veins. Few general managers rise from the position of a concierge to lead the hotel’s future.
Meli oozes with passion and conviction. He hails from across the Arno River in Oltrano, which he calls “the real Florence.” Asked about the J.K. brand and his love for his picture-perfect city, the GM says he wants guests to feel as if they are visiting a friend’s lavish home. And hotel guests have bought into that concept.
“At J.K. Place, we do not want to be considered a hotel,” Meli said. “Show me another hotel where you ring a bell to get inside. We want guests to feel as if they’re staying at a friend’s home. We have a lot of repeat guests, and with a small number of rooms, our staff greets every guest, and there is no low season.”
The dwelling was once a condominium in desperate need of repair. Today it is pure Florentine perfection, infusing different styles, shapes and symmetry all into one marvelous home away from home, in the enlightened city of Flore
