Hotels we recommend
Where to stay in Italy
Seven hotels in Italy we would book for a client, in Bergamo, Milan, Florence, Rome and Venice. One holds MICHELIN Keys. Five of them book through a partner programme, which adds an upgrade where one is free, daily breakfast for two, a hotel credit and late checkout, at the hotel's own rate.
- Hotels
- 7
- Cities
- 5
- With MICHELIN Keys
- 1
- With partner perks
- 5
- Newest
- 2025
By city
The hotels
Bergamo · San Vigilio
Relais San Vigilio al Castello
9 rooms
Relais San Vigilio al Castello is a nine-room hotel on the San Vigilio hill, the highest point of Bergamo, in what was the military housing of the San Vigilio castle garrison. Run by the Zani family, restaurateurs since 1978, it spreads across two connected buildings with gardens looking over the old city and the plain.
Bergamo · Città Alta
Gombit Hotel Bergamo
15 rooms
Gombit Hotel is a 15-room design hotel at Via Mario Lupo 6 in Bergamo's upper town, inside the 16th-century Venetian walls and beside the Torre del Gombito. Every room is different, and the hotel is a member of Design Hotels.
Milan · Centrale
Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan
1932 · 235 rooms · Renovated 2015
Excelsior Hotel Gallia is a 235-room hotel on the western edge of Piazza Duca d'Aosta, beside Milano Centrale station, in an Art Deco-era building that opened in 1932. A steel-and-glass tower by Marco Piva has been added to the original building, and the 1,000-square-metre Katara Royal Suite takes the top floor.
Marriott STARS
Milan · Brera
Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan
2024 · 116 rooms
Casa Brera is a hotel of 101 rooms and 15 suites on the pedestrian Piazzetta Bossi, a few steps from La Scala and Brera, in a 1950s Rationalist building by Pietro Lingeri. Patricia Urquiola restored it inside with walnut, Italian marbles and Cassina and Poliform furniture, and the eighth-floor roof has a restaurant, sky bar and outdoor pool.
Marriott STARS
Florence · Unità Italiana
W Florence
2025 · 119 rooms
W's second Italian hotel, opened in July 2025 in the former Grand Hotel Majestic on Piazza dell'Unità Italiana, beside Santa Maria Novella. The building is Lando Bartoli's 1968 rationalist block of stone, slit windows and bronze fins, now holding 102 rooms, 16 suites and a penthouse around a part-covered courtyard, with a rooftop bar facing the Duomo.
Marriott Luminous
Rome · Ludovisi
W Rome
2021 · 162 rooms
W's first hotel in Italy, opened in December 2021 across two adjoining 19th-century palazzi on Via Liguria, near the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Behind the period façades Meyer Davis set colourful leather furniture against stone walls, with a Sicilian restaurant, an open-air courtyard and a sixth-floor deck and rooftop pizza bar.
Marriott Luminous
Venice · San Marco
The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice
1895 · 82 rooms · Renovated 2013
A Gothic palazzo on the Grand Canal at Campo Santa Maria del Giglio in San Marco, remodelled by the Pisani family in 1475, home to Doge Andrea Gritti from 1525 and a hotel since 1895. It looks across the water to Santa Maria della Salute and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, with 61 rooms and 21 suites after a 15-month restoration finished in 2013.
2 MICHELIN Keys · Marriott STARS
On our list
Hotels in Italy we rate but have not yet stayed in, drawn hollow on the map. The hotels above are first-hand; these are where we are going next. We book them as we book the rest.
Marina Grande
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for Michele Bönan's white villa above Marina Grande.
A white nineteenth-century villa above Marina Grande, done throughout by Michele Bönan, who drew most of the furniture too.
Borgo Pinti
Three MICHELIN Keys and No. 12 on the World's 50 Best; on our list for Palazzo della Gherardesca and its eleven-acre garden.
Palazzo della Gherardesca and its eleven-acre garden, the largest private garden in Florence.
Castiglion del Bosco
Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for a 5,000-acre Montalcino estate with its own Brunello winery.
A medieval borgo on a 5,000-acre Montalcino estate with its own Brunello winery and Italy's only private golf club.
Giudecca
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for the gardens at the tip of the Giudecca.
Gardens at the tip of the Giudecca, a five-minute boat ride from St Mark's, and the largest pool in Venice.
Conca dei Marini
Three MICHELIN Keys and Relais & Châteaux; on our list for the cliff above Conca dei Marini and its beach.
A 1960s hotel rebuilt into the cliff ninety metres above Conca dei Marini, with a lift down to its own beach.
Laurito
Three MICHELIN Keys and Relais & Châteaux; on our list for the lift cut through the rock to its beach.
Built into the cliff east of Positano in 1970, with a lift cut through the rock down to its own beach.
Campo Marzio
Three MICHELIN Keys and No. 32 on the World's 50 Best; on our list for the 1930s block facing the Mausoleum of Augustus.
A 1930s rationalist block on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, opened by Bulgari in 2023 facing the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Le Cure
Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for a sixteenth-century school below Fiesole with chapel and theatre.
A sixteenth-century former boarding school on the slope below Fiesole, with its chapel and theatre kept; Auberge's first in Italy, opened 2025.
Lake Como
Three MICHELIN Keys and No. 5 on the World's 50 Best; on our list for Count Lucini Passalacqua's 1787 villa, where Bellini stayed.
Count Lucini Passalacqua's 1787 villa above the lake, where Bellini stayed, made into 24 suites by the De Santis family of Grand Hotel Tremezzo.
Sicily
San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel
Three MICHELIN Keys and No. 50 on the World's 50 Best; on our list for a fourteenth-century Dominican convent above the Bay of Naxos.
A fourteenth-century Dominican convent above the Bay of Naxos, with a grand-hotel wing added in 1896; reopened by Four Seasons in 2021.
Above the harbour
Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for a former Benedictine monastery above Portofino harbour.
A former Benedictine monastery on the hillside above Portofino harbour, a hotel since 1902.
Palazzetto
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for a 300-acre organic farm that feeds the kitchens.
A thirteenth-century villa that once sheltered medieval pilgrims, on a 300-acre organic farm that feeds its own kitchens.
And 64 more in Italy on our list, on the guide’s map.
What to know
Relais San Vigilio al Castello; Gombit Hotel Bergamo; Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan; Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan; W Florence; W Rome and The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice. Each has its own page with the rooms, the restaurants and what booking through us adds.
The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice (two MICHELIN Keys).
Of the hotels we recommend, W Florence, which opened in 2025. Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan followed in 2024.
Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan: its rooms start at 26 square metres. The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice from 25; Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan from 24 and W Florence from 24.
Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan (Marriott STARS); Casa Brera, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan (Marriott STARS); W Florence (Marriott Luminous); W Rome (Marriott Luminous) and The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice (Marriott STARS). Booked through us, each adds a room upgrade where one is free, breakfast for two each day, a hotel credit and early check-in or late checkout when the hotel can give it, at no extra cost to you.
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