Best hotels in Italy

Positano and Amalfi might draw the crowds, but the hilltop town of Ravello is the coast's quieter, more cultured little sister — a place that seduced Richard Wagner, Gore Vidal and Virginia Woolf into staying for a lot longer than planned. And right at its highest point sits Hotel Caruso, an 11th-century palazzo originally built by a noble family shipwrecked on their way to Constantinople. Opened as a hotel in 1893 by a local vintner named Pantaleone Caruso, it was lovingly restored by Belmond and reopened in 2005, complete with stunning (and original) 18th-century frescoes, centuries-old terraced gardens and an infinity pool so photogenic it has its own fan base.

It might seem that Rome really doesn't need another luxury hotel, but the Six Senses brought something the Eternal City was genuinely missing — a place to properly decompress without leaving the centro storico. Tucked into the 15th-century Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini on a quiet piazza just off the Via del Corso, you're a five-minute stroll from both the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, yet the moment you step through the discreet entrance, the chaos evaporates. The interiors are warm and peaceful, whilst suspended greenery and plenty of natural light keep things fresh. The spa, centred around a reimagined Roman bathhouse, is a real draw — and it's absolutely superb.

Venice's Dorsoduro district is the city's arty, quieter side that the Venetians prefer to keep for themselves. And right at its southern tip, where the Grand Canal opens into St Mark's Basin, sits this top-tier palazzo with one of the most enviable waterfront positions in the city. Built in 1892 for the Genovese family on the site of a medieval monastery, its Gothic facade now conceals boldly contemporary and fabulous interiors. With the Peggy Guggenheim Collection next door and the Basilica della Salute as a neighbour, the location alone is worth the visit... But the food and the staff seal the deal.

Lake Como's villas have always attracted the sort of people who make for interesting company, and this 18th-century Moltrasio beauty is no exception. Count Lucini-Passalacqua built the place, composer Vincenzo Bellini wrote two operas between its walls, and Napoleon and Churchill have both popped by. Today, the De Santis family have poured three years of love (and a lot of antique-market hauls) into transforming it into a 24-room hotel that somehow still feels like a private home. Seven acres of terraced gardens cascade to the shoreline, Murano chandeliers drip from the frescoed ceilings and the whole thing is gloriously, unapologetically over the top. It was winner of the World's Best Hotel in 2023, no less.

Tucked behind Piazza della Signoria, practically leaning on the Uffizi, the Hotel Bernini Palace is a 15th-century palazzo with hospitality in its bones. Back when Florence briefly served as Italy's capital in the 1860s, parliamentarians and senators would pile in for backroom dealings over dinner – and you can still feel that buzz of importance today. Now a polished five-star with 74 rooms adorned in antiques and Murano glass, it's elegant, un-showy and thoroughly Italian. The concierge team (Les Clefs d'Or, no less) know every cobblestone in the centro storico, and the location genuinely couldn't be better for getting to know Florence on foot.

With its Arab-Norman cathedrals and raucous street markets, Palermo has an infectious, sun-soaked energy. And right in the middle of it all, on the beautiful Via Roma, stands the Grand Hotel et Des Palmes, a palazzo with a past to rival the city. Built in 1874 as the private residence of the Ingham-Whitaker family — English Marsala merchants who all but ran Sicily — it was transformed into a hotel in 1907 by Art Nouveau architect Ernesto Basile. Wagner stayed to finish Parsifal, Poet Raymond Roussel checked in and never left, and the mirrors, marble and sweeping staircases have seen it all.

The dusky-pink Baroque villa at the estate's heart houses Locanda Nerello restaurant, stuffed full of antiques, art and neon signs and offering a fabulous 0-kilometre menu of dishes like albacore tartare with Salina capers, risotto with fennel and orange zest, and homemade cannoli. Below it, the Convivium Bar occupies the old stone cellar – well-stocked and ideal for an aperitivo – and outside, there's a solar-heated infinity pool framing panoramic views of both Etna and the sea. There's also a small spa, and a larger menu of in-room wellness treatments.

Right on Puglia's Adriatic coast, near the fishing village of Savelletri, is the dreamily beautiful Borgo Egnazia. Built by the Melpignano family from scratch to resemble a traditional Puglian village, the hotel opened in 2010, and is all flawless tufo limestone, hidden pools and blooms of rosemary and jasmine around every corner. There are of course, some spectacular added extras too, including a Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa rooted in ancient Puglian wellness traditions, an 18-hole championship golf course and two private beaches. It's big (183 rooms across three different areas), but the winding alleyways, candlelit corridors and bougainvillea-draped piazzas make it feel surprisingly intimate.

Somewhere in the rolling countryside southwest of Siena, down a long gravel drive lined with cypresses, sits an 800-year-old villa that once nursed medieval pilgrims back to health. Today it performs a similar service, albeit with Michelin-starred dinners and a spa that produces its own skincare line. Danish owners, Claus and Jeanette Thottrup, have spent two decades transforming the estate into a 300-acre working farm with vineyards, an artisan dairy, kitchen gardens and even alpacas. The result is a place is lived-in rather than designed, where the flowers on your bedside table were picked that morning and the cheese at breakfast was made down the hill. And it's all effortlessly lovely.