BUYING IN ITALY:€218,000 will get you a one-eighth share of a home in an immaculately restored palazzo in Florence where the first opera is said to have been performed
DREAMS DON’T come any loftier than an aspiration to live in a 15th century Florentine palazzo. So much the better if it has history, was once a Medici family home, is within hailing distance of the city’s Duomo, bell towers, Ponte Vecchio and Boboli Gardens and has the strum and hum of Florence’s daily life on its doorstep.
A lofty dream – but a scheme relatively new to this side of the Atlantic aims to make ownership of a portion of just such a palazzo possible.
The palace in question is the 15th century Palazzo Tornabuoni in Florence which, over almost five years and with meticulous care and craftsmanship, has been restored, revamped and remade into 38 apartments and studios which are for sale on a one-eight, shared ownership basis as part of a private residence club, also known as fractured ownership.
A relatively modest outlay of €218,000 on a studio apartment will buy into what is a lavish, and lavishly historic palazzo with – a definite bonus in a city like Florence – an attache service making Tuscan culture and lifestyle available to members.
And, just for good measure, the first ever opera is said to have been performed there, in the palazzo’s Salone delle Muse.
The Palazzo Tornabuoni is on the corner of Via Tornabuoni and Via Strozzi, in the elegantly cobbled centre of Florence’s high fashion area.
The restoration, in the safe hands of a team of skilled Italian artisans, was supervised by Florence’s Department of Fine Art (Soprintendenza delle Belle Arti di Firenze). The process uncovered treasures long hidden; a concealed room, paintings, 16th century frescos.
Michele Bonan, a much regarded Florentine designer, is responsible for blending a coolly classical contemporary style with the restored artwork of five centuries of interior design and architecture.
Twenty “residences” are currently available: three 85sq m (915sq ft) studios at €218,000 each; seven 115sq m (1,238sq ft) one-bedroom apartments at €331,000 each; and 210sq m (2,260sq ft) two-bedroom apartments at €549,000 each.
A limited number of larger, two/three-bed apartments will be available to buy outright, at between €4 million and €5 million, though the scheme’s emphasis is on the private residence club/fractional ownership aspect.
It’s a scheme that, as a way of selling high end, home-from-home, low maintenance holiday homes, has been popular in the US since the 1990s.
It differs from its time share cousin by giving owners an equity stake in the apartment they buy into, a stake that can be sold, willed or transferred as if it were wholly owned.
Other pluses include access to all apartments in the category bought into, no limit on the number of times it can be used and the more than incidental delights that are part of the entrée offered by Club Tornabuoni’s “cultural mission” which aims to give members access to “art, culture and Italian lifestyle”.
A private clubroom and separate library and cigar room offer old-style comforts. The first is a large, salon-style gathering place where 30ft ceilings soar above the bar, islands of seating, bookshelves and fireplace. The latter is off the overhead gallery and has special ventilation to facilitate the forbidden pleasures of smoking indoors.
Perhaps it’s a measure of the lives already lived in the Palazzo Tornabuoni, or the welcoming feel of local materials, like the grey sandstone used in sweeping staircases and floors, but the building’s splendour is in no way daunting.
High ceilings and long windows ensure every apartment has plenty of light, as well as an incidental and exhilarating sense of freedom. Exhilarating is the word, too, for the city and Tuscan countryside views from the top floor apartments. Lower apartments, which don’t have such views, have the compensation of sublime, vibrantly restored ceiling frescos, to rest the eye on.
All of the apartments are fully and suitably furnished. Michele Bonan’s credo was to design and fit them out so that the owners would “feel they belong, not that they are just visiting”.
To this end he has come up with a style in which earlier mosaics, stuccoed ceilings and frescos fit easily with contemporary art, classic furniture, chandeliers by Gherardo deli Albizzi and, discreetly, technology. The last is there in hi-tech Boffi kitchens and flat screen TVs.
Work is ongoing but, when fully completed, the ground floor of the palazzo will have designer boutiques, bar and an Obika mozzarella bar.
Jane Guarducci, sales executive for Palazzo Tornabuoni, says that the building represents “the evolution of the concept of beauty in Florence from 1460 to today”. She sees its new life as “an ideal solution at this moment in history, when we have a world economic crisis which has put people off conspicuous consumption and somewhat deminished the joys of possession. People still want to have fun, but without the costs of owning something outright.”
Palazzo Tornabuoni is managed by the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. Club membership brings a full concierge service, daily housekeeping, pre-arrival grocery shopping, in-house sommelier and private airport transfers.
Annual club fees depend on the type of apartment bought but range from €8,200 for a studio to €21,100 for two-bedroom apartments. Housekeeping charges apply too; €215 for a week in a studio residence to €500 for the larger apartments.
The Tornabuoni attache service arranges wine-tasting tours, access to private art collections, galleries and museums, country weekend outings, previews of art and fashion collections and much more. The developers are Fingen of Florence and Kitebrook Partners of Washington DC.
Contacts:JaneGuarducci jguarducci@palazzotornabuoni.com 0039-055-268966; fax 0039-055-218169. Allesandro Grassi allesandro_grassi@grascom.it
www.palazzotornabuoni.com.
