Two Florence hotels hold Three MICHELIN Keys in 2026, out of 14 Key hotels in the city. Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection, moves up from Two Keys to join the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in the top tier, and The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564 enters at One Key, the only new name. The other 12 hold the same tier as in 2025. Three hotels have Two Keys and nine have One. Above the city, Fiesole adds Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel, with One Key. The tiers come from MICHELIN’s Italian list of the 2026 Keys, published on 18 September. Its English page for Florence still shows the 2025 selection.
Collegio alla Querce, a college of 1868, joins the Four Seasons at Three
The promotion goes to a hotel on the hills. Collegio alla Querce, at Via delle Forbici 21/B, has 83 rooms in “a prestigious former college founded in 1868 by the Barnabite Fathers”. MICHELIN notes that “Auberge Resorts chose a slightly out-of-the-way setting for its first hotel in Italy”. A free shuttle reaches the centre in 15 minutes. The old headmaster’s office is now a cocktail and cigar lounge, the inspectors write, and the Italian list counts more than 300 contemporary works among the Tuscan materials and period furniture. The Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, at Borgo Pinti 99, keeps its Three Keys. Its 121 rooms are spread across the 15th-century Palazzo della Gherardesca and the Palazzo del Nero, a 17th-century former convent, with a spa and a seasonal outdoor pool. “After all, when you’re talking about a Four Seasons, there are some features that are absolutely obligatory,” MICHELIN observes. Two of its spaces, Onde and Bar Berni, are unavailable until 31 March 2027, according to its page, while the pool, the spa and the Gherardesca Garden stay open. Both hotels are in our list of Europe’s Three-Key hotels.
Florence’s 14 Key hotels, with their addresses
The order follows MICHELIN’s tiers.
| Keys | Hotel | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Three | Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection (up from Two) | Via delle Forbici 21/B |
| Three | Four Seasons Hotel Firenze | Borgo Pinti 99 |
| Two | Palazzo Portinari Salviati Residenza d’Epoca | Via del Corso 6 |
| Two | Villa Cora | Viale Machiavelli 18 |
| Two | Villa La Massa | Via della Massa 24, Candeli |
| One | The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564 (new) | Via di Mezzo 20 |
| One | Brunelleschi Hotel | Piazza Santa Elisabetta 3 |
| One | Grand Hotel Minerva | Piazza di Santa Maria Novella 16 |
| One | Hotel Lungarno | Borgo San Jacopo 14 |
| One | Riva Lofts Florence | Via Baccio Bandinelli 98 |
| One | Stella d’Italia | Via de’ Tornabuoni 7 |
| One | The Place Firenze | Piazza Santa Maria Novella 7 |
| One | The St. Regis Florence | Piazza Ognissanti 1 |
| One | Velona’s Jungle Luxury Suites | Via Montebello 86 |
Palazzo Portinari Salviati, Villa Cora and Villa La Massa at Two Keys
The three Two-Key hotels are very different places. Palazzo Portinari Salviati Residenza d’Epoca, at Via del Corso 6, has 13 suites in “the famous 15th-century palazzo that was once home to no less luminous a figure than Dante’s Beatrice”, in MICHELIN’s words. It has the Vita Nova spa. Villa Cora, at Viale Machiavelli 18, near the Boboli Gardens and Piazzale Michelangelo, was “Built by Baron Oppenheim for his bride in the nineteenth century”, and its heated outdoor pool is open all year. Villa La Massa stands on the Arno at Candeli, at the edge of the city, with 51 rooms and suites in 22 acres. “It’s the classic Italian five-star experience, with marble baths, antique furnishings, plush fabrics,” the inspectors write. It opens from late March to early November. All three appear in our list of Italy’s 49 Two-Key hotels.
Nine at One Key, from The James Suite to the St. Regis
The new One-Key hotel is small. The James Suite Hotel Firenze 1564, at Via di Mezzo 20, has 14 rooms in a 16th-century convent in Sant’Ambrogio, and “Designer James Cavagnani has layered the high-ceilinged rooms with pieces collected from decades of travel,” according to MICHELIN. The rest of the tier covers the centre. The Brunelleschi Hotel, at Piazza Santa Elisabetta 3, has 97 rooms and a private museum, and MICHELIN writes that “it’s more or less as close as you can get to the Duomo without taking religious orders”. The Grand Hotel Minerva, also with 97 rooms, was redesigned by Carlo Scarpa in the 1950s. Its rooftop pool, open from May to September, is “a rarity in this town”. Stella d’Italia has 24 rooms in a palazzo designed by Giorgio Vasari, on Via de’ Tornabuoni. The St. Regis Florence, with 99 rooms on Piazza Ognissanti, occupies “A stylish Florentine palazzo originally planned by Brunelleschi”.
Across the river, the Hotel Lungarno has 63 rooms at Borgo San Jacopo 14, with “an extensive collection of 20th-century art”, and Riva Lofts Florence has 10 suites in a 19th-century riverside complex at Via Baccio Bandinelli 98. The Place Firenze, with 20 rooms on Piazza Santa Maria Novella, works without a traditional reception desk. Velona’s Jungle Luxury Suites, at Via Montebello 86, has four suites. No guests under 18.
Villa San Michele in Fiesole, and where the Keys sit in Florence
By street address, the Keys gather in a few districts. Santa Maria Novella has The Place and the Grand Hotel Minerva on the same piazza, with Velona’s Jungle nearby on Via Montebello. The Brunelleschi and Stella d’Italia are close to the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica, and the Four Seasons and The James Suite are in Sant’Ambrogio. The Lungarno and Riva Lofts are in the Oltrarno, and the St. Regis faces the Arno at Ognissanti. Palazzo Portinari Salviati is on Via del Corso, between the Duomo and the Signoria. Three hotels sit on the hills or at the edge of town: Collegio alla Querce, Villa Cora and Villa La Massa. All three hold Three or Two Keys, and all three run a free shuttle into the centre, according to their pages.
MICHELIN lists Fiesole separately. Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel, at Via Doccia 4, keeps its One Key, with 39 rooms in a former monastery whose façade “is said to have been designed by no less eminent a hand than that of Michelangelo”. More on the villa is in our piece on Villa San Michele.
The Luxury.it perspective
Florence is one of only two Italian cities with more than one Three-Key hotel, with Venice, and its 14 Key hotels put it second in Italy after Rome, by our count of MICHELIN’s list. The choice is between the centre and the hills. Most of the list is a short walk from the Duomo or the river, while the three hotels above the city trade that walk for gardens, pools and a shuttle. Villa La Massa closes for the winter in early November and reopens in late March. For a winter stay, the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the Innocenti runs until 4 April 2027, as in our piece on the show. And for a table outside the centre, MICHELIN’s October additions include Al 588, at Borgo I Vicelli in Bagno a Ripoli, as in our report on the October list.
Related guides
Italy’s 17 Three-Key hotels · All 13 Key hotels in Venice · The best luxury hotels in Tuscany · La Réserve Firenze at Palazzo Segni
