Best Hotels in Florence City Centre

The Four Seasons Florence occupies two Renaissance palaces — the Palazzo della Gherardesca and the Conventino — within 11 acres of private walled garden that represent the largest private garden in Florence. The combination of Renaissance frescoes, 16th-century chapel, and the kind of park usually reserved for Medici palaces creates a hotel of unique grandeur. The Il Palagio restaurant is Michelin-starred; the spa is comprehensive; and the garden — where guests breakfast beside 500-year-old limonaia — is a Florence experience unavailable anywhere else.

• Florence's largest private garden
• Renaissance frescoes
• Michelin restaurant

The Hotel Savoy sits directly on Piazza della Repubblica — Florence's great Belle Epoque central square — and combines an operatically positioned address with the kind of practical, well-run five-star hospitality that Rocco Forte hotels do extremely well. The Irene restaurant is a serious dining venue. Rooms are elegant and genuinely comfortable. The position gives immediate access to the Duomo (3 minutes), the Uffizi (5 minutes), and the Ponte Vecchio (8 minutes). For guests who want centrality and reliability in equal measure, this is Florence's benchmark.

• Piazza della Repubblica
• Irene restaurant
• central reliability

Eight suites in a 14th-century palazzo between Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza della Strozzi — Palazzo Vecchietti is Florence's most perfectly positioned small luxury property. The interiors are a masterclass in contemporary Florentine design: original stone and plasterwork combined with precise modern furniture and the building's own extraordinary architectural bones. Breakfast is served in the suite or in the private courtyard. The palazzo's scale guarantees a genuinely private and personal experience that the city's larger properties cannot offer.

• 14th-century palazzo
• 8 suites only
• central perfection

The Hotel Brunelleschi takes its name seriously — built around a 6th-century Byzantine tower and incorporating a medieval rotunda that now houses the hotel's museum, this is Florence's most archaeologically layered hotel. The building has been excavated to reveal Roman floors; the tower, accessible from the hotel, offers unrestricted Duomo views; and the Osteria Caffè Italiano restaurant is genuinely good. An unusual, characterful property in the heart of the tourist centre that takes pride in its extraordinary physical heritage.

• Byzantine tower
• Roman ruins in situ
• Duomo proximity

The Davanzati is Florence's best-value four-star central hotel — a family-run property on Via Porta Rossa with rooms that reference Florentine artistic heritage through locally commissioned murals and quality craftsmanship. The position, 50 metres from the Palazzo Davanzati museum (Florence's finest medieval townhouse) and a 5-minute walk from the Uffizi, is excellent. The family genuinely cares about their guests' Florence experience and the concierge advice is among the best in the city. Outstanding value for the location.

• family-run quality
• value for location
• Uffizi proximity