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 (EUR271.82), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
If you fancy feeling like a member of the Medici, let the stars guide you to Stella d’Italia Florence. This converted palazzo (once both private apartments and a gentleman’s club, depending on which floor) has been remastered by a couple with a keen eye for the art of the fleamarket find. Unsurprisingly, every room is different, with vintage posters, collections of souvenir plates and even old railway timetables gracing the walls. There’s a breakfast room with an original fresco, a bar where the liquor bottles are arranged to form a Tricolore (we said they were professionals) for spritz o’clock before evenings out on the town, and a rooftop terrace where you can watch the sun set over the city’s many terracotta tiles.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A special canvas shopping bag, designed by one of the owners
10.30am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm, also flexible if your room’s ready.
Prices
Double rooms from £256.06 (€299), 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
There’s a staircase up to the reception and steps between the rooms and suites of Stella d’Italia, making this stay unfortunately not easily accessible for guests with mobility issues.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, breakfast salon, rooftop terrace. In rooms: Lorenzo Villoresi bath products, Nespresso coffee machine and kettle for tea, and HD TV.
Our favourite rooms
There’s a constellation to choose from within the 16th-century palazzo, so the main concern will be things like, do you want a cinephile-pleasing theme (room 26), a hideaway with original 19th-century flooring and a fading fresco (room 9), or one adorned with African textiles, upcycled seats from the nearby Odeon before it shut down, and baize-resembling carpet (room 23)? Other details to cherry-pick from include William Morris wallpaper, Fruitella shades of purple and pink, freestanding bath tubs in the bedroom and – the most prized possession of all – a terrace.
Spa
There’s no spa at Stella d'Italia Florence but in-room massages can be arranged on request.
Packing tips
Save some suitcase space for the vintage film posters, souvenir plates and comic-book-character masks you’ll inevitably be inspired to go in search of.
Also
The palazzo the suites are set in was designed by Giorgio Vasari – of namesake corridor in the Uffizi fame – in the 16th century.
Children
All ages are welcome, but Stella d’Italia’s really one for the grown-ups.
Even an outdoor seat can’t compete with an 18th-century fresco to gaze at over your cornetti.
Dress Code
Your best thrift-store threads.
Hotel restaurant
There’s no restaurant at Stella d’Italia Florence but, this central, you’re within walking distance of some of the best places to eat in the city. Of course, a salon for aperitivo o’clock has been supplied next door to the breakfast room. Each day starts with a selection of Tuscan products, served in a fresco-adorned salon, with marble tables, trompe l'oeil fabric and a terrace with climbing plants.
Hotel bar
The Negroni was invented not 200 metres from here, by a namesake count – enjoy one in the bar (with some typical Italian snacks, naturally) from 4pm.
Stella d’Italia Florence is in the historic heart of the city, around the corner from Palazzo Strozzi and a few minutes on foot from the Duomo.
Planes
Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci Airport is half an hour away by car – taxis should cost around €25, or you can hop on the tram to the Unità stop. It’s also possible to touch down in Pisa and travel onwards to Florence by car or train.
Trains
Santa Maria Novella Station is less than a kilometre away from Stella d’Italia Florence – it’s a 10-minute walk, but the luggage-encumbered can summon a taxi.
Automobiles
You won’t need a car to get around Florence’s compact centre, but if you have arrived in one, nearby parking spots include Garage delle Terme and Garage Lungarno.
Worth getting out of bed for
The prize attraction in Florence has stood proud since the 15th century and you’ll want to devote some time to simply standing before it, feeling awed – the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly known as the Duomo (thanks to Filippo Brunelleschi’s crowning glory) was completed in 1436 (140 years after construction began in 1296). Other marble marvels within the city and close to Stella d’Italia include the Basilica of Santa Croce and the square outside the church has a market to rummage around afterwards. Palazzo Strozzi, right next door to the hotel, has regularly changing exhibitions, and you’re simply not allowed to visit Florence and not go inside the Uffizi at least once. The hotel is located on the city’s main designer-boutique drag, too.
Fans of non-perpendicular architecture will enjoy a day-trip out to Pisa – and also just at the perimeter of the city is the glorious Tuscan countryside.
Local restaurants
If you’re here for the steak, locate Regina Bistecca, a few metres from the Duomo and embark on a Man v Food-style challenge to see if you can ingest a traditional bistecca alla fiorentina before the meat sweats kick in. And if the architecture is as important to you as the food, call in at Cantinetta Antinori, located on the ground floor of the palazzo of the same name and a fine example of mid-15th-century construction. The team at Stella d’Italia will also be able to point you in the direction of the best neighbourhood trattorias over the river in Oltrarno.
Local bars
For Florence’s rowdiest aperitivo hour, head to the Santo Spirito quarter of Oltrarno, south of the Arno – Volume cranks up the noise levels with regular live music, and Bulli & Balene serves cicchetti to soak up one spritz too many.
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 historic hotel in Tuscany and unpacked their vintage finds and canvas bags, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Stella d’Italia Florence…
The stars align at Stella d’Italia Florence in the historic heart of the Tuscan city, next door to Palazzo Strozzi on Via Tournaboni and four minutes on foot from the Duomo. Up a sweeping staircase behind an equally imposing door, you’ll find this creative series of rooms and suites, each of which has been designed uniquely, using treasures unearthed by the brocante-browsing owners. These include but are not limited to a wall of souvenir plates in the bar depicting the dish of every area of Italy, a repurposed railway timetable for the trainspotting enthusiasts, a wall of commedia dell’arte-worthy masks with a nod to the nation’s favourite cartoon character, an installation where green, clear and red liquor bottles are used to create a Tricolore flag, dazzling disco balls, vintage film posters, and silver bath tubs. The palettes are a rainbow too, with lilac and pink paint used liberally, and carpets that are bright green and bold blue. There’s a (frescoed, of course) breakfast salon, a rooftop terrace and a bar for pre-drinks – then all of Florence is on your upcycled doorstep.
