Top 10 Luxury Hotels in Italy, 2026

An 18th-century villa built for Count Andrea Lucini-Passalacqua, reopened in 2022 by the family behind the Grand Hotel Tremezzo — and promptly named the world's best boutique hotel by The World's 50 Best in both 2024 and 2025. Just 24 rooms and suites over seven acres of terraced gardens that step down to the lake, with a lakefront pool, a red-clay tennis court and a private dock. Baroque bones, joyful contemporary decoration, and the most sought-after keys on the lake.

A 16th-century villa that has been a hotel since 1873, set in 25 acres of gardens on the western shore. The floating pool on the lake remains one of the most photographed swims in Europe; the mosaic garden and the Canova-era statuary remind you this was aristocratic Europe's summer address long before hotels had brands. Rooms in the Cardinal's Building carry the history; the Queen's Pavilion adds light. Seasonal, roughly March to November — like most of the lake.

A former monastery above Portofino's harbour, reopened in June 2025 after a top-to-bottom reimagining by Martin Brudnizki — the renovation story of the Italian Riviera. The saltwater pool still owns the best view in Liguria, the new Baratta Sedici bar brings the evening energy, and Italy's first permanent Dior Spa settled in as part of the works. Book the sea-view balcony rooms and take the hotel shuttle down to Splendido Mare on the piazzetta for lunch.

The Sersale family's home, a hotel since 1951 and still run by the family — which is exactly why it feels like Positano's living room. Franco's Bar at sunset is the coast's hardest cocktail table; La Sponda, lit by four hundred candles, its most romantic dinner. Rooms are white, tiled, and turned toward that view. In peak summer weeks the rate runs toward the price of a small car — around $8,000 a night when we checked this July — and it still fills.

Carved into the rock face a few bends outside town, with every room's terrace hanging over the Tyrrhenian and an elevator cut through the cliff down to a private beach club — the only one in Positano. Three Michelin Keys, a Michelin-starred table in Zass, and a tennis court wedged between lemon terraces. Staying here is quieter than staying in town; the hotel's boats take you everywhere that matters.

Capri's oldest hotel — welcoming guests since 1826 — relaunched by Oetker Collection in 2022 as the island's sharpest address. Fifty keys, a rooftop pool and bar looking over the rooftops to the sea, Gennaro's restaurant downstairs, and a beach club at Marina Piccola in season. It sits steps from the Piazzetta, which is the entire point: Capri is a stage, and La Palma has front-row seats. We book it with Oetker's Pearl programme benefits.

Opened in June 2023 in a rationalist palazzo facing the Mausoleum of Augustus, and instantly one of Rome's most polished stays. Il Ristorante – Niko Romito carries the group's signature contemporary-Italian cooking; the Bulgari Spa, with its mosaic-lined pool, is among the most beautiful in the city. Rooms are precise, stone-clad, quiet. It is Rome edited to Milanese standards — some will want more patina, but nobody faults the execution.

A Renaissance palazzo and a former convent joined by the largest private garden in Florence — eleven acres of centuries-old trees ten minutes' walk from the Duomo. Frescoed suites in the Palazzo della Gherardesca, a true resort pool (rare as rubies in this city), and Il Palagio's Michelin-starred Tuscan cooking. As Four Seasons Preferred Partners we hold upgrades, breakfast and credit here as a matter of routine.

Twenty-four rooms inside the 16th-century Palazzo Papadopoli on the Grand Canal, with Tiepolo ceilings, gilded ballrooms and two private gardens — in a city where a few square metres of green is a miracle. Arrival is by water taxi to the hotel's own dock, and the roof terrace at dusk may be Venice's best-kept view. With Hotel Cipriani closing at the end of September 2026 for the next phase of its renovation, this is the Venice stay of the year.

A 14th-century Dominican convent turned grand hotel, suspended between Mount Etna and the Ionian — and, since its star turn in The White Lotus, one of the most requested keys in Europe. The cloister still centres the hotel, the infinity pool hangs over the coast, and the Greek Theatre is a five-minute walk. Sicily gives it what Como and Capri cannot: ancient drama with the volcano smoking on the horizon.