Villa San Michele Reopens As One Of The Best Luxury Hotels In Italy

On April 28, 2026, Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel, Florence, officially reopens after an 18-month restoration that turns its Renaissance setting into a fuller, more immersive hospitality experience. Set in the Fiesole hills, the former 15th-century Franciscan monastery returns with a renewed identity: still deeply historic, yet more attuned to year-round luxury, wellness and slow travel.

The renovation, led by Luigi Fragola Architects, respects the villa’s monastic bones while giving its interiors a quieter, more residential rhythm. The room count has been refined to 39 keys, including 27 suites and 12 rooms, allowing the hotel to prioritize space, privacy and atmosphere over density. This is a crucial part of its new appeal. Among the best luxury hotels in Italy, Villa San Michele now feels less like a seasonal retreat and more like a living Renaissance residence above Florence.

The most symbolic addition is the Villa San Michele Spa by Guerlain, the first dedicated wellness sanctuary in the hotel’s history. Rather than feeling like a contemporary insert, the spa is integrated into the property’s historic fabric, reached through a hidden garden path that acts almost like a sensory threshold. Inside, Luigi Fragola Architects build a meditative world of straw marquetry, onyx, polished marble and hand-painted murals by Elena Carozzi. The result feels calm, tactile and ceremonial, closer to a private monastic ritual than a standard hotel spa.

The suites extend that same philosophy. Botanica draws from the historic gardens, with scagliola tables and herbarium-inspired textiles. The Grand Tour recalls the neoclassical romance of 19th-century travelers through marble, tapestries and antiques. Limonaia, set in the former orangery, becomes a villa within the villa, complete with a private heated plunge pool and secluded garden.

The reopening also gives the landscape a stronger role. The terraced gardens, redesigned by Luca Ghezzi, bring back iris, citrus and ancient roses, framing Florence through a more historically sensitive botanical lens. Meanwhile, curated retreats with JJ Martin of La DoubleJ introduce sound healing, breathwork and yoga into the aromatic gardens.

With Antesi, Executive Chef Alessandro Cozzolino adds the final layer, which is a dining concept rooted in Tuscan memory and the monastic history of the estate. Villa San Michele now reopens as one of the best luxury hotels in Italy because it understands that true luxury is built through proportion, silence, craft and a view that never needs to raise its voice.