In every great Italian brand, you’ll find a family behind it. A surname that becomes a symbol, a shared dream turned into something tangible: leather, espresso, fashion, marble. For the Cecchi family, that dream took the shape of a hotel: La Gemma in Florence, a story of love, loss, and legacy carved into the walls of a nineteenth-century palazzo. What began as a tribute to a father has evolved into a family movement, with five siblings and one shared vision: to bring Italian warmth and intimacy to the world.
Edoardo Cecchi, who goes by the nickname Mr Dodo, is the youngest and the only sibling working at La Gemma full-time. “I started to become better in English as soon as I started working at the hotel.” Before La Gemma, he admits, he had never worked a day in his life. “My brother Max gave me the start, and I thank him every day.”
La Gemma hotel is at Palazzo Paoletti, a stunning 19th-century building on Via Calimala, one of Florence’s most prestigious addresses, steps from the Ponte Vecchio and Piazza della Repubblica. It has transformed it into a five-star sanctuary. The idea began during COVID. Massimiliano, the eldest and the visionary, had originally planned to convert the top two floors of the building into luxury bed and breakfasts under the La Gemma Collection name. But when the pandemic shifted everything and the entire palazzo became available, Massimiliano recognised it as fate. He took the whole building, all six floors of Palazzo Paoletti, originally designed by architect Tito Bellini in 1895. That’s how La Gemma was born.
The hotel opened in 2023, and the family poured everything into it. They studied Florence’s Duomo and pulled its soul into the hotel’s aesthetic. Vibrant emerald green colours, powder pinks, soft ivories, bold geometric patterns that echo the cathedral’s marble façade.
The result is a blend of Art Deco glamour and Florentine grandeur, and it breathes. Every corner feels like a work of art, but never cold or overly curated. It feels alive, intimate, like walking into the most stylish Florentine home you’ve ever seen.
The name of the hotel is a puzzle, an intimate code hidden in plain sight. La Gemma means “the gem” in Italian, but look closer: L for Luca, their late father. A for Alessandra, their mother. G-E-M-M-A stands for Genevra, Edoardo, Mariasole, Massimiliano, and Andrea. The five siblings who made it happen.
La Gemma’s 44 rooms and suites are sanctuaries of relaxed luxury. Handcrafted king-size beds dressed in emerald green and pink velvets nod to the Art Deco era. Silk feature walls add warmth. Italian linens by Rivolta Carmignani guarantee the kind of sleep you don’t want to wake from. The marble bathrooms, furnished by Devon & Devon with ceramics by legendary designer Gio Ponti, are temples of indulgence, stocked with Votary’s elegant Rosemary & Chia products that smell like Tuscan gardens at dawn. But La Gemma is more than beautiful rooms. It’s an experience designed to awaken all five senses.
On the first floor sits LUCA’s restaurant, where the family has partnered with two-Michelin-starred chef Paulo Airaudo to bring refined Tuscan cuisine to the hotel. Airaudo, who is currently pursuing his third Michelin star in Tokyo, brings his contemporary approach to locally sourced ingredients. “We wanted to have an exceptional restaurant in the hotel,” Edoardo explains. “And we truly hope we receive the Michelin star in October this year.” His menus celebrate Tuscan classics reimagined with modern artistry, the kind of meal that makes you fall in love with Italy all over again.
Just beyond the restaurant, Gemma Café offers a different kind of magic. Inspired by Florence’s timeless glamour, the café features a secluded street-side terrace that captures the city’s classic ambience, a welcoming lounge with a glamorous cocktail bar, and a stunning private courtyard wrapped in natural greenery.
This is where guests gather for vintage jazz, signature cocktails, and Chef Airaudo’s pintxos menu, launched in summer 2025, that brings Basque-inspired small bites to Tuscany. It’s sophisticated, unexpected, and pairs beautifully with La Gemma’s impeccable wine and cocktail list. The café also hosts mixology masterclasses for guests who want to learn the secrets behind the bar.
Beneath the palazzo, in its historic cellars, lies the Allure Spa, a subterranean sanctuary designed for total escapism. “Allure spa offers products from the brand Biologique Recherche, one of the most famous brands in the world for body and massage creams,” Edoardo explains proudly. The spa also features a boutique wellness area, Turkish bath, hydro-massage bath, ice shower, and two private therapy rooms where experienced therapists craft bespoke treatments tailored to each guest.
And then there’s the concierge, La Gemma’s 24-hour Golden Key Concierge team that unlocks Florence. Want exclusive access to private artisan workshops? Done. A VIP tour of a perfumery or design studio that isn’t open to the public? Arranged. How about a luxury helicopter ride over the Tuscan countryside, followed by a truffle hunt in the hills and a private wine tasting in a centuries-old cellar? The concierge team makes it happen. La Gemma Florence has become more than the Cecchi family dared to dream. Guests don’t just stay, they fall in love. They return. The reviews speak of something rare in luxury hospitality: genuine warmth, a place that feels like being welcomed into a home rather than checked into a hotel. Florence has embraced it as one of its own, and the family has, in return, found something bigger: La Gemma Collection.
The project of La Gemma Collection is simple. Five siblings. Five bracelets. Five hotels. Each bracelet holds a colored gem, and each gem represents a city where they plan to open a hotel together. Green for Massimiliano and Florence — “esmeraldo verde,” the emerald that started it all. Blue for Andrea and Milano, opening within the year, a project expected to be even bigger than Florence. Red for Mariasole and the Eternal City, Rome. Yellow for Genevra and Ostuni. Black for Edoardo and Venice, the final jewel in the collection. “In five years, we want to have five gemmi itali,” Edoardo says. “And in ten years? We are aiming for one hundred gems around the world.” Not a franchise. Not a corporate expansion. A family dynasty that will remain entirely family-owned. When all five hotels are open, the siblings will gather again. This time, they’ll present their mother, Alessandra, with a necklace holding all five gems. “Because she’s the queen,” Edoardo says softly. “She’s the reason we are here.”
That intimacy, that sense of being let into something sacred, is what separates La Gemma from every other luxury hotel in Florence. This isn’t a place designed by committee or run by a management company. It’s a Tuscan family, supported by a team of 58 people who believe in the vision. It’s Edoardo at the front desk, making sure every guest feels like they’ve been invited into the Cecchi home. It’s Genevra’s photography on the walls. It’s Mariasole’s fashion sensibility, she runs the brand Les Petits Joueurs, woven into the aesthetic. It’s Andrea, who’s already opened another boutique hotel near the Duomo. It’s Massimiliano, the builder, the dreamer, the one who transforms empty buildings into family legacies.
Standing in the hotel’s private courtyard, where jazz drifts through the warm Florentine air and guests sip Airaudo’s pintxos with Negronis in hand, you can feel it. The weight of what this place means. The ambition behind it. The love that built it. La Gemma isn’t just a hotel. It’s a vow. A promise the Cecchi siblings made to their father, to their mother, to each other, and to Florence itself. They’re building something that will outlast them. Something that glows. Five gems. One vision. And a family that refused to let grief be the end of the story. Instead, they turned it into the beginning.
Images: La Gemma
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