The grand exterior of Il Salviatino, Firenze
Florence has never been more compelling for its mix of old and new art – and old and new people – with a buzzing youth scene complementing the wonders of the Uffizi and its churches and squares. And there has never been a better selection of places to stay, as we discover at Il Salviatino, on a hill outside the city, and the Savoy and Portrait, in the city’s heart
Il Salviatino, Florence review
Il Salviatino is special. Now, you could say that about a lot of luxury hotels in Tuscany, and you would be right.
But in the case of Il Salviatino, it’s special in a way nowhere else is.
The Italian gardens of Il Salviatino, which look out onto the Duomo, seen in the distance
To get there from the city centre of Florence, we drove past the Duomo and famous palaces, out for five minutes through a suburb, onto a winding hillside road lined by cypresses and suddenly – only fifteen minutes after leaving the hectic centre of Florence – a botanical-historical paradise emerged.
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Like everywhere special in Tuscany, Il Salviatino is a visual feast – but that’s not the first thing you notice. Instead, it was the smell of jasmine, mint, rosemary: a thousand herbs and flowers wafting through the air as if they had been beautifully packaged and released – except they hadn’t, we were outdoors and this is how the gardens, planted by owner Alessandro Rovati, smell.
The entrance hallway to Il Salviatino: 17th-century Italian architecture refreshed thoughtfully by books, furnishings, and art added through time
These aren’t the formal and slightly forbidding gardens, inspired by the originals at Tivoli, that you often find in an Italian hotel. The foliage is as wild and beautiful as its scent.
Wander around the front of the palazzo and an Italian garden drops away into a quite astonishing view of Florence set out before you. The Duomo looks near enough to touch – and in fact it is only a couple of miles away in a straight line. On the hillside it feels like you’re lined up with the top of its roof.
Beyond rise the forest and vineyarded hills of Chianti, undulating into an eternal distance.
The bathroom of the Duomo View suite in Il Salviatino
The house itself – it seems wrong to call it a hotel – is a 17th century masterpiece, a work of art so gently and thoughtfully refreshed with books, furnishings and art by the owner, but always retaining the feel of being in a private home or club.
Our suite was down below the Italian garden, comprising of a bedroom and bathroom that led into a conservatory which in turn led to a terrace.
A few minutes crunching down the gravel through the gardens (lizards by day, fireflies by night) led to the swimming pool area. One side is on a shelf offering a view of nothing but trees and gardens, despite the fact that driven in Italian style you could get to the Ponte Vecchio in around six minutes on a traffic free early morning.
Giacomo al Salviatino, bringing one of Milan’s most famous restaurants to the Florentine hotel
On the terrace by the main building, the view of Florence and Tuscany changes colour and character hour by hour. This is where you have dinner, created by one of Milan’s most famous restaurants, Giacomo, while gazing at this view and choosing from a fascinatingly curated list of mainly Italian wines.
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If it gets chilly, or too hot, you can repair to the bar and enjoy the room inside, feeling even more that you are part of a house party.
The beautifully curated bathroom of the Greenhouse suite at Il Salviatino
Curation is everywhere – the small but elegant spa offers treatments with Augustinus Bader and local Santa Maria Novella products.
It’s a place where your pulse rate decreases the moment you walk out and into the scented air and continues at that level throughout. Both Tuscan country and Florentine, it is special like nowhere else.
The Hotel Savoy, located in the very heart of Florence
The Savoy, Florence review
If location is everything, then staying at the Savoy in Florence gives you everything you may ever need. On the Piazza della Repubblica in the heart of the city, our room at the back of the hotel had a little balcony looking out directly to the cathedral and its famous square.
If you are at the front of the hotel, you are facing the famous pedestrianised Piazza della Repubblica and are directly across from the city’s celebrated Palazzo Strozzi museum. A good cricketer could throw a ball and hit Michelangelo’s David a block away. (Actually, the David in front of the Uffizi is a replica, but let’s not spoil the dream here).
The Presidential Suite at Hotel Savoy, looking directly onto the Duomo
Our favourite part of the Savoy was breakfast. You are taken outside to a little terrace cleverly carved out of the square, where proper old-fashioned friendly Italian-British service (it’s part of the Rocco Forte hotel group) melds with hearty and deliciously cooked dishes.
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You feel you could sit and sip coffee for the rest of the day, watching Florence and its tourists go by. Wander in and pick a few more berries or slices of salmon or roast turkey from the buffet, pour yourself another glass of prosecco, and repeat.
Bar Artemisia at Hotel Savoy, inspired by the great Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi
The decor and design of the public areas and the rooms is as lavish and LUX as you would expect a hotel – belonging to Rocco Forte and lovingly put together by his sister Olga Polizzi – to be. Bathrooms are marble, beds are generous and high-quality, service is impeccable. And as for the location: it’s a sanctuary in the heart of the historical maze of the city centre.
This is Florence at its best, created by someone whose dream was always to make the best hotels in his family’s original homeland, their adopted homeland of Britain, and beyond.
An evening view of the Portrait Hotel, Florence, along the Arno riverbank and just next to the Ponte Vecchio
Portrait Hotel, Florence review
Is there a better city view to wake up to than drawing the curtains of your big picture window, and seeing the Ponte Vecchio and Arno riverbank in front of you? We don’t think so, and that’s how we were greeted every day doing our stay at the Portrait, the super-chic luxury hotel from the Ferragamo family.
The view of the Ponte Vecchio from Caffe dell’Oro, the hotel’s riverside restaurant
Arriving gives a good taster of the experience to come. Your taxi ambles along the Lungarno, the embankment of Florence’s river, coming to a halt just metres away from the famous bridge. We celebrated our arrival with lunch and a glass or two of delicious Franciacorta at the Caffe dell’Oro, the hotel’s restaurant whose tables line the river back.
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Service was contemporary Italian – fashionable and delightful. We particularly enjoyed the Bao al Vapore, steamed bao buns with chilli pork, which somehow went very nicely with the Franciacorta.
The slick and comfortable lobby of Portrait Firenze
The lobby area is like a curiosity cabinet of contemporary design; a place you could feel you could sleep in quite happily if the rooms weren’t so nice. Rooms in the heart of Florence are never huge, but our suite had two separate rooms, each with the same view of the river and the city across from it. Walls were light cream, furniture 20th-century-modern style also finished off in crema (as a Ferrari owner would say). Everything was just so, showcasing contemporary Florence inside and Asian Florence through the window. There was also a compellingly readable selection of excellent coffee table books in the room.
A suite at Portrait Firenze, each with a view of the river and city
There was one challenge: the dilemma of whether to have breakfast in your room, with its silent view of the bridge and the city, or outside on the terrace, which offered the view in the sunshine and buzz. Either way, you really can’t go wrong, and you are left with a feeling that you have enjoyed the lavish hospitality of Florence’s most celebrated fashionable family whilst staying in its coolest spot.
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