History

Hotel Pendini is on Piazza della Repubblica, today the heart of life in the city.
Two thousand years ago, however, it was a Roman military camp set up to control nearby Fiesole. It was the first urban settlement upon which Florence was consequently built.

The neighbourhood around the piazza was, for many long years, the Jewish ghetto of Florence and the piazza itself was once a local market. After the Unification of Italy, when Florence was named capital in 1865, the piazza underwent major changes. In an effort to beautify the historical centre and imitate the glory of Paris, then Europe’s most elegant and glamorous capital, the old medieval homes were pulled down to make way for new modern buildings.

In 1879 work was completed on a palazzo with a grand arch where a wealthy Florentine lady of the Pendini family decided to found a residence for travellers. It still proudly bears her name.

Since then, the hotel has always been managed in a family style.

The recently completed beautification and expansion of the hotel has made it a real ‘city hotel’ without compromising the charming traditional atmosphere of Florence in the Belle Époque.