Top 10: romantic Florence hotels
The most romantic places to stay in Florence, including the best hotels and palazzos for Renaissance architecture, original frescos, and the ultimate in indulgence.
Continentale
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
Perhaps the most playfully chic of the six Florentine properties in Leonardo Ferragamo’s Lungarno group. The Continentale occupies an enviable position overlooking the Ponte Vecchio, and is a stylish address, perfect for a romantic long weekend, with the bonus of a rooftop bar and a small, intimate spa. Considering the position and cachet of this boutique beauty, room rates are not even that punishing — especially if your dates are flexible. If you’re here for a special occasion with a special person, you should push your budget to at least a Deluxe Arno View room. Read expert review From £132per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Portrait Firenze
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
With a commanding position on the River Arno, right next to the Ponte Vecchio, the Portrait Firenze is possibly the best located hotel in Florence. This luxury boutique hotel is part of the Lungarno Collection belonging to the family of high-fashion Italian shoe-maker-to-the-stars Salvatore Ferragamo. There is a receipt for a pair of beige suede shoes sold to Marilyn Monroe on the wall; her wooden shoe lasts can be seen along with those of many other famous feet just up the road at the Salvatore Ferrugamo Shoe Museum, a magnet for shoe fetishists. Each rooms comes with an iPad featuring the pillow menu, and treatment menu for the spa at the Portrait’s sister hotel nearby. Read expert review From £420per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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The St. Regis Florence
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
St Regis' feel is sheer opulence, and the ambience is enhanced by service that manages to be both discreet and affable. It appeals to travellers who appreciate proximity to shops and sights, and the highest standards of five-star pampering. All of the 100 bedrooms are as luxurious as you’d expect for this level of hotel. Choose a river view room if you value your Arno panorama: the sweep up-river toward the Ponte Vecchio is superb. Guests staying in Premium Deluxe Arno River View Rooms and all suites get their own butler, actually more of a personal concierge, who can be contacted 24/7. Read expert review From £294per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Grand Amore Hotel and Spa
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
This hotel is laid out over the five floors of a period townhouse: the spa is in the basement; the café-restaurant and reception area on street level; and the bedrooms are just three-to-a-floor on top. Marianna Gagliardi’s interiors are characterised by a palette of rich colours, use of sumptuous velvets and silks, and a sober, neo-classical look. Rooms all have dark, hardwood floors, heavy silk drapes, rich velvet headboards, and fine white linens; the pale lilac-grey walls are hung with handsome monochrome photos of Florentine artworks. The restaurant and basement spa with sauna, Turkish bath, whirlpool tub and massage menu are real bonuses in such a small city-centre hotel. Read expert review From £181per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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J.K. Place Firenze
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
The first of what has become a small Italian chain, with branches in Rome and Capri. J.K. Place is a distillation of Florentine elegance, its classic-contemporary décor the result of a meeting of minds between Italo-Israeli hotelier Ori Kafri and local interior designer Michele Bonan. Impeccably tasteful without being remotely cold, the 20 guestrooms and suites derive much of their charm not only from Bonan’s sapient design scheme, but from the no-expenses-spared quality of the materials used (oak parquet; linen sheets; travertine marble bathroom fittings; antique fireplaces; original framed fashion-house sketches). The Penthouse and Panoramic Loft are the rooms with the view, but for sheer style try the Master Rooms. Read expert review From £324per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Villa La Massa
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
There was a time when Grand Tourists chose to stay not in the centre of Florence but in opulent villas in the green belt around the city. This 16th-century Medici villa on a bucolic stretch of the Arno, open from March until the end of October, still breathes the spirit of this age of elegant, unhurried travel. A mood of discreet, understated, old-fashioned luxury permeates the Villa, which consists of three separate historical buildings in a verdant site surrounded by formal gardens. Elegant Il Verrocchio restaurant, with its riverside terrace, is a lovely place for an al fresco meal, with the bonus that much of the produce comes from the hotel’s own kitchen garden, and the olive oil from the estate’s own trees. Read expert review From £397per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Soprarno Suites
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
A very stylish shabby-chic guesthouse in the heart of the Oltrarno. Owners Matteo and Betty have a passion for vintage design that is reflected in the eclectic décor of this charming and contemporary guest house. Both ‘apartments’ have book-lined lounges, and the kitchen of the first-floor space is available for guests’ use; there’s also an honesty bar. The bedrooms are so different, and all so delightful, that it's worth asking Leonardo if you can see a few of the unoccupied ones, just for curiosity’s sake. Number 14, the ‘Camera del tipografo’ or ‘Printer’s room’, has shelves of ancient wooden type rescued from a former printshop in Viareggio; the ‘Camera di Betty’ (number 11) is perhaps the most romantic, with its baby-blue colour scheme and in-room clawfoot bath. Like many rooms, the latter has original ceiling frescoes. Read expert review From £93per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Villa Cora
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
It’s easy to understand why this relatively new arrival on the Florence high-end hotel scene has been such a hit since it opened. Built in the late 1860s by Baron Oppenheim, one of the main backers of the Suez Canal, and later purchased by Emperor Napoleon III’s widow Eugenié, the meticulously restored villa at the centre of the estate is an astonishing sight, an opulent riot of trompe l’oeil frescoes, stucco-work, huge mirrors, polished parquet floors and chandeliers, in a series of reception rooms that mix styles from Art Nouveau to neo-Moorish. The large park that surrounds the two buildings boasts more than 100 varieties of rose. Read expert review From £235per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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AdAstra
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
AdAstra is set in the largest private garden ‘intra moenia’ (between walls) in Europe. Inspired by the concept of a Parisian hotel particulier, this boutique hotel has the feel of an aristocratic private apartment which is not far from the truth – the Marchese Torrigiani lives on the ground floor. The USP of the place is the magnificent wraparound terrace, laid out with tables, chairs and sunloungers shaded by big white umbrellas; there’s no better place to while away a hot summer’s afternoon or to watch the sun go down, glass in hand. Complimentary tea and coffee is available all day and there is an honesty bar. Read expert review From £94per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Palazzo di Camugliano
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
This is the family residence of a Florentine Marquis, Lorenzo Niccolini di Camugliano, and although a few things have changed since the Palazzo’s 16th-century foundation (en-suite bathrooms being one notable improvement), lashings of ceiling fresco, decorative stuccowork and antique furniture remain. A hanging garden, where breakfast is served in good weather, adds to the sense of being in a privileged refuge from the city bustle. The 10 rooms vary in size and aspect, but all have four-poster beds and historic details like frescoed or wood-beam ceilings. Read expert review From £128per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
