Time travel

With the suppression of the ecclesiastical property in 1866, the foundation in Vallombrosa in 1867-69 of the Royal Forestry Institute and the transfer of the Vallombrosa estate to the Forestry Administration, the small building overlooking the Abbey which the monks used as a guesthouse was maintained for this purpose, and the first tenant in May 1870 was Massimiliano Gai di Tosi. At his own expense the tentant built a new room for use as gran warehouse on the ground floor and three bedrooms upstairs.
It was in this period that a tavern was opened with the curious name of "La Luna", probably because of the building that had the shape of a "C". The structure was adapted in such a way as to accommodate not only occasional travelers and those who could not find hospitality within the Forestry Institute, but also tourists, especially foreigners, who wanted to "change the air"

View from the Paradisino of the Hotel La Croce di Savoja in 1885

In 1873 the Foresteria of Vallombrosa was rented by Luigi Chelazzi until 1876 when, since the first lease of the guesthouse had expired, it was rented again for a second six-year term to Teresa Chelazzi (same family) with the cost of restoration and expansion works. The Foresteria grew by another 6 bedrooms. It was in this period that the name of "La Luna" was abandoned for a more appropriate "Albergo di Vallombrosa".
In 1881, when the previous lease expired, the Forestry Administration proceeded with a new twelve-year lease, on a broader basis with the intention of creating a real hotel on the old structure. With the contract of 6 March 1881, Giovanni Bartolucci of San Miniato al Tedesco (then in the province of Florence), who had already been a hotelier at the Hotel Central Firenze in Via Condotta, took over the lease, with the task of carrying out the expansion works. The fade of the hotel was created and the structure so that lost its characteristic horseshoe shape. In that same year it was renamed "Albergo La Croce di Savoia" by Bartolucci.
Thus the hotel offer of the locality was considerably improved: the old "Albergo di Vallombrosa" gave way to a more comfortable structure. Proof of how international Vallombrosa's guests already was at that time, as evidenced by the sign The Cross of Savoy Hotel on the south-east fa ade of the building. The old guesthouse had become a good hotel which, due to the presence of "many rooms, small quarters for families, a reading room, two beautiful and spacious dining rooms, billiards and bathrooms" had nothing to envy to the most renowned hotels in the Alps and, as evidenced by the sign The Cross of Savoy Hotel placed on the south-east fade of the building.
Meanwhile, near the abbey, on what had once been a furnace and an ice deposit, another building was built in 1882 for use as an inn, called Villino Medici, in honor of the stay in this place of the Italian patriot and Risorgimento General Giacomo Medici. In 1908 the "inn", already a branch of the hotel, became Villino Restaurant and was managed uninterruptedly until recent times by the Cerchiarini family, already employed by the monks as greengrocers of the abbey since the 1700s. By the end of 1883, Bartolucci had entrusted the management of the hotel to Prof. Paul Lansky, a German poet who had a strong friendship with the philosopher, philologist and essayist Friedrich Nietzsche. Several times in their correspondence Nietzsche mentions Vallombrosa: "He is co-owner(Lansky) of the hotel (guesthouse) in Vallombrosa - so my philosophy will end up making itself "a nest" even in this beautiful cozy corner. I will certainly spend part of next year there, in the Paradisino, far from the hotel itself, a sort of hermitage: the invitation is there. It's an extraordinary coincidence: last year I worked so hard for this Vallombrosa - and if you can guess a little bit of what's in my head at this idea, you'll also realize how destiny comes towards me". The stay did not materialize and for a number of reasons Nietzsche moved from Florence to Nice.
After the disappearance of the Vallombrosa of the monks, the story of a different Vallombrosa began, made up of hotels and villas, which was populated "by people at the beginning of the suffocating colors of the plain" and which then "returned to the city when the first breezes announcing winter were felt".
So it was that in the summer of 1890, wanting to take a holiday, but not being able to go too far from Rome for work reasons, Count Giuseppe Telfener decided to go to Vallombrosa, which had been recommended to him as a "pleasant", "healthy and cool" place.
It was the Croce di Savoja Hotel that hosted the man who, with the construction of the cogwheel railway, transformed hotels and cottages, Saltino and Vallombrosa into the most sought-after holiday resort in central Italy.

The La Croce Hotel in Savoja in 1895

In 1897 a curious lawsuit was filed over the ownership of the name "Croce di Savoia" which, after a long-standing dispute, saw this name transferred to the new structure ln Saltino which in the meantime had passed from the Bartolucci heirs to the Florentine antiquarian Vincenzo Ciampolini, owner of hotels and cottages in Saltino. The hotel continued to improve and the new works of 1895-96 saw the creation of 83 bedrooms.
When the concession expired, in 1908 Vincenzo Ciampolini was the new tenant of the Hotel La Foresta, now called "Albergo Demaniale", of its coveted branch of the "Paradisino" and of the Vallombrosa pool and icehouse. Paul Lansky remains its Director. He does his job very well and is well-liked by society for his sophistication and culture. Also in those years, new works were carried out modernization and enlargement of the Hotel La Foresta, allowing the increase in the number of rooms available to holidaymakers.
Tenant of the Hotel La Foresta, now called "Albergo Derilaniale", of its coveted branch of the "Paradisino" and of the Vallombrosa pool and icebox. Paul Lansky remains its Director. He does his job very well and is well-liked by society for his sophistication and culture. Also in those years, new works were carried out.
The year 1915 was the last year in which Paolo Lanski became director of the hotels in Vallombrosa on behalf of Ciampolini. From 1916 he will be Attilio Della Torre, former administrator and representative of Ciampolini for all the hotels and villas owned by the Florentine antiquarian at Saltino.

The State Hotel La Foresta during the First World War

In 1921, at the end of the lease, a new public auction was announced, from which Cav. Giulio Chioffi was the winner.
Together with his wife Rina, Chioffi managed with great elegance and professionalism, the Hotel La Foresta, the Hotel Paradisino, for a short time, the Grand Hotel del Lago until 1943. During the war he was also secretary of the Fascia di Vallombrosa. Intelligent, cultured and refined people, immediately after the end of the war, in 1945, restarted the management of the Hotel La Foresta, which they ran until the end of the summer season of 1970, when the business was closed for good. An illustrious example of elegance, Cav. Chioffi said goodbye to his work in Vallombrosa but above all to the guests w o had esteemed and appreciated him in his half century of activity with an equally refined message worthy of a hotelier of other times:
It is with the greatest sorrow that I communicate to the LL. SS. that I had to leave my hotel business, after 50 years of passionate work. How I loved my job! How fond I had grown of my good Gentlemen Customers! I identified myself with them, in order to always improve our service, to make them feel like they were in a corner of their home. I will remember them with affectionate devotion, until the Lord says that I have finished my poor earthly journey.
Most Humble Servant Of Them
Giulio Chiotti

The Hotel in the late 1920s

Since 1971the structure will host for a short period the students of the Faculty of Forestry Sciences during summer exercises and the Rustic Furniture Exhibition organized by Tosi's furniture makers which was a good success until the 90s.
In 2002 the hotel, completely restored, was reopened by the Vallombrosan Monks who kept it in business until 2014.
In July 2023 the current owner, after new restoration and renovation works, reopened the hotel under the name "Rifugio La Foresta".
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Text and photographs by Duccio Baldassini