The Curation: Volume 33
The Happy Hoteling Guide to Florence, Palazzo Guadagni hotel review, luxury in the California desert, a duo of private islands in SE Asia, & additions to the Mexico City Hotel List
In the Spring, I decided I was going to significantly cut back on my work as a strategist and copywriter in order to really invest my time in Happy Hoteling. The deal was delivering big on Substack, every week. Making it as good as humanly possible, to more than justify paying $10/month. A truly trusted resource. An archive worth a subscription alone. A mini magazine with a staff of one.
I told myself that on my birthday, September 1, I would evaluate and see if financially it works to continue as is, or if I need to scale back a bit and take on more strategy/copy work. Currently, it’s frustratingly easy for me to straddle the fence. I make enough from Happy Hoteling to get by, but only that. That alone is something I was unsure if I would ever achieve when I launched. I’m so grateful, and I’m so proud. But I have learned from experience that I burn out quickly when I have a full strategy/copy workload and a high Substack standard to uphold. I have to sit down and map out the pros and cons and see what’s realistic and make a plan on whatever feels the most right. So, I'm going somewhere for my birthday that has no cell service, no Wi-Fi, no phones, and no TVs so I legitimately have no option but to think (and read and eat steak and drink champagne). Yes, it is a hotel. If you aren’t crystal clear, I really love hotels and also I love my birthday. And I really love writing for you. This is to say, truly, thank you for being here.
Today, we have the first truly thorough city guide, to Florence. And a hotel review of my most recent stay at Palazzo Guadagni. But also, a duo of desert dreams (one hotel and one rental) in the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree (California). And two dreamy new small hotels in Mexico City to add to the Mexico Hotel List. And two sister private islands in Indonesia that are worth gatekeeping but I am not. Lastly, my fictional birthday wishlist.
The Happy Hoteling Guide to Florence
For my first real city guide, it had to be my origin story.
My dad lived in Florence for decades, I change the amount of years every time I write or talk about it, that’s what he’s always done. The most consistent consensus is 25 years, which is a lot of time. He loved that city, and it loved him back. Before marrying my mom and moving to California, my dad lived all over the world. But in the late-80s, in the courtyard at Cantinetta Antinori, my mom walked up and asked if he was Arthur. Florence is their origin story, and in turn, mine.
A lot of my recommendations and favorites come from them – my parents are both big art people but with different taste in museums, they both like solid and unpretentious restaurants with charm, and neither of them really ventured much beyond the very center of the city. I am very much my parents’ daughter when it comes to travel. I’m infinitely grateful for it, and to be able to extend the knowledge on to you. Not everything below comes from them, a healthy amount (incl. almost all the stores) have come from my solo trips in recent years. Intentionally, this is definitely not the “trendiest” guide to Florence – it’s largely the tightest curation of classics. Only the top hits. 12 restaurants. 7 places for quick bites and/or gelato. 8 museums. 18 very good stores. And of course, a whole lot of hotels.
If I were being serious about potentially moving to Europe, I would most likely land in Florence. I love it, so much. I feel effortlessly at home there. It’s an open-air museum, a mecca of historical importance, the home of beautifully-dressed humans – it’s intimate, yet endless.
This guide is in the works to become a guide on happyhoteling.com – the same information, displayed and purchased differently. It will likely be $42, for fullest transparency.
