DAYS & PLACES
Sammezzano’s Castle Peacock Room.
There's classic Italian OTT architecture and then there's Castle of Sammezzano's Peacock Room.
Moore is More: On a hilltop outside central Florence sits the Castle of Sammezzano – an abandoned structure originally built in 1605 by a Spanish nobleman, and redecorated in Moorish style by Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes, who died at the end of the 20th century. After World War II, the records the castle served as a luxury hotel, then it was purchased by a British company who abandoned it after running into financial trouble. Today it's been auctioned to international developer Palmerston, who intend to restore it to five-star resort status. There are 365 rooms in the castle – the Technicolor Peacock Room perhaps its most dizzyingly detailed.