From the Grand Tour to the Grand Hotel: the Birth of the Hospitality Industry in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 17th and the 19th Century

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the architecture of different types of accommodations in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 17th and the early 19th centuries. Buildings used as paid accommodation facilities such as inns, hotels, and guest houses, had peculiar architectural features: they were utilitarian buildings that reflected  the taste of their time and the customs and rituals related to travel.  This work proposes an analysis of the architectural properties of those accommodation facilities, alongside their environmental and historical context and the transformations they have undergone in time. With this aim, we look at the development of particularly two types of accommodations that are representative for Tuscany. The coaching inns, public accommodation for travellers that often replaced earlier medieval inns, and the city hotels, usually opened inside ancient, privately-owned palaces where rooms were converted to accommodate visitors.