Condé Nast Traveller | The Best Hotels in Italy

Florence is a busy city. People from all over the world long to soak up the Renaissance, as if it were the latest Netflix series. Crowds surge towards the Uffizi and the Accademia, gangs of American adolescents hurry to see Michelangelo’s David. So it feels good to get out of the city centre at the end of the day, to a hotel that offers a sense of spacious retreat. On a hill above the city, The Collegio alla Querce Auberge allows you to see Florence as the Grand Tour travellers first saw it from the hills, spread below them, that wonderful panorama of red tiled rooftops and campanile and domes rising like hot air balloons. The hotel has the best views in Florence, and you get them every morning when you open the curtains. Stanley Stewart