Palazzo Portinari Salviati – sleeping in Beatrice's Florence

Via del Corso is one of the narrow streets that link the Duomo to the old heart of Florence, and halfway along it a stone doorway opens onto a 15th-century courtyard with a Roman statue at its centre. This is Palazzo Portinari Salviati, built on the site where Folco Portinari, the banker whose daughter Beatrice became Dante's muse, first had his houses. The Salviati, allies of the Medici, kept the palazzo for more than two centuries; a bank used it for nearly 150 years. Since April 2022 it has been a residenza d'epoca of 13 suites, with frescoes, coffered ceilings and stone fireplaces left where the centuries put them, a spa in the underground vaults and Vito Mollica's ATTO, which holds one MICHELIN star, beneath Alessandro Allori's Odyssey. The MICHELIN Guide gives it two Keys, for an exceptional stay.

It is less a hotel than a lived-in museum, and the best way to stay is to treat it as one.

01The house

Folco Portinari, who died in 1289, founded the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and built the first houses here; in the 15th century they became a palazzo. The Salviati, bankers tied to the Medici by marriage, owned it until 1768. Maria Salviati was the mother of Cosimo I de' Medici, and a Latin inscription on the statue in the courtyard records that the future Grand Duke crawled as a child in these rooms. King Frederick IV of Denmark stayed here on his visit to Florence in 1709.

In 1768 the palazzo passed to Niccolò Maria Ricciardi Serguidi, who enlarged it and had Tommaso Gherardini fresco its rooms; a marble plaque of 1785 dedicates the work to Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. When Florence was capital of Italy, the Ministry of Grace and Justice sat here, and in 1870 it was sold to the Bank of Tuscany, which stayed until 2016. That year the Taiwanese group LDC Hotels & Resorts, owned by the Chang family, bought it and began the restoration that ended with the opening on 15 April 2022.

Walk slowly through the two courtyards. The Cosimo I courtyard, from around 1470–80 and attributed to Michelozzo, has a Roman torso in armour given the head of Cosimo I by Giovan Francesco Susini, and a 13th-century fresco of the Madonna and Child between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Zenobius. The Corte degli Imperatori takes its name from twelve bronze emperors' heads, long gone; its vaults carry the Stories of Ulysses and of Hercules painted by Allori and his assistants in 1575–76, under a stained-glass skylight of 1922.

02Rooms and suites

The 13 suites are named after figures from the house's story – Beatrice, Dante, Francesco I, Maria de' Medici, Alemanno Salviati – and they range widely. Prestige rooms of 37 to 45 square metres have classic furniture, Calacatta marble bathrooms with bath and shower, Lorenzo Villoresi toiletries and two hours a day in the spa on reservation. On the piano nobile, the Iconic Suites keep their mid-15th-century coffered ceilings, Gherardini's frescoes and the stone window seats where the women of the house watched life on via del Corso; the Francesco I de' Medici Master Suite runs to 112 square metres, the Dante Alighieri Luxury Suite to 75.

Insider tip

ATTO serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday only – book it with the room.

Higher up, the suites turn towards Brunelleschi's dome. The Executive Grand Suite Galileo has 100 square metres and a Duomo view, and the Penthouse Galileo, at 147 square metres, adds a panoramic terrace. Suites can also be joined: the two Presidential Suites, of 360 and 390 square metres, include the 110-square-metre Gallery with Gherardini's Olympus, and the Royal Suite takes the whole main floor, 600 square metres for up to ten guests – the largest in Italy, the hotel says. Every suite has butler service.

03Where to eat: ATTO di Vito Mollica

Vito Mollica, formerly executive chef at the Four Seasons in Florence, opened his restaurant at the palazzo in 2022; set in the Corte degli Imperatori and first called Chic Nonna, it took the name ATTO di Vito Mollica in 2023. It holds one MICHELIN star. Mollica grew up watching his mother cook Lucanian dishes at the family farmhouse, and he builds his seasonal menus on Tuscan and Italian tradition and on small producers he seeks out in the countryside. ATTO serves dinner from Wednesday to Sunday.

For everything else there is the Salotto Portinari Bar & Bistrot, set in the Cosimo I courtyard. It opens for an à la carte breakfast and carries on through business lunches, aperitifs with signature cocktails and dinner, reworking old regional recipes in a contemporary key. Salotto means drawing room, and it is used as one.

04Vita Nova Spa

The spa borrows its name from Dante's book about Beatrice and sits in the palazzo's original underground vaults, where a stretch of Roman road has come to light. Over 500 square metres there is a heated indoor pool with hydromassage, a Finnish sauna, a steam bath, a relaxation room with herbal teas from Florence's Via del Tè, a gym and three treatment rooms. Day guests can book two-hour sessions.

05The neighbourhood

From the door it is a short walk to the cathedral: the hotel's own directions go from Piazza del Duomo down via del Proconsolo and right into via del Corso, with the palazzo 50 metres along on the right. The house also arranges visits beyond the centre – the Antico Setificio Fiorentino, weaving silk in San Frediano since 1786 on looms that include one built to a design by Leonardo da Vinci; the Scuola del Cuoio, the leather school founded after the Second World War with the Franciscans of Santa Croce; and a day at the Castello di Albola in the Chianti hills.

06Making the most of a stay

Book ATTO with the room, remembering it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and for its winter break, and take an aperitif in the courtyard first. If you want the frescoes, ask for the piano nobile; if you want the dome, ask for one of the Galileo suites. Look up in every room. Check-in is from 14.00, check-out at noon.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.