Villa Giardini

The adjacent building was instead purchased by Professor Gardini-Brugnoli of Ferrara who at the end of the century left it as an inheritance to the Ospedali Riuniti of Bologna; for a few years it was rented by Gaetano Orsatti of San Marcellino who transformed it first into the Hotel Orsatti (1886), then into the Hotel Piramidi (1905); in 1914 Pietro Petrucci, grandfather of the current owner, made the compromise for the purchase which, due to the war, was ratified only in 1918; from then on, and still is, it became the Hotel Regina. Many famous people have stayed in the renovated rooms of this ancient villa: the writer, ethnologist, orientalist and great traveler Fosco Maraini, a great friend of the late Saverio Zanni; Curzio Malaparte, an extravagant writer, “of great taste, with paradoxical and bizarre gestures like all the damned Tuscans”; Teseo Tesei, from Elba, designed and perfected the “maiale”, an underwater assault vessel for the Italian Royal Navy; for the sacrifice of his life, he received the Gold Medal for Military Valor in August 1940; the “championissimo” Fausto Coppi. Via Brennero (formerly Via Giardini), 5 51021 Abetone