“The red tile roofs spread out like a sea of fire on the countryside, illuminating the fair land where giants once roamed…Giotto, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Botticelli”

Following the hotly anticipated release of Dan Brown’s latest novel Inferno, Royal Demeure’s Helvetia & Bristol Hotel in Florence will be offering visitors exclusive guided tours around some of the locations where Brown’s enigmatic thriller is set.

Guests staying at the luxurious Helvetia & Bristol Hotel now have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Inferno’s protagonist Robert Langdon, tracing his route through some of the city’s most historical locations – the Palazzo Vecchio and Vasari Corridor – and touching on the ancient secrets confined within their walls.

Florence’s famous town hall, Palazzo Vecchio, is where some of Inferno’s most gripping scenes unfold. A three-hour exclusive guided tour of the twisting, labyrinthian passages of Palazzo Vecchio, is available for €210 per person and includes the opportunity to explore ‘secret’ rooms that are usually closed to the public.

Directly linked to the Palazzo Vecchio lies the Vasari Corridor, a passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.  The Helvetia & Bristol hotel is now offering a new four-hour guided tour of the vast renaissance palace for €400 per person. The Palazzo Pitti was the chief residence of the Medici Family, who dominated politics, economics and culture in Florence from the 15th to 18th centuries, with the family producing four popes for the Catholic Church.

Since the second half of the 1800s, Hotel Helvetia & Bristol has hosted the most elite of cultural and historical figureheads over the years - from Nobel Prize winners like Bertrand Russell and Mikhail Gorbachev, to authors, playwrights and the crème de le crème of modern day society. Situated in the very heart of Florence, this illustrious building has become a long-lasting symbol of Florence.

With Inferno expected to set the bestselling fiction scene ablaze this summer, there’s no better time to explore Florence and the intriguing locations that inspired the author.

Hotel Helvetia & Bristol (+39 055 26651/www.royaldemeure.com) offers doubles from £459 per night for bed & breakfast, based on two people sharing. The three-hour Palazzo Vecchio Tour costs €210 per person, and the four-hour Vasari Corridor tour costs €400 per person.

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Media enquiries:

For further information or images please contact Liam Colman or Gillian Monahan at royaldemeure@brightergroup.com or telephone 020 7326 9880.

Notes to editors

The Royal Demeure luxury hotel group has carefully built up a collection of historic palazzi in some of Italy’s most important cities. Frescoed halls host modern art, marble bathrooms boast bathtubs and cosy restaurants offer traditional Italian cuisine revisited to reflect modern trends and served by friendly, impeccably trained staff.

Travellers looking to be pampered with personalised hospitality more like that of a private luxury home can choose from any one of the prestigious Royal Demeure hotels: in Rome there are the Hotel d’Inghilterra, Residenza di Ripetta and the Hotel Beverly Hills Rome; in Florence the Hotel Helvetia & Bristol, in Siena the Grand Hotel Continental and in Vicenza the Hotel Villa Michelangelo.