The story of the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo starts from a date and a number.
It was the year 1955 and in the beginning there were 10 rooms. These rooms had been built by Dino Innocenti, the owner of a flourishing construction company, who wanted to create a classy hotel near the centre of Florence.
The starting elements were a hill, the fields around it and a country house in the Fiesole foothills.
Architect Mazzei's inventiveness (he had already worked at the extension of the Florence National Library), Dino Innocenti's entrepreneurial spirit and the passion for this project did the rest.
The alleged difficulties in building such an important structure in a hilly area did not discourage the owner: the materials removed from the ground were used, thanks to an agreement with Giorgio La Pira - Florence's Mayor at the time, not only for the building itself, but also for the construction of a park. That park is today one of the green areas of Florence most loved by its citizens: the "Giardini sull'Arno", just in front of the hotel.
The Grand Hotel Mediterraneo was inaugurated in 1955, with a building which was absolutely ahead of its time.
It was surprisingly large indeed: 5 floors, which were soon to become 6, with a capacity far above the standard. When in the 70's the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo was expanded to reach today's 331 rooms - which make it the biggest hotel in Florence, it proved to be since then one of the first resorts able to receive an ever-growing tourism. Today, the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo, with the top-level comfort of its rooms, is still the ideal destination for both business trips and holidays in Florence.