The best hotels in Italy
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From Lake Como's idyllic banks to the ancient wonders in Rome, Italy is home to some of Europe’s most breathtaking sights. Its hotel scene rises to meet the occasion. There were more Italian addresses on this year’s Gold List – our editors’ selection of the world’s very best hotels – than anywhere else in Europe, so you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to wonderful places to stay. Grand inner-city palazzos, laidback gems carved into glistening coastlines and stately homes secluded among miles of olive groves are just a few of the options that await. It means wherever in the country you’re headed, there’s an excellent address ready to greet you. Below, find our edit of the best hotels in Italy to book in 2025.
More recommendations for the best hotels in Italy:
- Best hotels in Amalfi Coast
- Best hotels in the Dolomites
- Best hotels in Lake Como
- Best hotels in Milan
- Best hotels in Puglia
- Best hotels in Rome
- Best hotels in Tuscany
- Best hotels in Sicily
- Best hotels in Sardinia
- Best hotels in Venice
How we choose the best hotels in Italy
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We're always looking for beautiful design, a great location and warm service – as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve. Find out more about our editorial standards and how we review hotels.
- Courtesy of Palazzo Margheritahotel
Palazzo Margherita, Matera
Featured on our 2025 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
Simple yet refined, tiny but with big intentions to showcase Basilicata in an unpretentious way, Palazzo Margherita became the fifth hotel in the Family Coppola Hideaways’ dynamic portfolio in 2012. Francis Ford Coppola’s grandfather Agostino Coppola spent his childhood in this quiet town, which he referred to as Bernalda Bella. His stories stuck in his grandchild's mind, and Francis visited in his 20s. When it came on the market in 2004, he took action. Palazzo Margherita is clearly a passion project, six years in the making. It feels like a home, not a product, entwined with the history, mythology, and affections of the family. Sofia Coppola married her French musician beau Thomas Mars under the Heritage Garden gazebo in 2011, and the Palazzo opened as a hotel the following year. The two main suites (by French designer Jacques Grange) have new, hand-painted frescoes on vaulted ceilings and handcrafted furniture. Some have working fireplaces; others checkerboard floors, suntrap balconies, and sylvan murals. The food is traditional and regional, made with local organic products and by local chefs. For breakfast, try the tangy marmalades and the zucchini frittata with a fig salad. For later, some standouts are the dried pepperoni and breadcrumb pasta, the pasta al branzino, the hyacinth bulb sides, and the grilled porchetta. This is the place to imbibe a genuine, familial version of southern Italy, unsullied by mass tourism and through the storyteller eyes of Francis Ford Coppola. From £423. Lydia Bell
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La Posta Vecchia, Ladispoli
$$$Featured on our 2025 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
In an era when more and more international brands are staking their claim on the generic sale of la dolce vita, Pellicano hotel’s La Posta Vecchia has always offered its own authentic universe. The imposing Renaissance palace with Italianate gardens is only a 30-minute train ride from Rome’s Trastevere. Reinforced only by the echo of waves and footsteps on stairs, a silence reigns in its 21 grand rooms and suites that have the feel of a friend’s private castle. The former customs house for the Papal States was built in 1640 as a hunting lodge by the five-pope-strong Orsini family, once owners of the adjacent castle. In 1960, American oil tycoon Paul Getty purchased the place. He also hired art historian Federico Zeri to furnish his home with papal velvets and ecclesiastical antiques like church prie-dieux and sacristy furniture. Marble busts, regal beds, and throne like chairs speak to Getty’s deep respect for history – a respect shared by the Sciò family, who bought and preserved the place first as a home in the 1980s. Last year saw painstaking renovations of both the Roman mosaics and the exterior, and this year there's been the addition of a gym and a new focus on ancient Roman recipes. What's more, next year the hotel will unveil a second private beach. Meanwhile, tastemaker Marie-Louise Sciò’s spry touches can be seen in the chalice vases by Ettore Sotsass, bathroom products sold on Issimo, the Frette sheets collaboration, and the Villeroy & Boch crockery on which breakfast is served on the glorious sea-facing terrace dotted with umbrellas the hue of Italian custard. La Posta Vecchia is also a gateway to the lesser known Lazio Alto region with its Etruscan necropolises far from the crowds. From £379. Stephanie Rafanelli
- Courtesy Belmond Hotel Splendidohotel
Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino
$$$Featured on our 2025 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
It takes a hotel of a particularly high calibre to salve the sting of a lifelong travel dream’s finale. For me, that sting was the gutting experience of disembarking from the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in Portofino, Italy, this past summer. But my goodness, does Splendido offer such reprieve. This princely albergo on the Ligurian coast was built as a Benedictine monastery and is now adorned with pink azaleas on almost every balcony from which guests can take in postcard views of Portofino Bay, glimmering and viridian. The landscape looks just as it did in the 1960s, when the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner first checked into this seaside hideaway. But the hotel has been updated since then; for the 2025 season, Splendido will reopen with the main building completely renovated, after a multi-year floor-by-floor update led by designer Martin Brudnizki, whose signature maximalism takes on a gentler, subtler play – more perfume than syrup – by using lavenders, celadons, and Alice blues to paint the interiors with a pleasingly soft handsomeness. Outside, the redone saltwater pool shimmers with new tiles colour-matched to the sea, and the open-air restaurant La Terazza is as perfect a spot as ever, serving trofie al pesto and spritzes on its perch high on the hill. All told, Splendido’s sensibility is elegantly understated, allowing its people and environment to shine. The staff is composed of charismatic good-time ragazzi, and nature seeps so easily into the rooms that sunrise and birdsong became my morning alarms. To catch the local scene, walk 15 minutes downhill to Portofino’s piazzetta (or take the hotel’s complimentary shuttle), where nonnos invite any and all challengers to a game of backgammon. I did one evening and felt yet again the sting of loss. Then I hiked up the hill to Splendido, my beloved balm, with its windows aglow after sundown and music floating through its gardens. It’s not Olympus, but it’s close enough. From £1,618. Matt Ortile
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Hotel Santa Caterina, Amalfi Coast
Featured on our 2025 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
I vividly recall my first visit twelve years ago to Hotel Santa Caterina: dips in the sea and in the saltwater pool at the edge of the cliff, accessed by the most beautiful lift in the world. We had fresh mozzarella for breakfast, lemonade, and all the sfogliatelle we could eat. I fell in love with the ceramic floors, the breeze swaying the vaporous curtains, the ever-smiling staff serving delicious fresh pasta and fish. In short, I fell in love. On a recent return visit, I saw how Hotel Santa Caterina has grown. Two new villas have popped up, hidden among the terraced gardens that dot the cliffs. The hotel is now a sort of albergo diffuso, with an increased number of rooms and ever more privacy for guests who want it. Everything else remains perfect. The pool is still as salty and relaxing, the curtains dance the same waltz with the breeze, the floors still sparkle. Santa Caterina is – and always will be – a dream. From £386. David Moralejo
- Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel Firenzehotel
Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, Florence
$$$Featured on our 2025 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
Housed in a pair of historic properties slathered in Renaissance sculptural friezes and Baroque frescoes, the Four Seasons would probably be open for guided tours today if it were not a hotel. But this 115-room grande dame, located a short walk from the Duomo in Florence’s quiet University district, wears its opulence lightly. The 11-acre landscaped park, whose current design dates back to the 19th century, separates the main Palazzo della Gherardesca building from the hotel’s Palazzo del Nero annexe and is a leafy joy. An autumn 2024 makeover of Palazzo del Nero has raised the 36-room outlier from Cinderella to sassy princess, thanks also to Bar Berni, its cool new vermouth bar, and Onde seafood restaurant. From £840. Lee Marshall
- SARAMAGNI/Il Serenohotel
Il Sereno, Lake Como
$$$Featured on our 2024 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
When it launched a few years ago in Torno, Il Sereno, Lago di Como caused a sensation. It was the first hotel in the area of Lake Como to be designed by a world-renowned architect – and Patricia Urquiola, the Spanish starchitect and a longtime resident of Milan, did a fabulous job. The hotel blends into its surroundings thanks to the “light” building, with its many windows awash with sunlight reflected by the lake. The garden, with around 183 varieties of plants, creates a gorgeous floral landscape that syncs up with the environment. Even the Brazilian quartzite heated infinity pool and the ashwood deck become one with the lake in a continuous line: harmony. From inside the hotel, you can often glimpse the waters of the Lario, the other name by which Lake Como is known, an iconic part of Italian culture and the backdrop of Alessandro Manzoni’s 19th-century novel The Betrothed, where star-crossed lovers Renzo and Lucia manage to finally reunite and get married. Il Sereno’s lobby is elegant, soft, and welcoming, filled with the best of Italian design – furniture by Cassina, Moroso, and B&B Italia – as are the 40 rooms, all with a view, and the exquisite vertical garden by Patrick Blanc. The delicious and simple (albeit Michelin-starred) food is courtesy of Raffaele Lenzi and features local freshwater fish and vegetables, served alongside sensational cocktails (even the alcohol-free ones). As if so much contemporary beauty were not enough, there’s still the wooden motorboat, a beautiful Riva, ready to take you around the lake or to Villa Pliniana, a 16th-century palace with another 17 bedrooms – a perfect setting for listening to the music of the villa’s beautiful grand piano while gazing upon the waters of Lago di Como. From around £647. Maddalena Fossati
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Palazzo Avino, Amalfi Coast
Featured on our 2024 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
In any other setting, it would be impossible to miss the lashings of marble, vaulted hallways and antique busts, yet all eyes point in one direction: to the horizon. Palazzo Avino, first built as a private home in the 12th century, has a fairy-tale vista across the Monte Avvocata valley and the yacht-speckled Bay of Salerno. Known as the “pink palace of Ravello”, it is run by sisters Mariella and Attilia Avino, who have infused the place with buckets of personality and style – right down to the hand-painted tableware designed by Mariella and the Mar-a-viglia white wine from their vineyard, La Cascinetta, served at the glam Lobster & Martini Bar. The decor is Poseidon’s palace by way of Moda Operandi, with pink shell tiles, glossy sea-foam-blue bathrooms and chic scalloped headboards. Palazzo Avino doesn’t do straight lines: doorways are arched, ceilings domed, mirrors wavy, all mimicking the raggedly vertiginous coastline. Baroque terraces bursting with bubblegum-pink dipladenias lead down to the pool, where candy-striped parasols shade Dolce sliders and homemade Sorrento lemonade arrives in colourful Marino glassware. The hotel’s beach club, 20 minutes away, is a sprawling cliffside hang-out, in 2023 taken over by Valentino, complete with red loungers and retro changing booths. The main restaurant, Michelin-starred Rossellini’s, is one of the most spectacular dining rooms on the Amalfi Coast, where waistcoated waiters serve plates of lemon ravioli by candlelight, and all is well with the world. From around £512. Charlotte Davey
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Regina Isabella, Ischia
Featured on our 2024 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
Ischia is a volcanic island of verticals – all cliffs, summits and hairpins – so to find a five-star resort on the waterfront is surprisingly rare. That Regina Isabella’s marina, little beaches, sunbathing platforms and pontoons offer such easy access to the clear, emerald-coloured sea is an obvious sell, as are the four swimming pools and legendary thermal spa. Marinated in the essence and spirit of its 1950s heyday, the hotel captures the golden era of Mediterranean sophistication and dolce vita glamour. The style and atmosphere continue in 128 bedrooms spread across three different units and buildings, completed between 1956 and 1963. Some still have vintage dressing tables, bedsteads and the cherrywood marquetry of built-in cupboards, with modernist iron-railed Juliet balconies – such as the one in room 370, from which Elizabeth Taylor famously hurled Richard Burton’s clothes following an epic row. The hub and raison d’être of the resort is the spa with indoor thermal pools and extensive facilities, where you can go for a quick-fix facial or a non-surgical filler, or have a personalised programme and complete wellness overhaul. The location, between cliff and sea, and on the edge of the charming, short-stroll-away town of Lacco Ameno, means you can also experience life in a vivid, former fishing community. Here is a hotel that can be all things to all people: a destination spa and starred restaurant, a restorative retreat with natural thermal hot springs, and an intimate, relaxed family resort. From around £300. Catherine Fairweather
hotelHotel d'Inghilterra, Rome
Featured on our 2024 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
Initially opened in 1845 as Hotel d’Angleterre, this place became a classic over the 170 or so years that followed. There are 80 rooms, though something about this Rome hotel makes it feel as if there are fewer. Some (the Balcony Suites) are recently renovated, and all have restored antiques throughout. The bar is one of the best hotel drinking spots in the city (the cheerful staff are very good at what they do and take pleasure in applying novel twists to classic cocktails), and Café Romano is an all-day restaurant serving excellent regional dishes and, inevitably, a certain amount of comfort food for homesick travellers. The hotel couldn’t be more central, and the service is exceptionally warm, enthusiastic and attentive. This is a place to book for its right-there-in-the-thick-of-it convenience and its particular quality – specific but difficult to pin down – of intimacy, courtesy and conviviality. From around £522. Steve King
- Courtesy Starwood Hotels & Resortshotel
The Gritti Palace, Venice
$$$Featured on our 2024 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
If you were to enter The Gritti Palace without realising it offered board and lodging, you might find yourself looking for the ticket counter. The ultimate grande dame in Venice is every inch a museum of the city’s decorative history, with its silk and damask wall coverings, acres of painted stucco and precious marble, and gilded ceiling beams from which Murano chandeliers hang like elegant jellyfish. It was only in 2013 when it reopened following a $38 million revamp, that The Gritti was able to square the wow of the guest experience with the wow of its antique splendour. (In the 1940s, when Ernest Hemingway penned his Gritti-set novel Across the River and Into the Trees, it didn’t even have en-suite bathrooms). You don’t need to book the airily magnificent Somerset Maugham Royal Suite to feel that you have joined the club; a not-so-modest, entry-level Deluxe Room will do just fine. It, too, is swathed in stylish Rubelli fabrics; it too feels like Casanova might be hiding in the wardrobe. The Gritti Terrace, with its views across gondola-infested waters to the great Salute church, is one of Venice’s finest breakfast spots, and the late 2023 arrival of executive chef Alberto Fol from Hotel Danieli is a local win. At the deliciously private Bar Longhi, happiness is pulling up a stool at the inlaid marble counter, asking head barman Cristiano Luciani to fix one of his moreish wild fennel martinis and channelling your inner Peggy Guggenheim. From around £675. Lee Marshall
Courtesy Violino d'OrohotelHotel Violino d’Oro, Venice
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
It’s easy for hotels to say they want guests to feet at home – it’s harder to pull off. But from the moment you enter this intimate boutique hotel just five minutes from Piazza San Marco, you feel like you’re being welcomed into the abode of a sophisticated host. That’s because it’s a very personal project for Sara Maestrelli, who’s joining her aunt Elena in the family business. (The Maestrellis own hotels in Florence and Forte dei Marmi, but this property is the first of theirs to be part of the Leading Hotels of the World.) They were adamant that Violino d’Oro be a completely “made in Italy” project that not only showcases archival designs by Fortuny, Venini, and Martinelli Luce, but also supports young Italian artists and artisans – including the Micheluzzi sisters, whose Venetian glass vases decorate the hotel; and Allegra Santini, who created regenerated marble busts for the rooms. The locally minded, artisan-led philosophy extends to the bar, where lauded bartender Francesco Adranga shakes up creative cocktails using Gin Venice (one of the only gins made in the Venetian lagoon); and Il Piccolo restaurant, which serves gourmet dishes with an emphasis on plant-based and gluten-free options served, naturally, on Ginori porcelain. But more than the fancy trappings, it’s the staff – from the charismatic general manager, Annabella Cariello, right down to the receptionist – who make you feel at home. From £685. Laura Itzkowitz
- Palazzo Romahotel
Palazzo Roma, Rome
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Though many dream of palaces fit for a king, finding an undiscovered one these days is a tall order. Enter Palazzo Roma, a bona fide 18th-century palace turned boutique hotel and the latest (and most dazzling) debut from the buzzy Shedir Collection, owned by JK Place cofounder Eduardo Safdie. Hidden away on the southern stretch of the iconic Via del Corso in the heart of Rome’s ever-bustling historic centre, the 39-room showstopper melds incomparable architectural details – lavishly restored frescoes, intarsia wood ceilings, a baronial marble staircase – with a distinctly modern sensibility (and a 1,000-plus-piece art collection) to jaw-dropping effect. This is all thanks to the singular vision of Milan-based designer Giampiero Panepinto, the aesthetic maestro who designed the restaurant at Hotel Vilòn, its achingly chic sister property just a short stroll away. The palatially proportioned rooms boast 16-foot ceilings, splashy colour palettes, and colossal bathrooms honed in rare marbles that would wow Caesar himself, while the common areas delight and surprise: a statue of Euterpe, the Greek Muse of music, presides over the striking Salla de Musica, the palace’s former ballroom-cum-lobby. Meanwhile, more than 100 timepieces beckon in the azure-hued Clock Room, a prime perch for an aperitivo and fresh-fried arancini from Core – the fresco-wrapped, chandeliered restaurant – after a day spent pounding Rome’s black-cobblestoned streets. In a city teeming with new five-star hotels, this storied stunner just may be the jewel in the crown. From £780. Alex Kirkman
- ALESSANDRO MOGGI/La Roqqahotel
La Roqqa, Porto Ercole
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
It’s been eons since a new hotel graced Porto Ercole, a chic but discreet village on the Monte Argentario peninsula that’s home to Caravaggio’s tomb. The newcomer creating ripples on this part of the rock-strewn Maremma coastline is petite La Roqqa, a cliffside retreat whose distinctive coral-orange façade and secluded views of the Tyrrhenian Sea provide a forward-looking alternative to Hotel Il Pellicano, the area’s sine qua non grande dame since 1965. In the 55 rooms and suites, floor-to-ceiling windows let sunshine flood onto walls of sage green or Terra di Siena orange, which pop against crisp white bed linen. Designers Palomba Serafini, Milanese masters of uncluttered contemporary chic, have mixed midcentury pieces and Gaetano Pesce’s iconic Up chairs with ultramodern features, including an eye-catching white central staircase spiralling from the entrance. On the alfresco rooftop, Ferragamo-clad locals sip Negronis gilded by sunset rays in view of the 16th-century Forte Stella and harbour yachts below. Aperitivo hour turns into dinner at the outdoor Scirocco restaurant, where chef Francesco Ferretti knocks up fresh sea bass and other local seafood capped with Venetian grappa. Days spent lounging at the hotel’s smart Isolotto Beach Club are broken up by lunches of avocado and tuna salads paired with a local white. Or you can ask friendly staff to book you a Vespa tour along the rugged coast. It’s La Dolce Vita reimagined for the next generation. From £375. Erin Florio
- Guillaume de Laubierhotel
Nolinski Venezia, Venice
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Most of Venice’s household-name five-star hotels are converted palazzi. In this respect, and others, the Nolinski – 43 rooms and suites on Calle Larga XXII Marzo, the smartest shopping street in town – is different. It occupies a 20th-century building constructed not as a grand private residence but as a stock exchange. Yet there’s nothing the least bit stock exchange-y about it. Its five-storey façade, in a version of the Liberty style, is subtly animated by rippling lines and wavy undulations, suitably rich in maritime associations. Interior designers Yann Le Coadic and Alessandro Scotto have pulled off a nifty trick, deploying an adventurous mixture of elements in a way that creates an impression of great restraint and serenity. Mirrors feature prominently, along with a remarkable collection of glassware, assembled specifically for the hotel. Indeed, the art throughout has been curated, hung and displayed with exceptional flair – nowhere more so than in the ravishing little Library Bar on the piano nobile. Venetians have a particular fondness for sunny courtyard spaces; the Nolinski’s is a doozy, with a small but extremely fetching adjoining bar and dining room. Upstairs, in a stupendously domed space with gold-trimmed arches, fine-dining restaurant Palais Royal is due to open in spring, overseen by chef Philip Chronopoulos, a protégé of the late Joël Robuchon and much admired for his Hellenic take on classic French cuisine. Doubles from about £730. Steve King
- Bulgari Hotelhotel
Bulgari Hotel, Rome
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Bulgari opened its flagship store on Via Condotti back in 1905, and has finally unveiled a crown jewel flagship hotel in its hometown. Every inch of this instantly venerable institution, a stone’s throw from Augustus’s mausoleum, is adorned with museum-worthy pieces: handcrafted mosaics from Friuli, handblown lamps from Venice’s Murano and Gio Ponti Ginori icons from the 1930s. It all comes with next-level modern comforts: custom mattresses and bedding with a pillow menu; bathtubs fit for a Roman emperor under mosaics in the design of a Bulgari brooch; Dyson hairdryers; and a 21st-century lighting system that’s gratifyingly easy to use. There’s a Niko Romito restaurant (he helms a place in Casadonna with three Michelin stars, and oversees most Bulgari restaurants); a spa with a columned Roman-bath-styled pool; jet-lag-cancelling massages; and a terrace bar with hundreds of plants and views across the Eternal City. A partnership with the Torlonia Foundation facilitates the rotation of priceless statues in the lobby, which sit alongside the brand’s exquisite jewellery. The starting rate is fearfully expensive – well-heeled guests aren’t just paying for the exquisite digs, but sightseeing in vintage Fiat 500s, personal shoppers and a fleet of chauffeured cars. Doubles from about £1,370. Ondine Cohane
- Tyso Sadlo & Caleb Conde @ Herd Representedhotel
La Palma, Capri
Featured on our 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Once the epitome of la dolce vita, Capri is dangerously close to becoming fully eroded by day trippers on Grand Selfie tours. Luckily, Hotel La Palma – an Oetker Collection–helmed revival of the island’s first hotel, built in 1822 – arrived fashionably late to the scene last summer. The property evokes images of Capri’s bygone jet-set glamour: Maltese designer Francis Sultana bypassed those ubiquitous cobalt-and-lemon tiles and “I Heart Capri” T-shirts for a stripped-back neoclassical vision inspired by Villa Lysis and Villa San Michele. Everywhere you look, white linen curtains waft like togas, and mosaic floors beckon guests to truly watch their steps. The colour schemes of airy whites and sky blues are reminders of the island’s legendary luxury: the view of the Bay of Naples, as seen from the gods of Emperor Tiberius’s palace. Hotel La Palma boasts those same views, though its position opposite Dolce & Gabbana on Via Vittorio Emanuele is a bit more mortal. The hotel boasts its own patisserie run by pastry master Carmine di Donna, while Gennaro Esposito – famed for his two-Michelin-starred Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense near Sorrento – oversees the new La Bianca roof terrace. But on an island where sun loungers can be booked one year in advance, the hotel’s Da Gioia beach club is the biggest splash. From £513. Stephanie Rafanelli
- Fabio Semeraro/Vocabolo Muscatellihotel
Vocabolo Moscatelli, Umbria
Featured on our 2023 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Relaxed luxury is the name of the game at this intimate member of Design Hotels in a restored monastery in Umbria, Italy’s green heart. The hotel is set on a 2.5-acre estate planted with a vegetable garden and replete with manicured lawns where dogs can play. A hub for the local community, this hotel draws Italians and ex-pats from the neighbouring towns, who come to sip creative cocktails at the bar, enjoy Sunday lunch at the restaurant, or attend events hosted by the owners. There are just 12 rooms, which juxtapose the ancient monastery’s stone walls with sleek contemporary art and design. The beds, for example, are each bespoke creations in minimalist silhouettes and bold colours made by fourth-generation ironsmith Emanuele Lispi. In the afternoon and evening, the on-site restaurant transforms into a showcase for the chef, who brings Middle Eastern and Asian flavours to this very traditional part of Italy. Start with a creative cocktail or glass of wine in the lounge, which feels more like a living room than a hotel bar, and then settle in for a culinary voyage in the restaurant, where you might start with ramen in Umbrian beef broth with smoked duck breast and end with bread pudding with ricotta, pistachios, and vanilla cream perfumed with rose water. Laura Itzkowitz
- Courtesy Belmond/Photo by Helen Cathcarthotel
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice
$$$Featured on our 2023 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
The journey is as important as the arrival, they say, and when applied to the home and garden of earthly delights that is Hotel Cipriani, it means something. A vintage motor launch in varnished cedar, the last word in 1970s Venetian nautical chic, awaits to whisk you from the terminal or the crowds of St. Mark’s Square to the hotel, where charming doormen greet guests with a personal flourish. Unlike Venice’s other luxury hotels that have been poured into existing historic palaces, fighting against a corset of strict regulations, Hotel Cipriani was custom-built in 1958 with plenty of elbow room, on three acres of land of the Giudecca, then owned by Guinness nobility. The daughters, Honor and Brigid, were fans of Harry’s Bar, a small panelled den in the heart of Venice, and invited its owner, Giuseppe Cipriani, to think big and create a hotel in partnership with them. The result is a place that is still unrivalled for that spirit of urbane hedonism; for generous and attentive service that never genuflects; for an easy atmosphere of peace and sanctuary alongside a sense of clubhouse discretion and rarefied exclusivity.
In the summer, when the canals in Venice get stinkier, Hotel Cipriani offers more than a breath of fresh air. The grounds are large enough for tennis courts, a kitchen garden, a vineyard, and a spa within the orange blossom-scented Casanova gardens, where the eponymous lady-killer wooed the neighbouring nunnery. They are a haven for birds and Roberta the tortoise, who, unfortunately, hasn’t been seen since a recent acqua alta. Meanwhile, around the showpiece swimming pool, the beating heart of the hotel (and a happy accident of scale, because the architect got his meters and feet mixed up), sunbathing is raised to the level of theatre, with endless opportunities for people-watching around the travertine-marble terrace. Here, Hollywood moguls cement film deals in loud voices while Venetian aristocrats settle into cabanas for the day, spraying complimentary Evian like Chanel No 5 and addressing the staff as extensions of their family. Sadly, the barman Walter Bolzonella, famous for the Buonanotte cocktail he dreamed up with George Clooney, is retired. The capable Riccardo Semeria has stepped into his shoes, while Riccardo Canella, multi-Michelin superstar chef of Noma fame, takes the culinary helm. He understands that the essence of Italian style is to keep things simple, natural, and familiar, yet still fresh and inventive. This is the hallmark of the Hotel Cipriani. Others have tried to emulate its timeless Italian chic. But glamour is an atmosphere, something harder to bottle than an Acqua di Parma scent. It is synonymous with this hotel, with its to-die-for view of the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s, sequestered on the edge of an insignificant island on a lagoon lapping the Adriatic Sea. Catherine Fairweather
- HOTEL PHOTOGRAPHY SRL,Hotel Photography srlhotel
Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel, Palermo
Featured on our 2023 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
This graceful estate is such a sharp contrast to wild Palermo that once you arrive you feel as though you have travelled to the other side of Sicily, not simply 10 minutes from the city centre. Villa Igiea is a legacy resort in the area, bought as a private estate by the Florios, once one of Italy’s wealthiest families, but then converted in the early 1900s into a wellness retreat that was popular with royalty. Decades later, it had lost its lustre until hotel magnate Rocco Forte brought it back to life in 2021. Now its pool, bars, and breezy guest rooms feel like a glitzy clubhouse of sorts for European dynasty families, who congregate for aperitivo hour in dresses and loafers on the outdoor terrace overlooking the bay, a dapper pianist tickling the ivories in the corner. You will want to order that third ice-cold martini just to muster up the courage to chat with the multilingual family – from Sweden? England? – at the table next to you (but eavesdropping is a fine runner-up). Inside, Art Nouveau touches include whimsical frescoes and grand staircases; while no two suites are alike (mine was done in tidy navy and white with beautifully colourful tiled bathrooms), they feel like a modern extension of what still is very much a classic seaside resort. Even in this newest iteration, Villa Igiea feels like a hotel with its own orbit, and one that creates a micro universe of characters rollicking against the most fanciful backdrop. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Erin Florio
- PHILIP VILEhotel
Hotel Castello di Reschio, Umbria
Featured on our 2022 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Because it’s an 11th-century castle owned by glamorous aristocrats, the term “fairy tale” is likely to be bandied about a lot when discussing Hotel Castello di Reschio—and not inappropriately. The property sits on 3,700 acres filled with oak and chestnut trees, olive groves, and neatly trellised vines. The 36 rooms are arranged around a central courtyard, their shapes and proportions dictated by the irregularity of the original building. The two principal dining options serve an ever-changing menu of immaculately executed, mostly Italian classics. And the spa may be the most enchanted space of all, occupying a series of adjoining cellars deep beneath the Palm Court. Steve King