About Sina Hotels Merate
Sina Hotels is your classic family project that grew to be this big hotel chain. In 1958, Count Ernesto Bocca was living in Turin with his family. He was the CEO of Italy’s top tannery - a family business passed on for three generations. Ernest Brocca had always had refined tastes in aesthetic, especially. As a passionate traveller, he decided to pass on to future generations, his art of luxury hospitality. That is when he founded the SINA SocietaInternazionaleNuoviAlberghi. In 1960, the company’s first hotel in Florence was built. It was where the heritage Palazzo deiBaroni de RenzisSonnino was rebuilt and turned into a luxury 5-star hotel. The Shah of Persia and his wife Farah Diba were among the first ones to stay in the hotel. It was soon followed by members of different royal families and celebrities from the cultural and art industries.
In 1973, Count Bocca formed a collection of luxury hotels. He purchased the Bernini Bristol, which has a hospitality tradition that goes all the way back to 1874. In 1981, it was in Viarregio in Versilia, Florence’s high society seaside resort town where the third SINA hotel was opened. The expansion continued now with the involvement of Count Bocca’s children. In 2018, the hotel chain celebrated its 60th anniversary with a new boutique hotel acquisition, SINA Flora in Capri.