The best hotels in Italy
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.
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Fabio Semeraro/Vocabolo MuscatelliVocabolo 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/Mattia AquilaCipriani, 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 the Belmond 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 the charming Roberto, who has been here forever, greets 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, the 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, the 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 Olympic-size 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 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 srlVilla 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
The St Regis Venice
Of all the classic hotels in Venice lining the Grand Canal, few can claim to have as many water-facing balconies as The St Regis. Nor such a cosy relationship with the art world – the hotel opened in 1895, the same year as the inaugural biennale, and since its slick 2019 renovation has become home to an impressive collection of contemporary art as well as pieces by top Venetian glass makers. Naturally, when the biennale crowd is in town, the St Regis is where you’ll find them, on the waterfront balconies or terraces – the palatial terrace at the Santa Maria Suite is a particular standout – or in the rose-covered garden, marvelling at the spectacular water view with a spritz in hand.
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Luke AbrahamsHotel 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
Richard PowersBelmond Villa Margherita, Ravello
The secret scene
A more rarefied position than Belmond Hotel Caruso’s hardly seems possible, sitting in orange-scented gardens at the tippity-top of Ravello, one of the Amalfi coast’s most famous and hard-to-reach towns. But now the refined Belmond Villa Margherita retreats even further from the crowds. The broderie-anglaise-white house is set down a cobbled road beyond its parent hotel on its own plot of olive trees and climbing roses. Margherita has the scarcest commodity in this corner of the world – privacy – along with the bespoke offerings of the hotel: the infinity pool; truffle and mortadella pizzas; a concierge to book Rivas to Positano. It was last spring when Caruso’s pokey gym and hair salon – with the property’s most squandered view – were transformed into an opulent residence. Artwork by Matisse hangs beneath hand-painted, trompe l’oeil ceilings of tree branches and trellised lemons. Upstairs, two bedrooms have a pastoral air of early-20th-century English abroad (the villa can be rented whole or split into two suites). There’s a pint-sized kitchen for that first espresso or, indeed, high tea in the garden. A return to Amalfi coast solitude and the Ravello of DH Lawrence and Vita Sackville-West. By Jo Rodgers Read our full Villa Margherita hotel review.
Lucy LauchtMezzatorre, Ischia
The low-key island hangout
In its mid-century heyday, Ischia shone as brightly as neighbouring Capri. Ischia had beaches, healing springs and bays of supernatural green-blue in which Pablo Neruda learnt to swim, and pastel fishing villages where WH Auden raved about the light with Truman Capote. Film director Luchino Visconti bought a home here, Hollywood followed. Yet flashier Capri stole the show. Nobody chose to name a style of trouser after Ischia, and memories of her halcyon days slowly faded, restoring it to Neapolitan families and the low-key. ‘Capri has glitz and glam, but it’s so obvious,’ says Il Pellicano’s Marie-Louise Scio, who chose the lesser-known island for the group’s third property by taking over the historic Mezzatorre – the most talked-about opening of the summer. The sea-urchin-coloured hotel is a former 16th century watchtower and pirate’s lookout on the island’s wild north-west headlands. Ceilings are high and vaulted, verandahs crenellated, walls six feet thick in places. Its solid quietude envelops. Some rooms are set in forest – exuberant birdsong in the Mediterranean pines – above which rises Visconti’s abandoned early-20th-century villa. In the basement of the hotel, a deep-green tiled thermal spa bubbles with pools of mineral water; treatments use indigenous nutrient-rich mud. But the centrepiece is a glorious outdoor saltwater pool where guests doze on daybeds, bright with blue-and-white stripes. In poolside La Baia, waiters pour Ischian wine with plates of carpaccio di mare. The chef at formal La Torre restaurant is an island boy who cooks unfussy food, using top-quality produce from the volcanic soils. Capri dazzles. Ischia dazzles but remains authentic. By Laura Fowler
Simone Acefalo Instagram: @simoacephotoHotel de la Ville, Rome
The capital connection
It’s been almost 20 years since Rocco Forte opened Hotel de Russie near Piazza del Popolo. With its neoclassical meets Art Deco grandeur, a collaboration between Olga Polizzi and local architect Tommaso Ziffer, it forever raised the bar for the best hotels in Rome. More recently its younger sister, Hotel de la Ville, was born atop the Spanish Steps, further elevating the family’s ruling position in the city – all part of their heralded Italian expansion this year. Previously home to an old-school hotel, the 18th-century palazzo first underwent two-and-a-half years of renovations, reducing the number of rooms to a more manageable 89. This time the Russie’s design duo chose the European Grand Tour as their reference. In spaces that are otherwise classic Polizzi, a Roman marble sculpture here or a print of Villa Borghese’s pines there hint at a bygone age of travel. Larger rooms have enormous terraces but nothing can rival the heady 360-degree views of honey-hued cupolas from the rooftop. And the two-floor spa, using the Sicilian botanicals pioneered at the group’s Verdura retreat, compensates for the absence of a pool. Meanwhile, herbal cocktails are served against a backdrop of tapestries in the bar, to be followed by a suitably elegant supper of fresh-off-the-boat bread-crusted sea bass at the outdoor restaurant. But it’s the understated things that make this a property for its home city. Unlike its lofty contemporaries, such as the Hassler next door, it democratically embraces street life through a dining room and bar which can be accessed directly from via Sistina. An espresso here costs one euro. De la Ville’s recalling of a centuries-old jet set is drawing in a new crowd, while blurring the lines between hotel and city life. By Sara Manuelli
Il Palazzo Experimental, Venice
The design disruptor
Young at heart. That’s a refreshing tone to set in a city whose hotels too often stagger unimaginatively under the weight of heavy velvet brocade and solemn antique furniture. Brought to northern Italy by the French friends who rebooted the Parisian cocktail scene when they opened the Experimental Cocktail Club in 2006, this Venice hotel dares to be different. It helps that the group’s sixth hotel lies far from the tourist scrum at the eastern end of Le Zattere, the long promenade that draws a sunny, café-crawl line along the neighbourhood of Dorsoduro. This 16th-century palazzo was, for many years, the headquarters of the Adriatica Shipping Company – its colourful Thirties mosaic sign still adorns the façade. Inside, the design by thirty-something Experimental collaborator Dorothée Meilichzon feels like a fun 21st-century spin on Art Deco. She brings a surprise touch of fairground to the candy-striped doors of the guest rooms and pays homage to the Fifties Olivetti showroom by the great Carlo Scarpa in the funky terrazzo flooring in the public spaces. In the restaurant, the spry team of chefs riff on the Adriatic connection in market-fresh food and wine pairings. Appealing to the locals is a big part of the Experimental remit. Serious cocktails such as the almond-spiked house Negroni and reworked cicheti snacks promise to bring a buzzing aperitivo scene to the lovely garden terrace. Meanwhile the snug street-facing bar that houses the Experimental Cocktail Club is a fine cold-weather nook. Injected with a wake-up shot of verve and a hop from Giudecca’s fizzing art scene, this part of the Dorsoduro is the new young heart of Venice. By Lee Marshall Read our Il Palazzo Experimental hotel review.
Mattia AquilaLefay, The Dolomites
The green champion
When the Leali family opened their first eco-spa on Lake Garda in 2008, based on principles of Chinese medicine channelled through Western science and Italian nature, they were national pioneers. Made in local olive wood and powered primarily by a biomass furnace, it became the first Italian hotel to offset its remaining carbon emissions, and earned a decade of green and wellness awards. It was also headily romantic: treatments bore such whimsical names as The Moon In The Lake and the pool gave the effect of levitating over Garda. Now their new ski-spa in a fir-lined valley near Madonna di Campiglio translates both that vision and sensation for the Dolomites. Bio-architect Hugo Demetz’s main structure of black aluminium, larch and glass maximises natural heat, light and the mountain surroundings: the conifer carpet feels strokable from the fourth-floor bar. Fires crackle like boots on autumn leaves. Everywhere oak, chestnut and silver birch branches suspend a connected natural state from slopes to indoor spa: the Roman-bath-sized complex spans 24 treatment cabins, panoramic zoning-out rooms and pools. Four indoor areas correspond to the energy flows treated in Garda’s garden. A salt cave, orange and rosemary aromatherapy saunas, and Turkish baths cleanse body, mind and spirit like mountain air. In 88 bedrooms with heavy curtains, hanging textile panels of reindeers coax post-spa sleepers like children into fairyland; while the back-lit onyx bar throws the light of campfire on aperitivo drinkers. Lake-caught Alpine char and Trentino spumante ensure the local commitment is down to the last plate. An Italian role model in sustainability, wellness and romance. By Stephanie Rafanelli
Catherine MeadComo Castello del Nero, Chianti
The revamped castle
Polenta, chestnut, liver and grape; not just the rich, wintery comforts of this region’s palate, but the traditional palette of its interiors. Both, declares interior designer Paola Navone ‘are troppo pesante – just too heavy!’ In late 2018 COMO’s Christina Ong bought Castello Del Nero, a 12th-century-castle-turned-hotel and 740-acre estate in the heart of wine country, after spending her birthday here. She then tasked her Milanese design partner for Miami Beach, Phuket and Bali to reimagine the historical property – the group’s debut in mainland Europe – in just 74 days. Navone faced not only an overdose of offal shades, ruched brocades, four-poster beds and chandeliers, but frescoes protected by the Italian Fine Arts Commission and, most onerous of all, nine centuries of the Florentine Del Nero and Torrigiani clans’ history. Navone’s response was ‘less a design, than a lightening’. She took the castle back to its vaulted bones, demanding only a strict two-tone of pietra-serena grey and cloud, mirroring the heavenly ceiling of the private chapel (terracotta floors were – sacrilegiously – whitewashed). What was left functioned as a blank stage for Navone’s witty creations. For Michelin-starred La Torre, the former stables, she designed two sets of chairs, one in dappled-grey faux pony skin. The other, in a semi-circular Thirties shape, makes a horseshoe when seen from above. A contemporary design castle with Italy’s first COMO Shambhala retreat. SR Read our COMO Castello Del Nero review.
Giacomo SonziniMasseria Torre Maizza, Puglia
The rooted rural refresh
Some hotels burst onto the scene all ready for their close-up. Others, like this one, bide their time. Opened in 2006 as the intimate cousin to more family-oriented Torre Coccaro, Maizza was already charming. It just needed that little style lift, a small service tweak, to make it world-class. And now it is: Rocco Forte took over the place in 2018, relaunching it the following May as his fourth Italian property. It takes a keen eye to spot the line between old and new at this Puglia hotel. Much of the bull-white masseria dates back to the 16th century. Ten recently added garden rooms merge seamlessly with the whitewashed vernacular, just as the San Pellegrino-bottle green of a nine-hole golf course blends pleasantly into a grove of gnarled olives. All is discretion here. A walled garden filled with bougainvillaea camouflages a lick of pool and a pergola for lazy orange-infused lunches. Inside, designer Olga Polizzi nails Puglian country manor in a way few rivals, even Borgo Egnazia, manage, using regional artisanal textiles and ceramics; Puglian plates form a planetary installation on the wall behind the reception desk. The mustard-hued cushions on the banquettes of Carosello restaurant are a touch of genius in what would otherwise be a black-and-white-floored urban ambience. Local boy Luigi Barletta’s menu is equally less-is-more: ‘spaghetti, tomato and basil’ is a tribute to the simple goodness of southern Italian ingredients. The ultimate romantic refuge in impeccable good taste, right down to the newly elevated beach club. LM
Mandarin Oriental, Lake Como
The grand arrival
The greatest compliment one can pay this Lake Como hotel is that it feels as if it’s always been here. In an alternate universe, this suave waterfront nest north of Blevio might have taken in its first guests towards the end of the 19th century, as the European sister of the Oriental in Bangkok. But in those years, the original villa on the lake’s forested eastern shore was still a private residence. It was the home of opera singer Giuditta Pasta, claimed by Italians as their own Maria Callas, and only became a hotel in 2010, with heavy interiors and a restaurant that valued fancy trills over good clear notes. Meanwhile, buoyed by the standing ovation given to its first Italian property, the Mandarin Oriental, Milan in 2015, the Hong Kong-based group was planning an encore. At the end of the 2018 season, it took over this 75-room lakeside estate – with its courteous tree-lined avenues, landscaped gardens and a floating swimming pool – as its first European resort. Rooms were lightened by Milan-based designer Eric Egan, known equally for bringing historical verve to new-builds and contemporary flair to historically sensitive jobs like this one. The Mandarin Room, the reception and afternoon tea lounge are the only obvious signature Oriental group touches. Other appointments have been equally impressive. General manager Samuel Porreca was poached from JK Place Roma and he brought with him head barman Luca De Filippis. With this fashion-capital-worthy opening, the Como scene finally throws off its musty image. LM
Danilo ScarpatiCasa Maria Luigia, Modena
The foodie hotspot
Massimo Bottura, above, is the Maserati of the culinary world, ever revving towards the next frontier. In April, he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019. This year also marks his and wife/business partner Lara Gilmore’s debuts as innkeepers with Casa Maria Luigia, the new outpost of the renowned Osteria Francescana – twice named best restaurant in the world. Gilmore defines Maria Luigia as a place for family and friends, with guests joining to bask in the couple’s mutual passions for food, art and music as if part of their inner circle. The estate was once the playground of lothario Luigi Magelli: an 18th-century villa in four hectares of gardens with a swimming pool and a trail of alcoves for lovers. Gilmore – who also launched the workshop Tortellante in 2016 to teach traditional pasta-making to young adults with autism – masterminded the renovations. The 12 individually designed rooms have both an easy elegance and the quirkiness of a creative household. In one room herons revelling on pink Gucci wallpaper overlook the bed. Bathrooms are dramatic with botanical patterns and Murano chandeliers. Jazz tunes waft from the music room, a treasure trove of more than 7,000 vinyl records. Artworks by Ai Weiwei, Tracey Emin and Barbara Kruger are inside and out.
But it is, of course, the food that makes Maria Luigia a ‘casa’. Emilian breakfasts include egg-yolk zabaione with cotechino sausage, gnocco fritto dumpling and a sliver of mortadella. In the evening, Bottura-heads can savour such greatest hits as ‘Oops! I dropped the lemon tart’, which came about when a pudding accidentally fell on the floor during service. The whole place is a hedonistic celebration of life by those who love it. Ask Bottura about his future plans and he answers: ‘More future.’ SM