The 16 Best Luxury Hotels in Florence, by Neighbourhood

Statues, fountains and a small Ionic temple stand in the Giardino della Gherardesca, 4.45 hectares (11 acres) of garden planted in the 15th century. The hotel calls it one of the largest private gardens in Florence. You reach it through the Four Seasons' front door on Borgo Pinti, a 15-minute walk east of the Duomo.

Bartolomeo Scala built Palazzo della Gherardesca in 1473. Pierre-Yves Rochon designed the 121 rooms and suites spread across it and the 16th-century Palazzo del Nero, and the Royal Suite fills 234 sq m of the main floor under 17th-century frescoes. Il Palagio holds a Michelin star, with Paolo Lavezzini as executive chef.

The 790 sq m spa puts its ten treatment rooms out in the garden, beside a pool that opens in summer only. Entry Premier rooms start at 31 sq m. Book a king facing the garden, because the twin-bed rooms look onto a neighbouring building.

Roses and lemon trees still scent the terraces the monks laid out at Villa San Michele. It was a monastery in the 15th century, high in the Fiesole hills, and its facade is attributed to the school of Michelangelo. Below the gardens is a heated panoramic pool.

There are 39 rooms and suites. Rooms start at 29 sq m, and the three signature suites start at 109 sq m and sleep up to four. Dinner at Antesi is served on a loggia, the spa is by Guerlain, and Michelin gives the hotel one Key.

Santa Maria Novella station is a 15-minute drive, and a complimentary shuttle runs you into the centre. Plan around the calendar in winter. The villa opens for a season and closes in January, so check the dates first.

The Ponte Vecchio Suite has a 40 sq m terrace aimed straight at the bridge, a few steps along the Lungarno degli Acciaiuoli. Behind it are 120 sq m and two bedrooms on the sixth floor. Michele Bonan designed all 37 rooms and suites in a mid-century style for the Lungarno Collection, the Ferragamo family's hotels, and Forbes Travel Guide gave Portrait Firenze five stars in 2026.

Caffè dell'Oro, on the same street, has a terrace over the bridge and chef Luca Armellino in the kitchen. Check the room before you pay for the address: the Timeless and Family suites have no river view.

Every evening at six, a bottle of champagne loses its neck to a sabre at The St. Regis. The palace faces the Arno from Piazza Ognissanti, moments from Via de' Tornabuoni, and the hotel attributes it to Filippo Brunelleschi around 1400. It first opened as the Grand Hotel Royal de la Paix. Queen Victoria stayed.

Every guest gets a St. Regis butler. Dinner is in the Winter Garden, an Art Deco room designed around 1922 by Enzio Giovannozzi. The Royal Suite (84 sq m) and the Presidential Suite (200 sq m) both have terraces, and the Royal's looks over the Arno. Breakfast costs extra, at €52 a head for the buffet.

Order a drink at Picteau, the bistro, and there is a Picasso above the fireplace. It is one of more than 400 20th-century works at Hotel Lungarno, Cocteau among them. The hotel belongs to the Ferragamo family's Lungarno Collection and stands on the Oltrarno bank beside the Ponte Vecchio.

Borgo San Jacopo holds a Michelin star under chef Claudio Mengoni, and its terrace tables face the bridge. Upstairs, the Rooftop Terrace Suite spreads 100 sq m over two floors. Its 50 sq m terrace takes in Palazzo Pitti, the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo at once. The entry doubles are 21 sq m, and some face the city rather than the river.

Salvador Dalí and Gabriele D'Annunzio came up to this villa in the Fiesole hills for Ugo Ojetti's salon in the early 20th century. Today some of Il Salviatino's 39 rooms and suites look straight at the Duomo. The centre is about ten minutes away, and the hotel's complimentary shuttle covers every museum day.

The spa fills the old greenhouse: a hydromassage pool at 36°C, then an ice bath. Outside, the infinity pools cascade and are heated. Da Giacomo al Salviatino cooks from a permaculture garden, made with Galleria Continua after Michelangelo Pistoletto's Terzo Paradiso.

Eleonora Duse made Helvetia & Bristol her home, and Enrico Fermi and Luigi Pirandello checked in as guests. It has been a luxury address since the late 19th century, between Via de' Tornabuoni and Via dei Calzaiuoli, a few steps from Palazzo Strozzi and the Duomo.

Anouska Hempel designed 25 of the 89 rooms and suites, in the Bristol wing that was once the Banco di Roma. The Panoramic Suite on the fifth floor looks at the Duomo, Giotto's bell tower and Palazzo Strozzi. Dinner is at Cibrèo Ristorante, and LA SPA was built on the site of ancient Roman baths. Leave the car behind if you can. The streets are one-way, parking is valet only and the garage costs €60 to €80 a night.

The Spa Suite on the fifth floor of Hotel Savoy has a close view of the Duomo, and its products come from the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella. Rocco Forte runs the hotel on Piazza della Repubblica, with Olga Polizzi's interiors and the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and Via de' Tornabuoni as neighbours.

Irene, the trattoria named after Lady Forte, has a terrace on the piazza, and the cooking is Fulvio Pierangelini's. Superior rooms are 28 sq m. For the square itself, take the Repubblica Suite and its three balconies.

More than a hundred varieties of rose grow in Villa Cora's 900 sq m Italian garden, and the pool is heated in winter. Baron Gustave Oppenheim built the villa in the late 1860s for his bride. Empress Eugénie, Napoleon III's widow, owned it next, and Claude Debussy came to stay.

It stands on Viale Machiavelli above the Oltrarno, with a view of the Boboli Gardens. The Ponte Vecchio is a 20-minute walk, or a ride on the free shuttle. You reach the BENe spa through an underground tunnel, and Michelin gives the villa two Keys.

The bathtub in the Penthouse looks out at the Duomo's dome, from two levels at the top of The Place Firenze. Below it are just 20 rooms in a townhouse facing the church of Santa Maria Novella across the square.

The hotel was formerly J.K. Place Firenze, and Michelin gives it one Key. Classic rooms are up to 20 sq m. The Kitchen & The Bar serves from 7.30am to 11.30pm.

Il Verrocchio sets its tables on a terrace over the Arno, and the wine is kept beneath it in a 15th-century mill. Stefano Ballarino is the chef. Villa La Massa itself goes back to the 13th century and has been a hotel since 1948, in Candeli, about 15 minutes upriver from the centre on the hotel's electric shuttle.

The rooms are spread across six buildings in ten hectares of park, one of them a former watermill. The Arno Spa fills the ancient cellars with a Turkish bath and a Roman whirlpool. Michelin gives the hotel two Keys, and the restaurants and bars ask for smart casual dress.

Couples should book the Junior Suite Terrace, whose balcony looks across the rooftops to the Basilica of Santa Croce. Palazzo Firenze, the former Baglioni Relais Santa Croce, fills an 18th-century palazzo on Via Ghibellina. Studio Marco Piva restyled it for its 2026 reopening and kept the frescoes, stuccoes and coffered ceilings.

The Santa Croce Royal Suite sleeps six in about 260 sq m, and the hotel calls it the largest apartment in the city. Entry Deluxe rooms are about 27 sq m. Dinner is at Guelfi e Ghibellini, where Antonino Pepe is the chef.

Breakfast at the Bernini Palace comes under circular frescoes in the Sala Parlamento. Parliamentarians met in this 15th-century palazzo between 1865 and 1870, when Florence was briefly Italy's capital, and it faces Palazzo Vecchio, a short walk from the Uffizi.

Every room has parquet floors, and the Deluxe rooms keep their antiques and Murano glass lamps. Ask for a Grand Deluxe with a view of the Duomo and the Bargello. The 12 sq m Basic Double only works if you travel light.

In 1285 the Torre della Pagliazza held women prisoners. Its top two levels are now the Tower Suite at Hotel Brunelleschi: 66 sq m, a round king bed and a view of the Duomo, a few steps from the door on Piazza Santa Elisabetta. Only one other room is in the tower. The hotel dates it to the sixth or seventh century, and it stands on Roman foundations. A small museum at the base shows the Roman calidarium found in the excavations, and Michelin gives the hotel one Key.

The Panoramic Suite at The Excelsior has a terrace over the Arno that can host a dinner for 40. Higher still, Cosimo, the rooftop restaurant and bar, has 360-degree views over the city. The former Westin Excelsior has 171 rooms and suites on Piazza Ognissanti, many with a balcony or terrace. For a treatment, walk next door to the spa at the St. Regis, at extra cost.

Order the charcoal-grilled Florentine steak at Ristorante Flora e Fauno, where Kevin Mazzolin is the chef. The house was the Alighieri family's country place in the 15th century and the Macchiaioli painters' workshop in the 19th. Now Hotel Ville sull'Arno has 45 rooms in Bellariva, east of the centre, with an hour a day in the spa included and a garden pool open May to September. The Ponte Vecchio is a riverside walk away, or take the free shuttle or a free bicycle.