Toscano Hotel, Sonoma, 2021. The Toscano Hotel was built in the early 1850s and was initially used as a general store and lending library. The name Toscano Hotel was adopted in 1886 when Settimo Ciucci and his business partner Leonido Quartaroli turned it into a workingman’s hotel and bar. Guests included Italian quarry workers who quarried basalt blocks from the hills north of the Sonoma Plaza, railroad workers, vineyard workers, and eventually vacationing families from the greater Bay Area (who would come to visit the hot springs). The accommodations were simple, never fancy. The kitchen/dining room was added in 1902 and offered “fine Italian food.” After being operated for nearly 70 years (1886 – 1955) by two generations of the Ciucci family, it was sold to the California Department of Parks and Recreation in 1957. Today, visitors to the hotel can view period furnishings and kitchenware as well as historical photographs of the hotel, its guests, and the Ciucci family.

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2021CaliforniaHistoricSonomaToscano Hotel