A Negroni at Villa San Michele in Florence

The ruby-red cocktail’s origin is hotly debated, but most people tend to believe it was invented in Florence. Coincidentally, Florence is the epicentre of the drink’s recent renaissance as the refresher of choice for rakish, young men on a fashion pilgrimage.

The most retold version of its history begins with an Italian count, former Wild West cowboy and ex-professional gambler named Camillo Negroni. 

One day in 1919 Negroni sat down in his regular spot at Bar Casoni, on Florence’s elegant Via de Tornabuoni. There he asked the barman to add some extra kick to his Americano. Obliging, the bartender switched out soda water for gin. It became a sensation — and the rest, as they say, is history. Or is it?

This account was published in a 2008 booked called Sulle tracce del conte. La vera storia del cocktail Negroni by Luca Pichi, the head bartender at nearby Caffé Rivoire. But, not long after its release, a descendant of the noble Negroni family announced that Count Camillo was missing from his family tree. He was fictitious, he claimed.

Instead, the man said he had old letters that proved the drink was instead invented sometime in the 19^th century by a French ancestor called General Pascal Oliver Comte de Negroni whilst he was stationed in Africa. An argument between the two men swiftly broke out in an online forum.

What is true is that we’ll never know the true origins of the drink. All the story’s protagonists are long dead and Bar Casoni is now an Armani boutique. I recently heard a rumour, however, that Count Camillo was based on American tycoon named Henry Cannon White.

White made a fortune in banking and the railroads. He was also a swashbuckling bachelor, arctic explorer and lover of the arts. In 1909 he moved to Florence, purchasing Villa San Michele, a bewitching former monastery established by Franciscan monks in the 15^th century on a hill just outside the city. 

The building was perfect for White’s Renaissance ideals — the design of its grand façade, based on the principles of symmetry laid down by Roman architects, has been attributed to Michelangelo. A coat of arms on its front is thought to have been carved by Donatello. Leonardo da Vinci is even said to have tested his flying machine on the slopes above the villa’s terraced gardens.

Today, White’s villa is a five-star hotel. A portion of the rooms are housed in the monk’s former quarters, whilst the lobby, restaurant and bar are converted from the complex’s loggia, cloisters and chapel. One of them even contains an original fresco of the Last Supper.

Sitting on White’s former terrace, which has sweeping views across Florence’s ancient belltowers to the dome of the doumo, I ask the hotel’s head barman Nunzio Adamo — who opened his own American bar just south of Naples in the 1990s — for his ‘Negroni Perfetto’. 

‘It’s all local and natural,’ replies Adamo. The gin he uses is made in Tuscany, where the humid summers create richly aromatic juniper, and contains scents of regional thyme and rosemary. The vermouth comes from the hills of Chianti, between Florence and Sienna. The Campari, he replaces with Bitters di Firenze, which is colourless and chemical-free. 

And just like in Count Camillo’s story, Adamo’s powerful and pungent cocktail has become the stuff of legend. Guests travel from far and wide to Villa San Michele to watch him mix them with tools stored in a custom leather chest. 

Sitting back with one in hand, watching the sunset over the ancient terracotta-tiled roofs of Florence below, it’s easy to think that this could be the very spot where White mixed the first ever Negroni. Whether that’s the truth or not, we’ll never know, but it’s tantalising to imagine.

A Negroni Perfetto at Villa San Michele

30 ml of Tuscan gin

30 ml of Bitter di Firenze

30 ml of Vermouth del Chianti

Ice

Dried orange slice

Fresh lemon peel

Recipe

Fill a mixing glass with ice

Add the gin, then bitter, then vermouth and stir clockwise

Strain into an Old Fashioned glass containing a single, large ice cube

Garnish with fresh lemon peel and a slice of dehydrated orange