The Three Key distinction is the highest hotel honor in The MICHELIN Guide. Earning One Key (107 properties) or Two Keys (31 properties) is difficult enough, but only eight hotels received the Three Key distinction in Italy.
These hotels excel in all five criteria used to judge hotels by our Inspectors. Here, we thought it fitting to focus on just one of those criteria — the most photogenic of the five — architecture and interior design. Below, take a look at the interiors and exteriors of each of our eight Three Key hotels in Italy.
Read also:
Every Three Key hotel in Paris
Every Three Key hotel in New York City
Aman Venice
Aman Venice
Aman Venice
Venice, ItalyRather than build something modern as with many of their properties around the world, in Venice, Aman has made use of a meticulously preserved Renaissance palace as a setting. Of course it couldn’t be any other way here — and aside from some subtly stylish contemporary interior design interventions, and a generous shipment of modern furniture, it’s looking much as its old merchant founders would have left it.
If you know Aman then you can probably guess that the accommodations are first-rate, mixing period details with every conceivable modern comfort. The best ones have views of the Grand Canal itself, culminating in the Canal Grande Suite, offering a perfectly framed front-row view from directly above the palazzo’s front door.
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Castello di Reschio
Castello di Reschio
Castello di Reschio
Perugia, ItalyItalian hoteliers in general are no strangers to working with heritage buildings, but the Castello di Reschio is an extreme example. Set on a vast estate in the picturesque hills of Umbria, near the border with Tuscany, the castle dates back all the way to the tenth century, which makes the decade-plus its owners, an architect and an artist, spent on careful restoration seem like the blink of an eye by comparison.
Given the results you’d have to agree it was worth the wait — the rooms and suites are impeccably well designed, and widely varied, each one featuring thousand-year-old architectural details, contemporary Italian design furniture, and artworks and objects that provide echoes of the centuries in between. Some of the grander suites occupy a neighboring building, once the church’s vestry, but the most extravagant one spans five floors of the castle’s ancient tower, with a spectacular view of the Umbrian landscape.
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Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco
Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco
Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco
Siena, ItalyThe intimate hotel portion of Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco is just the tip of the bucolic iceberg — in total, more than 4,500 acres of intact, 800-year-old agricultural estate property provide a spectacular backdrop. Wine is actively produced here and much of the property is comprised of preserved lands for grape growing or forests. The rest has been sensitively formed into a community of sandstone villas with the original estate buildings, Il Borgo, at its heart.
The idea is for guests to immerse themselves in the landscape, functions and pace of Tuscany, wander the massive property as if it’s the year 1552 and the estate belongs only to them. But in terms of Tuscan hotel luxury, it's also very much in the here and now, with two restaurants, an organic kitchen garden, a cooking school, a fine spa and plentiful sport and fitness facilities.
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JK Place Capri
JK Place Capri
JK Place Capri
Capri, ItalyThe JK Capri features interiors by Michele Bonan — classic, urbane, perhaps even just a touch of English country style, in soft pastels and patterned wallpapers. Some rooms have small balconies facing the sea, and the penthouse suite (divisible into two penthouse rooms for the rest of us) comes with a long private terrace with a panoramic view of the Gulf of Naples.
JK Place is one of the only hotels in Capri that’s right on the ocean, and it could hardly be more central — it’s in the Roman old town, on a cliff overlooking the harbor. That right there pretty much sums up the approach: no expense spared, no corners cut, and nothing out of place. Just a phenomenal location — it’s hard to do better than Capri — and a first-class hotel from which to take it all in.
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Corte della Maestà
Corte della Maestà
Corte della Maestà
Civita di Bagnoregio, ItalyYou won’t have to travel far outside Rome before the medieval village of Civita di Bagnoregio rises up into view on a hilltop before you. It’s a vision so magnificent that you’ll have a hard time believing that Italians once nicknamed the place la cittá che muore – the dying city. But natural disasters happen even in a landscape as bucolic as this one: an earthquake struck in 1685, and the residents fled, including the bishop, who abandoned his home and seminary.
Centuries later, it’s difficult to imagine a lovelier getaway in such convenient proximity to Rome. Arriving in the evening is particularly enchanting: glowing candles in heavy glass lanterns light your way through the ivy-framed doorway and into the arched stone passageways and brick-lined spaces of the old residence, where frescoes cover the ceilings and a fire burns inside an antique fireplace. There are just four rooms, all with views, each lovingly restored and furnished with the owner’s collection of original art and antiques.
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Casa Maria Luigia
Casa Maria Luigia
Casa Maria Luigia
Modena, ItalyYou can bet that a country-house hotel by an award-winning chef of Massimo Bottura’s caliber would be a compelling culinary destination; less self-evident is that it would be so impressive a lodging in its own right. With a mere 12 rooms Casa Maria Luigia is intimate, but it’s far from sleepy, thanks to lively boutique-style interior design and a quality collection of modern furniture and contemporary art. You’re 15 minutes’ drive from Modena, but many guests are content to remain on site, exploring the estate’s gardens and grounds, which include a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a fitness center that does double duty as an art gallery.
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Il San Pietro di Positano
Il San Pietro di Positano
Il San Pietro di Positano
Positano, ItalyA small 17th-century chapel devoted to San Pietro marks the hotel entrance, and the rest of the property hangs on the cliffside below, each level descending the face like a staircase — perhaps a disquieting experience for those not comfortable with heights, but offering unparalleled views of the sea from every room and every terrace. The hotel is built just one room deep, and there are no inferior views; each room hugs the cliff at its back side and opens onto a private terrace at the front.
Given the views, the interiors are almost irrelevant. Fortunately they haven’t been neglected: rooms are spacious, with tile floors, individually designed in a spare and tasteful style. Standard and deluxe rooms differ mostly in size, and the “special” rooms offer such unique details as glass-walled bathrooms for bathing with a view.
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Cipriani
Cipriani
Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel
Venice, ItalyThe Palazzo Vendramin, formerly a 15th-century aristocratic residence, now forms a part of the Hotel Cipriani, and consists of sixteen rooms and suites with private butler service, and of course the incredible views of St. Mark’s Square from over the lagoon. However, other than the addition of the Palazzo, not much has changed since the Cipriani opened in 1958. The rooms are perhaps the most old-fashioned thing about the Cipriani, with their pale Venetian color scheme, smallish bathrooms, and slightly antique appearance, but it’s all part of the old-world charm.
The Cipriani is about atmosphere, not amenities. And besides, the décor has the advantage of not distracting you from the view, which may be the best thing about this hotel. For while others gaze out towards the lagoon and the islands, the Cipriani alone — from its perch on the Giudecca Island — looks onto Venice. And the sight of pastel buildings emerging from the water is so stunning it will make you wonder how anyone could not be passionate about this place.
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Hero Image: Corte della Maestà — Civita di Bagnoregio
