If you’re visiting a place with as much cultural capital as Florence, you can’t stay in a boring hotel. Skip the cookie-cutter spots and opt instead for the places owned by the city’s born-and-bred: Florence is rich with private palazzos and secret gardens that local hoteliers have thoughtfully opened to a lucky few. From an unmarked door leading to a secret 15-acre garden to a suite where the Ponte Vecchio is essentially your wallpaper, here are the six best boutique hotels in Florence.
Stella d’Italia
Location: Centro Storico (Via de’ Tornabuoni)
Price starts at: €220 x night
On Florence’s high-fashion street Via de’ Tornabuoni, the 24-room Stella d’Italia is named after Italy’s oldest national symbol. The hotel is on the second floor of a 16th-century palazzo, designed by the legendary Giorgio Vasari, that was once the ancestral home of the noble Corsi family. Owner Matteo Perduca has transformed it into a boutique hotel of 24 rooms—two suites and 22 rooms—filled with antique headboards, clawfoot tubs, and over 400 artworks sourced from markets across Italy. The fourth-floor loggia offers sweeping views of the Bellosguardo hills, while the breakfast room’s wrap-around frescoes add a healthy dose of Renaissance charm. →
Photography by Gareth Paget
Oltrarno Splendid
Location: Oltrarno
Price starts at: €150 x night
On the upper floors of a 16th-century palazzo, Oltrarno Splendid is a maximalist “residenza d’epoca” that feels like a living cabinet of curiosities. Reimagined by the creative duo Betty Soldi and Matteo Perduca, the 14-room hideaway honors its architectural bones—including a 19th-century redesign by Giuseppe Poggi—while fearlessly layering in a bold, mid-century aesthetic. Here, original 18th-century frescoes and weathered toile de jouy wallpaper meet industrial lighting, velvet textures, and a curated collection of salvaged antiques. Guests can start their morning in the former servants’ quarters—now a Wes Anderson-esque breakfast bar—before retreating to rooms where freestanding tubs offer cinematic views of the Duomo. →
Photography by Gareth Paget
Palazzo Guadagni
Location: Santo Spirito
Price starts at: €150 – €300 x night, depending on season
Above the vibrant Piazza Santo Spirito, Palazzo Guadagni offers a quiet, ultra-Florentine sanctuary within a 16th-century mansion designed by the architect Il Cronaca. The building’s history is as dense as the city’s: once a silk merchant’s residence and later a WWII refuge for intellectuals, it has been reimagined by the Budini-Gattai family with a blend of original frescoes and vintage finds. Each room frames a specific piece of the skyline, whether you’re spying the Duomo from the shower or waking up beneath 15th-century ceilings to a view of the Torrigiani tower. At aperitivo time, join some of the locals on the hotel’s spectacular terrace bar, La Loggia, for a sunset spritz overlooking the terracotta rooftops of Oltrarno. →
AdAstra
Location: Oltrarno
Price starts at: €150 x night
Set within the 15-acre Giardino Torrigiani—the largest private garden within city walls in Europe—AdAstra offers a stay that feels less like a hotel and more like being a guest in an eccentric aristocratic home. Accessed through a discreet door on a quiet street, the property occupies the piano nobile and upper floor of an ancestral 19th-century palazzo, its name “to the stars” inspired by the garden’s neo-Gothic astronomical observatory visible from nearly every window. Inside, the individually curated rooms blend original frescoes and clawfoot tubs with a personal collection of mid-century Italian design and upcycled flea-market finds. Enjoy breakfast and aperitivo out on their vast terrace that feels suspended among the treetops.
The Portrait
Location: Centro Storico (Ponte Vecchio)
Price starts at: €750 x night in low season, €1,000 in high season
This five-star luxury hotel, on the banks of the Arno right next to Ponte Vecchio, is part of the Ferragamo family’s esteemed Lungarno Collection. Designed to feel like you’re staying in someone’s personal 1950s residence, the hotel has 37 suites—including a massive 273-square-meter penthouse floor—with couture-inspired interiors and cinematic river views. Beyond the spectacular rooftop terrace and riverfront dining at Caffè dell’Oro, expect a state-of-the-art fitness center, in-suite spa treatments, and pet-friendly accommodations.
Hotel Torre di Bellosguardo
Location: Bellosguardo
Price starts at: €150 x night in low season
On a verdant hill overlooking the city skyline, Hotel Torre di Bellosguardo is a rare, independent survivor of a bygone era. Originally a 13th-century hunting lodge and family retreat belonging to Dante’s mentor, Guido Cavalcanti, this family-run residence is intentionally old-fashioned: don’t expect elevators with music or lobby boutiques, but rather cavernous rooms filled with genuine Florentine antiques and the scent of the surrounding wooded park. While just a five-minute drive (or 20-minute walk) from Piazza Tasso (the edge of the city center), it feels worlds away, offering a sprawling garden and a swimming pool with views over Florence’s cityscape. With hilltop breezes and historic stone walls providing a cool refuge from the valley heat, this low-tech spot is best experienced in the height of summer.
