Travel Stories >> Florence (Firenze) >> Beacci Tornabuoni Hotel

Who are these wonderful people at the Beacci Tornabuoni Hotel and how can we contact them, too….? Where did you get those flowers and that beautiful gown? And the rings, where were they made? (or, "THE ACCOUTREMENTS")

On February 25, 1998 I received the following email:

More that can be said about the wonderful staff at the Beacci Tornabuoni? Read about the wedding and you'll see that without Angelo and Patricia - none of it would have happened. When I asked Angelo what we should do about the meal and he started to ask me what I wanted (the choices were somewhat overwhelming) I looked at him and said, "Angelo, just put together a meal as if it were your daughter, Ruby, getting married, what would you serve the guests?" He grinned that wonderful grin and said, "Don't worry Signora, we'll take care of it." It was the best meal I have ever had...

Taking about three hours to complete the feast - it included (as near as I can remember):

To start: Raw Parma ham with melon
then..... Asparagus and salmon salad
then..... Crespelle alla Caterina De Medici (Crepes stuffed and baked )
followed by.... Taglierini (pasta) with tomato and basil sauce
and a little Lemon sherbet to cleanse the palate

then came the Truffled ribs of veal
which was served with Carrots à la creme, almondine green beans, duchesse potatoes

But the killer was the Cavour cake (Meringue cream and strawberries) TO-DIE-FOR

Wines:.... they changed with every course and each was out of this world....
White Orvieto - Marchesi Antinori
Chianti Gallo nero - Castello di Volpaia
Brunello di Montalcino - Villa Banfi
Cuvee Marchese antinori (Spumante)

Florence is full of wonderful restaurants and shops. While we were there, there were things we needed like suits and shoes and dress shirts (for Roger) and a wedding dress for me... We needed flowers and we needed to give a little gift to our guests. We also had our wedding announcements and our album done on famous Florentine paper... here are some of the wonderful businessmen and women we dealt with:

With Beth, Scott and Bianca, we wandered into a florist's shop right off the street and met Gabriele - a delightful man who knew exactly what we needed in the church on May 1st:

After wandering the Ponte Vecchio looking for the right jeweler to set the lovely gems we'd bought in Sri Lanka two months earlier... we kept coming back to a store where the jewelry was not only tasteful but original as well. Ugo Piccini (senior) who is now in his eighties is a tall, quiet, elegantly dressed man. he carefully examined our stones, and with our suggestions and his experience, he produced two exquisite wedding rings for us.

Dreading the wedding-dress-buying, I begged Angelo to help point me in the right direction. Since I had to do this Roger-less... I was at the mercy of my whims. A number of the shops I stopped into were full of dresses made for fashion models - haute couture I couldn't do. A little farther out from the center of Florence, however, was a little shop - owned and run by a woman and her daughter. Daughter Serena helped me find exactly what I was looking for. I knew things were looking up when I realized that all the "trial" (try-on) dresses were my size! A real deal at 2,400,000 lire.

It's tough for a guy on the road all the time to find nice work suits. And for a fellow who isn't a run of the mill size, dress shirts are a bit of a hassle as well. Since Roger's shoes were ready to be replaced - he figured, where better to invest in the nice clothing but Italy! Mauro helped Roger with the suits at "Bemporad"... his wife, Myriam handled our civil marriage paperwork two months later (small world!!)

Roger enjoyed the attention to detail, and the opportunity to chose the material, the cuffs, collars, and buttons for his 13 new dress shirts. The young man who measured him did a fine job, too.

And the nicest shoes to buy before anyone ever heard of OJ Simpson were Bruno Magli (they are still pretty sharp!) Rog bought three pairs at:

One of the most reliable places to buy anything leather is at the Leather School attached to the Convent/Church of Santa Croce. Roger bought a lovely leather jacket - even had the inside pocket embossed.

Florentine paper is world famous... decorated with finely drawn baroque-era flowers and leaves. If you received a wedding announcement from us - this is where it came from:

For the first time in my life I had a facial (the day before the wedding) and a manicure and pedicure - they were wonderful:

We thought it might be nice to give our guests a little gift at the luncheon. How about a little hand-painted ceramic finger dish for each? They were lovely, bone white with a navy blue design on each. hand painted by Barbara:

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