Some buildings are better for having waited. Over the past few weeks, four palazzi that have outlasted centuries of owners have opened as small, considered places to stay: three in Florence and one in Valletta. Palazzo hotels are hardly new. What feels fresh is the restraint: few rooms, a considered eye, and buildings allowed to keep their frescoes. Venice made a version of the case earlier this year at Orient Express Venezia. In the Oltrarno, La Réserve Firenze opens today. It is the first Italian address for La Réserve, part of Michel Reybier Hospitality: six apartments in a restored 15th-century palazzo, with coffered ceilings, carved woodwork and hand-restored frescoes. Gilles & Boissier oversaw the design, using Siena travertine in the bathrooms and cotto terracotta underfoot. From the rooftop terrace you look across Santo Spirito towards Palazzo Pitti. It gives us good reason to look at Florence again.
Matthieu Salvaing
Across the river, near the Duomo, recently opened Palazzo Sogni takes a more theatrical turn. Creative directors Elena and Giulia Sella have layered velvet, silk and brass through 30 rooms in a 16th-century palazzo, with onyx bathrooms and a historic nymphaeum left in place. There is a garden, a spa and a rooftop overlooking the dome. The hotel describes its approach as “couture hospitality”.
The James Suite Hotel Firenze
The James Suite Hotel Firenze
The James Suite Hotel Firenze
In Santa Croce, The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564, also recently opened, is the most personal of the three. It occupies a former convent with a Renaissance façade, barrel-vaulted rooms and an internal courtyard. Architect James Cavagnari, whose parents bought the building in the early 1970s, has mixed bespoke furniture with antiques, midcentury pieces and vintage lighting across its 14 suites. It is run by the Manfredi family’s hotel collection.
guido fua
Then south, to Valletta, a city we have been watching since Iniala’s expansion. Romègas, which opened recently behind the fortified walls, sits in a palazzo with sixteenth-century roots, restored by EM Architects with interiors by Camilleri Paris Mode. It has 22 rooms and suites and a rooftop pool looking over the harbour, and it joins a small but growing group of design-led stays in the city.
Four palazzi, two countries, one idea: the best new hotels are often the oldest buildings.
