Florence, Italy

Oltrarno Splendid

Price per night from$264.57

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR244.55), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Artist's ateliers

Setting

Local’s favourite

A boutique B&B in Florence, Oltrarno Splendid offers a side to the city away from the tourists. This 18th-century palazzo is in right by the River Arno, in the artisan-favoured, artistic namesake neighbourhood. The dream design team – who also brought you AdAstra and SoprArno – added the fruits of their frequent antique-market trawls to the faded wallpaper and existing frescoes, with bath tubs in some of the bedrooms. It’s a more local part of town, but the Ponte Vecchio and all of fabled Firenze’s Renaissance-era heros are mere moments away.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of Tuscan wine and a Betty Soldi-designed tote bag

Facilities

Photos Oltrarno Splendid facilities

Need to know

Rooms

14.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm, also flexible if your room’s ready.

Prices

Double rooms from £230.51 (€269), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €7.00 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

The super stylish owners Betty and Matteo are well-versed in the art of the apartment-style hotel: their other Florentine forays include AdAstra and SoprArno Suites.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: minibar, air-conditioning, free bottled water, HD TV and Co Bigelow bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Each of the 14 rooms in this 18th-century palazzo has been individually styled by the design team, who had the added benefit of discovering frescoes and gloriously faded wallpaper as they went along. If you just can’t get enough of Brunelleschi’s dome-shaped masterpiece, check into a King Room, where views of the cathedral cupola are served straight to your bath tub.

Packing tips

If you’re not already versed in the scandals and schemes of the Medicis, pack a copy of Christopher Hibbert’s House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall for the thrills.

Also

The hotel isn’t adapted for wheelchair users.

Children

All ages are welcome, but there’s nothing laid on for mini Smiths.

Food and Drink

Photos Oltrarno Splendid food and drink

Top Table

The breakfast salon is pretty cosy, but stick around afterwards to check out the old maps on the wall and admire the postcard selection from the curved sofa in the lounge.

Dress Code

Don something worthy of a Medici (perhaps without the ruffs, whalebone and puff sleeves).

Hotel restaurant

There’s no restaurant at the hotel, but breakfast – a selection of croissants, pastries, cakes, charcuterie, cheese and bread – is served in the main salon, a charming little room with more of the signature curated trinkets on display.

Hotel bar

There’s an honesty bar in the breakfast room, where you can order a bottle of Tuscan wine, and help yourself to a free slice of cake every afternoon. Coffee and tea can also be ordered here.

Last orders

Breakfast is served between 8am and 10am.

Location

Photos Oltrarno Splendid location
Address
Oltrarno Splendid
Via dei Serragli 7
Florence
50124
Italy

Oltrarno Splendid is on the southerly banks of the River Arno in everyone’s favourite Renaissance stronghold.

Planes

Florence’s Peretola Airport is half an hour away by car. Hotel transfers cost €45 each way for two passengers. Landing at Pisa is also a possibility, but the drive’s a little longer; transfers for the 60-minute trip cost €155 each way.

Trains

The city’s Santa Maria Novella train station is a kilometre away from the hotel; the drive should take 10 minutes. From here, high-speed rail services link up Florence with other cities all across Italy, including Milan, Rome and Naples. The shiny new Frecciarossa trains are fastest (italiarail.com). One-way transfers to the hotel cost €40.

Automobiles

You’ll be a short stroll across the river to the big Florentine hitters, but if you have travelled by road there’s a car park a 10-minute walk away; prices start at €25 a day.

Worth getting out of bed for

Track down Betty or Matteo for top tips on Florence before you head out; their passion matches their knowledge of their beloved city, and they’ll impart insider advice such as where to source the best lighting (spoiler alert: it’s Il Bronzetto). You may be able to see it from your bath tub, but Florence’s Duomo is arguably the finest piece of architecture of the past 600 years, so it’s definitely worth getting up to admire that marble closely. Everyone else may be clambering onto the Ponte Vecchio, but head to Ponte Santa Trinita instead, where there’ll be fewer tourists and a view of the jeweller-packed bridge in all its glory. There’s an antiques market in the neighbourhood on the second Sunday of every month, on Piazza Santo Spirito. The Renaissance is alive and well in Florence, nowhere more so than in the chambers of the Palazzo Vecchio, which is also home to Roman ruins and a mediaeval fortress. Its 54-metre Hall of the Five Hundred has all the panelled ceilings, frescoes, sculptures and gilded walls to make you realise what overachievers the Medici were.

Local restaurants

Head to SottArno at Oltrarno Splendid’s sister property for an Italian take on elevenses, with better coffee; the owner has collected over a hundred menus from London, Paris and New York to hang on the walls. Those seeking a more old-fashioned slice of la dolce vita should track down Alla Vecchia Bettola on Viale Vasco Pratolini, a classic osteria where you’ll cram in alongside locals and hanging cured hams for some amazing (all locally sourced) antipasti. Carnivores should head straight for the sizzling steak at Regina Bistecca, making time for a Negroni (or three) at its American bar first.

Local bars

Manifattura on Piazza di San Pancrazio only uses Italian spirits in its cocktails, which can only be a good thing – especially when the backdrop is so decadently deco.

Reviews

Photos Oltrarno Splendid reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Florence and unpacked their Santa Maria Novella soaps and scents, a full account of their Italian city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Oltrarno Splendid in Florence

Brought to you by the same design whizzes behind AdAstra and SoprArno, Oltrarno Splendid is an artful mix of retouched frescoes, centuries-old wallpaper, flea-market finds and bespoke artworks. If you’re a Forster fan and a room with a view is what you seek, look no further: from the comfort of your own bath tub, you’ll be able to admire the terracotta rooftops to the Duomo and beyond. Oltrarno is on the left bank of the Arno, in one of Florence’s coolest quarters – the street, historic Via dei Serragli, has been housing notable people since the days of the Medici (join the queue). You’ll have your pick of artisan workshops and artists’ ateliers to explore, but Florence is on most people’s travel wishlists for a reason, and all of its Renaissance masterpieces over the water are within easy reach. There’s no restaurant, but the breakfast will start your day on the right note. It’s simply splendid.

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Price per night from $264.57