“We operate in the field of social and health care, educational and rehabilitative services for the elderly and disabled, both in residential and home care, and in the provision of services for active inclusion.” This is the mission of Montedomini, a public company for personal services of the Municipality of Florence.
THE SCHEME The Corriere Fiorentino, however, discovered that the company’s assets include valuable properties intended for something else entirely; namely, short-term rentals. Journalistic reconstructions speak of valuable apartments affected by eviction operations and subsequently renovated to be dedicated to this activity. The scheme is as follows: the company grants a tourist operator the lease of the property. At an attractive rent with the “empty for full” formula. The operator renovates it, and Montedomini participates in the renovation up to a maximum of 30% of the expenses and up to a predetermined amount.
The tenant will then manage the short-term rentals on various platforms, profiting what is fair. Everything happens with maximum transparency and with the publication of public tenders.
One could object that Montedomini acts outside its statutory perimeter, but it is also true that it makes valuable properties profitable, the proceeds of which can be reused for statutory purposes. However, there is a “but” as big as Palazzo Vecchio. Florence is one of the cities that has most distinguished itself for an authentic crusade against short-term rentals. If you own a house in Florence, especially in certain areas, you can rent it for one night if – and only if – the Municipality has authorized you. In addition to a lot of other restrictions. Many disputes at the TAR have often sided with the Municipality. In short, the right to best dispose of apartment ownership does not exist in Florence. And so my memory goes back exactly one year ago. In fact, one year and one day ago.
I was a guest on the show L’aria che tira on La7 hosted by the excellent Francesco Magnani on July 21, 2025. The theme of the show was “the plague of short-term rentals” which would take away apartments and housing units from families. And guess who was on the show? Yes, none other than the mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro, champion of the fight against uncontrolled tourism. I swelled in silence like a pufferfish. Francesco knows how to handle me, damn him. He makes me speak last. When I start speaking, I slowly deflate, but I do deflate. I point out that regulating a market is one thing (even if with this excuse the worst atrocities are often committed); limiting property rights is quite another. Two completely different things. I kept hearing about the fight against uncontrolled tourism. But the fight is against crime. It’s against poverty. It’s against irregular immigration. It’s against social decay. Why should we ever fight against tourists?
MAYOR Obviously, the mayor faintly disagreed, shaking her head more and more imperceptibly. It was clear she didn’t know what to say. And I pointed out how short-term rentals are an opportunity for the requalification of housing stock that asks nothing of the state coffers. And it’s unclear why, I argued, the Municipality demands the payment of Tari and Imu in its favor, but in the meantime claims to prevent small owners from making their homes profitable.
In this incomprehensible crusade, I glimpsed a much more understandable (and short-sighted) lobbying action by hoteliers that found support in the regulator’s actions. In this case, the Municipality.
Hoteliers don’t want competition from small owners, and the Municipality accommodates them. I remember that Mayor Sara Funaro reacted with a surge of indignation. And after a year, what do we discover? That Montedomini rents Palazzina Fusi in via Vacchereccia to the Catena Ognissanti Hotels because there the municipality has authorized bed and breakfast activity, which is increasingly precluded to other ordinary mortals. Dear mayor, how do we explain this? Do you perhaps want to explain to us, while remaining serious, that the Municipality of Florence behaves like the Marquis del Grillo? As in, “because I am who I am, and you are nothing?”
Read more Ilaria Salis writes the «piano casa» for the left | Libero Quotidiano.it
