Europe Archives - Page 22 of 37 - Four Seasons Magazine

The Adventure of a Lifetime in the
Span of an Hour

Posted on May 5, 2019January 11, 2021 by Alison Miller

From traditional Thai boxing in Koh Samui to floating in a hot-air balloon high above the Serengeti, these Four Seasons–curated adventures prove that the most gripping experiences can take place in the span of an hour. Whether your heart’s pounding from vigorous exertion or skipping a beat on account of incredible sights, one thing is certain: Your choice is well worth the time.

Soar Above the Serengeti via Hot-Air Balloon

A lioness silently eyeing an unknowing wildebeest. A pod of hippos lolling in the muddy river. Ostriches running at full tilt. These are scenes that unfold by the minute in Tanzania’s vast Serengeti National Park, home to the kinds of animals most of us have only seen at the zoo. You’ve watched it on screen, but nothing – not even rumbling through the park in a safari vehicle – compares to the bird’s-eye-view.

Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, Tanzania

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, Tanzania

Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti has teamed up with long-time aerial outfitter Serengeti Balloon Safaris to take guests to a new level of wildlife viewing. You’ll float over an ocean of undulating savannah with no end in sight – the paradisiacal home of elephants, giraffes, buffalo, zebra, rhinos, lions, leopards and cheetahs. The trip is timed for dawn, when animals are most active and the rising sun casts a golden hue over the expanse below. Plan to arrive for the Great Migration in Central Serengeti (April through June and September through November) and you’ll witness one of the earth’s greatest primordial traditions, exponentially increasing your chances of seeing every one of the famous Big Five.

Set Off on a Zen Hike in Scottsdale

Scottsdale’s Pinnacle Peak rises 600 feet (183 metres) above the Sonoran Desert, but it’s not the summit that matters here – it’s the journey. The Zen Hike offered by
Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale begins in a quiet corner of the Resort grounds, where a yoga instructor guides you through a sensory exercise designed to open you up to the sounds, sights and smells around you. You’ll stretch and breathe and also set an intention, a practice commonly done at the beginning of a yoga session in order to focus your mind and body on a goal.

Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North

A hiking trail conveniently connects the Resort to the base of Pinnacle Peak. Upon arrival, you’ll steady yourself in mountain pose while gazing up at the granite pile above. On the way to Grandview, the first lookout point, several more posture stops ensue, all designed to deepen the hiking experience both physically and mentally.

Learn From a Muay Thai Master in Koh Samui

Thailand’s native sport is more than just boxing. In Muay Thai, a close-contact pursuit dating back centuries, the human body becomes a multifaceted battle machine – hands act as swords, shins and forearms become shields, elbows serve as heavy hammers, legs and knees are the axe and staff. Also known as the “art of eight limbs,” it’s an exhilarating workout, whether you’re facing an opponent or simply honing the skills.

Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui

Built into a hillside overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, the outdoor ring at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui offers an exquisite opportunity to try the sport or improve your practice. Your coach, a professional Muay Thai boxing master, tailors the tutorial to your experience level. Want more? Upgrade to the Mini Boot Camp, which begins with a Rocky-style run on the beach and ends with a specially designed restorative massage, or the Ultimate Muay Thai package, including VIP seats for a pro fight at Chaweng Boxing Stadium.

Go Dogsledding in Megève

An unmatched base for slaloming the French Alps, this debonair ski town recently acquired another reason to visit: In 2018, Four Seasons Hotel Megève took on its own pack of sled dogs, who reside with their professional musher steps away from the Hotel. The captain and her huskies will pick up your group at the Hotel’s front door, and you’ll embark on a jaunt over the snow-covered hills of Golf du Mont d’Arbois, a veritable winter wonderland framed by the not-so-distant Alps. Commemorate the outing by inviting a professional photographer to join in. She’ll bring her camera and deliver what is sure to become the most coveted holiday card in the stack.

Four Seasons Hotel Megeve

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Hotel Megeve

Conserve Coral Reef in Seychelles

Since 2012, Four Seasons Resort Seychelles has partnered with marine conservation group WiseOceans to support the Resort’s natural surroundings and introduce exclusive experiences to guests. The crescent beach fronting the Resort is home to a reef recovering from toxic algae bloom and bleaching caused by warmer-than-usual waters.

Four Seasons Resort Seychelles

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Resort Seychelles

In 2015, WiseOceans and Four Seasons Resort Seychelles launched the Petite Anse Reef Restoration Project with the goal of restoring 10,000 square metres of limestone reef. Researchers collect broken coral fragments and monitor them in an on-site aquatic nursery until they’re ready to be fastened to steel rods around the reef, a safe way to foster further growth. During a guided snorkel, you can adopt their own fledgling bit of coral and watch as it’s placed on the reef. Along the way you’ll encounter parrotfish, angelfish, eagle rays, squid and octopus, all navigating this vibrant undersea neighbourhood.

The unforgettable can happen in one day, one hour or even one minute. Find your Daily Discovery.

Your Journey Begins Here

Where will you seek adventure next?

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A Mother-Daughter Quest to Reconnect

Posted on April 5, 2019December 19, 2023 by Krissy Rouse

My mother is everything to me. I was born when she was 23 years old. Although we had a small support system, it was mostly just the two of us. But I never felt that I was lacking another parental figure. That’s a testament to how amazing she is: Life was always an adventure.

She instilled in me a desire to chase experiences instead of objects, whether hiking in the summer, ice-skating in the winter or spending entire days daydreaming at the library.

As an adult, I’ve often felt that life is like pulling on a loose thread and worrying everything will unravel.

As an adult, I’ve often felt that life is like pulling on a loose thread and worrying everything will unravel. In the past two years, I’ve had the added pressure of devoting myself to work. I love my job – but working as a social media manager often goes beyond the standard nine-to-five. I feel I must be constantly answering direct messages from clients or e-mails from management.

A lot of times I feel the need to travel – it’s that sense of wanderlust and being away from it all.

Rediscovering What Matters

My mindset shifted with a surprise five-night stay with my mother at Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest.

Upon landing, we were greeted by Drew Clarke, Director of Marketing at the Hotel, who whisked us away to a handsome VIP lounge. He made our luggage appear within minutes. I knew then that the entire journey to come would be flawless.

It was impossible not to be excited. And I soon discovered it was impossible not to stand in awe of the Hotel, a restored palace steeped in history, with its millions of mosaic tiles and intricate wrought-iron peacock gate, Páva Udvar. After settling into our room, I couldn’t help feeling profoundly grateful as I looked out on the Chain Bridge along the Danube.

After settling into our room, I couldn’t help feeling profoundly grateful as I looked out on the Chain Bridge along the Danube.

The next morning, at the Spa, my mother and I received Omorovicza facials using luxurious local ingredients, followed by a traditional Hungarian facial massage. The experience was a firm reminder: Self-care is necessary. The treatments gave me a stretch of uninterrupted time to take a breath and reach for thoughts and ideas that I often feel too busy to dive into.

That sense of awareness and presence permeated the trip. One night, my mother and I, along with Katalin Czeller, a tour guide introduced to us by
Four Seasons, boarded a private sunset cruise on the Danube. Watching from the water as Budapest shifted from day to night is something I’ll always remember.

Instead of my phone, I held my mom’s hand, intoxicated by the cool air, the grandeur of the Hungarian Parliament Building staring back at us, and the light reflecting on the water.

Finding Transformation

One of the best parts of the city is its ever-present creative buzz. Ruin bars, unused spaces converted into the city’s liveliest places to drink, are perfect examples of Budapest’s brilliant ability to rebuild and reinvent itself.

One afternoon, Drew took us to Szimpla Kert, an iconic ruin bar based in the Jewish Quarter of Budapest’s 7th District. Twenty years after my mom told me not to vandalize anything, she handed me a pen and said I should draw on the wall. I went over to the wall – already scribbled with thousands of notes – and left a part of myself there.

Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest

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I began to notice that my mom was somehow different, too. I’d never seen her so open and adventurous. So much happened on our trip: She relinquished control and let the chef and sommelier at the Hotel’s Kollázs – Brasserie and Bar give her a blind taste test of foie gras, Tokaji sweet wines and horseradish ice cream. Drew and Katalin taught her how to greet strangers in Hungarian. At the Workshop, a bar that embodies Budapest’s creativity, she drank shots of Unicum, a dark, bitter herbal liqueur that packs a punch, and relaxed with an artistic, laidback crowd.

I couldn’t have asked for a better travel partner or better arrangements. I already knew that would be the case, but it really hit me one morning when we were ice-skating together, the way we did when I was a kid.

Travelling with my mom and being cared for so well by the Hotel, I was able to let go
of the incessant pressures of work and actually be present. I was doing something familiar – made even richer by being in a new place – with the person who knows me better than anyone in the world.

Take Your Time in Budapest

ONE MINUTE: Admire Fairy-Tale Views

Immerse yourself in the beauty of the gleaming lights of Budapest’s skyline while sipping a glass of sparkling wine from the comfort of your Danube River-View Room.

ONE HOUR: Take Tea at the Palace

Taste lavish cakes and savoury delights served in Herend hand-painted fine porcelain sets. Lean back in your comfortable armchair and enjoy live piano melodies under a magnificent glass cupola inside the Hotel’s historic Peacock Passage.

ONE DAY: Tour and Taste

Learn the history and secrets of the city with our expert guides, followed by a blind taste test dinner, where the chef and head sommelier at the Hotel reveal a five-to eight-course meal paired with wine tailored just for you and your loved one.

Photography courtesy Muse Storytelling, Krissy Rouse, iStock

YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS HERE

How will you take your time?

My Paris: Insider Tips From the
People of George V

Posted on April 5, 2019December 30, 2020 by Stirling Kelso Neff

An art deco landmark built in the 1920s, Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, has long been a cornerstone of French culture and creativity. But it’s not just the building itself – with its ideal eighth arrondissement location, rich history and Eiffel Tower views – that’s intimately intertwined with Paris; it’s also the people. Concierges and butlers, chefs and designers, the George V family has always kept strongly connected to its home city.

We asked a handful of these in-the-know professionals for their favourite places in the City of Light, the ones that truly inspire, such as little-known cheese shops, picnic-worthy gardens and stores that showcase the latest in runway fashion. Here, their insider tips.

Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris

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See all you can experience at Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris

Christian Le Squer

Executive Chef, Le Cinq

Born in Brittany, Chef Christian Le Squer originally toyed with becoming a sailor until, lucky for us, he was introduced to cooking. Today, he’s known for his Midas whisk: He earned critical acclaim at restaurants such as Café de la Paix and Pavillon Ledoyen before signing on to helm Le Cinq at George V. The restaurant has been awarded three Michelin stars under his leadership. While Le Cinq’s exceptional reputation is consistent, Le Squer’s activity from day to day is anything but. “The thing I love about my job is the everyday challenge of not knowing what’s going to happen, or who is going to walk through the door,” he says. “We readapt every day, according to our guests.”

What are a few of your favourite specialty shops in the French capital?
Here in Paris, you can count on artisanship in every culinary craft or trade. As a Breton, it’s important for me to eat fish at least twice a week, so at Passy Covered Market I always stop by and see Christophe, my favourite fishmonger. As for cheese, I make a habit of going to Aux Bons Fromages, located on rue de la Pompe in the sixteenth arrondissement. When I want a good pastry, I think of chefs Pierre Hermé, Christophe Michalak and Cyril Lignac, among others. We are lucky to have such wonderful pastry chefs in Paris.

Where do you like to dine?
A new generation of chefs are opening bistros in different neighbourhoods all over the city, and I love finding new spots. Located in the fifteenth arrondissement, Beurre Noisette by Chef Thierry Blanqui is one recent favourite for its contemporary take on traditional Auvergne-inspired cuisine.

Chefs often have to eat after hours. What’s your go-to late-night spot?
I like Harry’s Bar, a classic Parisian watering hole with wood-panelled interiors, for its late-night ambience.

A new generation of chefs are opening bistros in different neighbourhoods all over the city, and I love finding new spots.

What would be your ideal day in Paris?
I’d start the day with a swim before having lunch at a restaurant with a terrace. After a nap, I’d go shopping in the historic Le Marais or Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighbourhoods. Finally, I’d dine in a little restaurant that’s new to me, one where I don’t have a reservation. This way, I keep discovering Paris.

What are your favourite places within George V itself?
My favourite place in the Hotel would have to be my office, a lab for researching foods and flavours. And it’s hard to beat the Hotel’s rooftop for its incredible city views. Then, of course, there’s the dining room at Le Cinq. I always stop by to breathe in the atmosphere and chat with our guests.

What should every guest know about dining at Le Cinq?
My cuisine is an important cultural experience at George V. It speaks to an of-the-moment culinary movement that – just like the work of a perfumer or a fashion designer – truly represents the French art de vivre, or lifestyle.

Jeff Leatham

Artistic Director

George V has beautiful art deco bones and warm, sophisticated interiors, complemented by a feature we’re willing to bet you’ll never forget: the flowers. Over 12,000 stems are delivered to the Hotel every week, each one a potential brushstroke in Artistic Director Jeff Leatham’s arrangements. His pieces – tightly bound in vases, flowing romantically from sculptures, arrestingly monochromatic or awash with colour – are living works of art. And while his most prominent arrangements change monthly in the Hotel’s marble lobby, he’s also behind more than 150 bouquets in its public spaces, suites and restaurants.

What’s the best garden or public green space in Paris?
The Tuileries Palace is lovely, as is the Jardin du Luxembourg. And I often go running up to the Sacré-Coeur. Paris is just a beautiful place.

Where do you seek artistic inspiration?
My inspiration isn’t so much from a single place or person as much as a collection of who I am. A lot of the things I find truly inspiring are in movies, music, art and architecture.

If you could greet every George V guest personally, what would you want to tell them about the Hotel?
My favourite thing about George V is the spirit and soul of the Hotel. There’s so much talent and history here. It’s a sensory overload of sorts in terms of history, food, flowers – everything. I’ve travelled the whole world, and there’s no place like it.

Marine Sternbach

Guest Relations Manager

After studying law and economics at Sorbonne University in Paris, Marine Sternbach rose through the ranks of the hospitality industry, working in restaurants and hotels (Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice, among others) before assuming a Guest Relations position at George V. “I am constantly impressed by the quality and skills of the people I work with,” she says. “Every day we do our best to serve guests in the same way we would serve our family.”

What cultural institutions should be on every traveller’s Paris itinerary?
My favourite Parisian monument is the Grand Palais. It’s not only a remarkable museum but also a lively cultural centre that hosts everything from fashion shows and art fairs to outdoor films and food festivals, all under its glass roof. I also recommend a stroll through the Parc de Bagatelle. Here, spectacular roses, many named for famous actors or singers, grow in abundance. And in the spring, peacocks walk among the visitors, fanning their tails.

You can order a cup of afternoon tea on the restaurant’s terrace and look out over the water to see the intricate architecture of Notre-Dame.

Where do you go for the best city views?
The roof of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), in the fifth arrondissement along the Seine. You can order a cup of afternoon tea on the restaurant’s terrace and look out over the water to see the intricate architecture of Notre-Dame.

What’s the best place for a celebratory dinner?
My husband and I recently had a romantic dinner at Papillon, a modern bistro. Chef Christophe Saintagne was a disciple of Alain Ducasse and ran the kitchens of the Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice for many years. Dishes such as grilled mackerel with olives and citrus, or gnocchi with shellfish and horseradish, are surprising, flavourful and balanced.

What shops shouldn’t be missed when in Paris?
I love Le Bon Marché, located on the Left Bank, which was the city’s first modern department store when it originally opened in 1838. To me, it symbolizes the true Parisian shopping experience because it carries a choice selection of designers, many of whom aren’t very well known to mainstream shoppers. Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s a wonderful place to stroll among the stalls and discover the latest trends in fashion. My other go-to shop is Morenita, located in the Batignolles neighbourhood. Not only does it have lovely furnishings – I outfitted my entire apartment here – but also lovely gifts such candles, vases and jewellery.

What’s one of your favourite places within George V?
The Penthouse Suite. The view from the terrace is one of a kind; it’s a place where you can sit in the evening and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle, framed by millions of other lights. I was born in Paris and have lived here all my life, and I still find it magical.

What should every guest know about the Hotel?
We are the only palace hotel in Europe with a collection of five Michelin stars. Our restaurants each have their own identity and are a testimony to our team’s savoir faire.

Chef Simone Zanoni

Chef, Le George

“One of the best aspects of working at George V is the freedom that we each have to create,” says Simone Zanoni, who worked for Gordon Ramsay in London before becoming chef at the Mediterranean-style Le George restaurant. “Four Seasons instils the sain principal, or an emphasis on well-being, in its employees. Naturally, this intuitive service and attention extends to our guests.” Now with its own Michelin star, Zanoni’s Le George is praised for its airy and elegant dining room and plates such as tagliatoni with black truffles and an onion tarte Tatin.

Where do you source ingredients for Le George?
We source from Italy directly. I also grow fresh seasonal herbs and vegetables in our sustainable kitchen garden, and what we don’t have room for I buy from a friend and organic producer in Versailles.

What are a few of your favourite specialty food shops in Paris?
One choice spot is Cooperativa Latte Cisternino, an Italian boutique that has products from the Pouilles region in Southern Italy. I also like the wholesale market Rungis, where you can find almost anything that’s in season.

Where do you love to eat in Paris?
I recommend Mori Venice Bar, a Venetian restaurant helmed by Chef Massimo Mori, for its wonderful cuisine and glamorous yet friendly atmosphere. Start off your meal sipping different kinds of spritz cocktails while sampling great Italian cold cuts.

I love the two sculptures that we have in Le George. They are actually made of cooking paper – folded, glued and dried – by Parisian artist Junior Fritz Jacquet.

Where would you go for a nightcap?
At Chef Akrame’s Atelier Vivanda, you can order a great steak for dinner and enjoy a last drink before going home.

What would be your ideal day in Paris?
I’d start with breakfast at Ladurée and then take a bicycle ride to le Marché des Enfants Rouges, a covered food market in the third arrondissement. I’d buy whatever is in season and take it home to cook lunch with my children. After a nap, I’d head to Caffè Armani and enjoy an aperitif before wandering around the city to find a new place for dinner.

What is something that you hope every guest at George V has a chance to see?
I love the two sculptures that we have in Le George. They are actually made of cooking paper – folded, glued and dried – by Parisian artist Junior Fritz Jacquet. He studied origami in Japan and created these for the restaurant’s opening. They’re called “the volcano” because of their shape and the light they attract.

Anything you’d like to add?
If I could invite every guest to have a glass of Champagne on the Penthouse terrace, I would!

Your Journey Begins Here

What do you love about Paris?

floral art installation at Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris

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Pleased to Meet You:
Taking Time to Make New
Connections in Florence

Posted on February 28, 2019June 3, 2025 by Alicia Miller Corbett

Piacere!” “Pleased to meet you!” During a recent visit to Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, that’s the sliver of my rusty college Italian that I find myself returning to – and truly feeling – most often. I’m here to explore, with record-breaking globetrotter Jessica Nabongo, the idea of “Take the Leap, Take Your Time.” How will we use the gift of 366 days that this 2020 leap year has brought us? Talking with her, as we’re recording the first episode of the new Four Seasons “Take the Leap” podcast, I’ll soon discover that for Jessica, the answer lies not in places but in people.

Meeting Jessica

When I meet Jessica, the first black woman to visit all 195 U.N.-recognized countries and document her journey, I quickly learn two facts about her: 1) She is always cold; on set, we wrap her in Hotel bathrobes to shield her from breezes. 2) She is one of the warmest people I’ve ever encountered. Her travel quest, completed last October, was propelled largely by the connections she made and the conversations she had along the way. “Home isn’t a place; it’s people,” she says. She has a gift for making each place she visits feel like home, for herself and for whoever she happens to meet.

As for her physical home, in Detroit, she tells me she’s downsizing. After her record-breaking journey she moved into a smaller place, and she’s now in the midst of scaling down her “stuff.” She’s giving away closetfuls of clothes, piles of luggage; I get the sense that her years of nimble travel have made her a pro at discarding baggage of all types, whether it’s a suitcase or a notion of a place that no longer feels useful.

It seems to me that Jessica was born to travel. While the past few years have seen her briskest pace (136 countries just from 2017 to 2019), she’s been travelling internationally since age 4. She’s never experienced motion sickness or food poisoning. I’m behind on sleep, since I’m rarely able to nap on planes, trains or automobiles, and when I try to stifle a yawn, she laughs – saying that when she travels, she sleeps literally like a baby: “Strap me into my seat and start moving the vehicle and I’m out!” One of her goals, she says, is to help other travellers push past their perceived boundaries, in travel and in life.

How does she make meaningful connections with people she meets, I ask, when they don’t share a common language? She was inspired, she says, by a taxi driver she met during her travels. As she always does, she struck up a conversation with him that ran much deeper than the weather. Discussing their travel experiences, he described his surprise when his wife had recently shared a long, happy afternoon with a small child on a beach, to the delight of the youngster’s parents, during a vacation where she did not speak the local language. “I speak with my heart,” she told her husband, “not with my mind.” Ever since, Jessica has set out to do the same. It’s a philosophy she’ll bring to each moment of our visit in Florence.

Meeting Luca (and Giotto)

“Dai! Dai! Dai!” urges Luca Campinotti, encouraging his truffle-hunting dog to “Come on!” In response, the eager, curly haired (and, it must be noted, adorable) Giotto trots off into the woods, sniffing and crackling his way through the underbrush as Jessica and I watch. The Lagotto Romagnolo breed, says the AKC, is alert and intelligent, with an excellent nose and strong endurance – and is also, as demonstrated here in this forest in Forcoli, very attached to its owner. It’s a bond Luca notes as crucial to the process, and one that reminds me of the border collies on my family’s farm, so strongly connected to my father that when herding livestock they could translate the slightest change in his tone or expression into a fresh course of action.

During our truffle excursion – guided by Savini Tartufi, around an hour’s drive from the Hotel – we’re eager to see if Giotto will earn a treat from Luca, either “a little cookie” or “a big cookie,” depending on his performance. In ancient Rome, Luca says, each truffle was thought to be a gift from the gods, the result of a lightning strike sent down from the heavens. Now, though, I can’t help but feel as if each truffle is actually a gift from Giotto, since he (being no fool) has a taste for the tubers as well as for dog biscuits.

As we walk the land where the Savini family has gathered truffles for four generations – another parallel, I realize, with my family’s farm back home – we watch for a sign. Giotto’s father, says Luca, barked when he made a discovery; Giotto, however, wags his tail to flag a find. At the first hint of a wag, Luca is there, to finish the dog’s digging (and pre-empt any sampling) with a tool specially designed to excavate the treasure.

The truffle smells delightfully of earth and garlic. It’s a bianchetto, or “whitish,” specimen, this not being the season for the ultimate prize of tartufi bianchi. But, as Luca reminds us, all truffles here were once considered mere “food for pigs” until the world discovered their charms. Truffles from the Piemonte region were first to claim attention – and then company patriarch Zelindo Savini proved that Tuscany, too, had the mild climate, the soil rich in mineral salts, to produce top-quality truffles. I envy those pigs, I think, as I inhale the aroma again.

Luca shows us a yellow capsule, which I recognize as the vessel that holds the toy in the centre of a chocolate Kinder Sorpresa egg. There are holes punched into it and truffle bits inside. It’s hidden as an exercise for training the next generation, Luca says. Savini’s Lagotto Romagnolo puppies, currently immersed in lessons with their trainer, may or may not turn out to have Giotto’s talent, but if they develop half of his passion or Luca’s – for the land, for the hunt, for the truffles – they’ll be lucky dogs indeed.

Meeting Chef Mollica

For Executive Chef Vito Mollica, the culinary master behind the Hotel’s Michelin-starred Il Palagio, Luca and the Savini family are not just suppliers, but friends. As Jessica and I chat with him during our hunt with Giotto, we learn that Vito was born in Italy’s Basilicata region, took the opportunity as a boy to go to cooking school, and soon fell in love with the kitchen. He went on to work with Four Seasons in Milan and Prague before arriving in Florence for the Hotel’s opening in 2008; he’s been sourcing truffles from Savini ever since.

It’s fitting, I think, to feast on truffles at Four Seasons Hotel Firenze. During the Middle Ages, they were shunned, thought to be too exotic, too tempting an aberration in the soil, to be anything but the work of witchcraft. But then, in the 16th century, Florence’s Caterina de’ Medici helped repopularize the truffle; she’s said to have arrived in France for her wedding to Henry II with truffles and other Italian produce in tow. By 1585, fellow Medicis were at home in the palazzo that is now the Hotel: first Alessandro de’ Medici (who became Pope Leo XI), and then his sister Costanza.

The truffles Giotto found, then, join a long culinary tradition here. But first, we need to prepare them. For me, stepping into a kitchen, let alone the kitchen of a Michelin-starred restaurant, means stepping out of my comfort zone. But the vast majority of travellers (95%) say they’re most likely to step out of their comfort zone while on vacation, according to a global survey commissioned by Four Seasons. So I decide to embrace this new adventure.

Back at the Hotel, when Chef Vito hands over the knife so Jessica and I can cut freshly made pasta into tagliatelle-size ribbons, I manage not to injure myself or others, and when he adds Romanesco broccoli purée and Jessica shaves one of our truffles over the top, the result is glorious, a testament to Vito’s devotion to simplicity and quality. He then shows us how to prepare turbot with local vegetables, while another patient member of the kitchen team teaches us the tricks of risotto – topped with more heaps of shaved truffle.

As I fork up bite after bite, I recall another fact I learned from the Four Seasons survey: More than half of travellers like to cook or eat new foods on vacation, and say the experience stays with them after their trip. I know I will never forget this dinner.

Food, like home, is about people. It’s about the people who produce it (thank you, Luca and Giotto), the people who prepare it (thank you, Chef Vito) and the people who share it with us (thank you, Jessica). I was so grateful to meet you all, in this very special time and place. Grazie mille, Firenze. Ci vediamo presto.

YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS HERE

What will you discover in Florence?

Photo-Worthy Mountain Escapes

Posted on January 10, 2019September 30, 2024 by Brittany Johnson

There’s a moment that comes between hopping off the ski lift and slaloming to the base of the run: a moment of awe. But it’s important to remember that elation comes at every elevation. Here, mountain insiders share their favourite photogenic après-ski delights to top off finding scenic slopes.