The 10 Best Boutique Hotels in Florence

Our tip for Renaissance lovers is Palazzo Vecchietti Florence. Giambologna built the palazzo in 1578 for Bernardo Vecchietti, whose merchant family was already mentioned by Dante. The devil of the “Canto del Diavolo”, a flag holder whose original is in the Palazzo Vecchio, still sits on the corner, and Michele Bönan designed the rooms and suites. A little older still is the home of The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564 Florence, a convent from 1564: it was the childhood home of architect James Cavagnari, who converted it and opened it as a hotel in July 2025. Beneath hand-painted ceiling frescoes you'll find, among other pieces, Queen Elizabeth II's mobile mahogany wardrobe.Porta Rossa Hotel Florence · Santa Maria NovellaThe story of Brunelleschi Hotel Florence goes back even further. The round Torre della Pagliazza from the 6th or 7th century stands on Roman foundations, served as a prison from 1268 and later as the bell tower of Sant'Elisabetta. Its restoration by Italo Gamberini from 1983 to 1988 uncovered a Roman calidarium, which you can now see in the hotel's own museum. Porta Rossa Hotel Florence was first mentioned as an inn in 1386, which makes it one of the oldest hotels in Italy. Silk merchants once met here, and in the 19th century it gained lavish interiors, including a stained-glass window with the motto “Per non dormire”.Hotel Regency Florence · Quartiere 1Hotel Regency Florence dates from the years when Florence was the capital of Italy: two villas from 1866, commissioned by banker Giacomo Servadio from architect Henry Kleffler, make up the hotel today. In 1932 Tito Chini added Art Nouveau stained-glass windows and the dining-room ceiling, and the current owners have run the house as a hotel since 1960.

If you're looking for a design hotel in Florence, Michele Bönan is hard to miss. For the Ferragamo family, the Florentine architect designed Hotel Lungarno Florence, the first hotel of their Lungarno Collection, where works by Picasso and Cocteau hang. At Portrait Florence, opened in 2014, photographs of 1950s Florence tell of the glamour of “Made in Italy”. And The Place Florence opened in 2003 as J.K. Place with a Bönan design; in 2021 Luigi Fragola redesigned it in dialogue with the facade of Santa Maria Novella.

Two more houses follow a theme all their own. At L'Orologio Firenze every floor is dedicated to a watchmaker, Rolex, Vacheron Constantin or Patek Philippe, down to door handles shaped like watch hands and taps styled like crowns. At Hotel Number Nine Florence Ginevra Moretti designed every room individually, with Dedar fabrics and Simmons beds.

With about a dozen rooms, Palazzo Vecchietti Florence is one of the smallest houses in this selection. Every room and suite has a kitchenette and a dressing area, the Premier Suite Leonardo da Vinci measures 100 m², and breakfast is served à la carte, in your room if you like. The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564 Florence has 14 individual rooms and suites, three of them Signature Suites, some with a patio or sauna. The courtyard and hidden garden bring calm to the heart of the city.Palazzo Vecchietti Florence · Santa Maria NovellaAt The Place Florence you stay as if with friends: 20 rooms and suites, no classic check-in, you simply ring the doorbell. Breakfast and the minibar are part of every stay here, and up on the roof a hidden alcove looks out at Brunelleschi's dome. Hotel Regency Florence has 31 rooms and suites; in the lounge Il Salotto you sit as in an old-fashioned society salon over coffee, tea and pastries, and in the evening dinner is served by candlelight in the private garden.Brunelleschi Hotel Florence · Historical centerPortrait Florence puts personal service first: a Lifestyle Team acts as your concierge, the rooms follow an all-suite style, and at the top the Penthouse takes up an entire floor. For families we recommend Brunelleschi Hotel Florence with 96 rooms, which offers babysitting, as does Hotel Lungarno Florence on the Arno.