Palazzo Vecchietti

For all of Florence’s storied charms, the main thing you want to be able to do when you’re staying there is to escape the crush of the crowds in the city center. Often this means escaping the city center entirely — but in the form of Palazzo Vecchietti, there’s another option. This sixteenth-century palace couldn’t be much more central, but once you’re inside one of its luxe and elegant Michele Bonan–designed rooms and suites, shutting out the hustle and the bustle will be the work of a moment.

Each one is named for a Florentine artist or poet, and hung with drawings, prints and the like, a bit of Renaissance balance to complement the state-of-the-art luxury-hotel fittings (a double basin here, a rain shower there). Views vary widely, as does square footage, so there’s a bit of something for everyone, from the relatively humble rooms at the back to the sprawling, magisterial apartments, named for Lorenzo de’ Medici and Leonardo da Vinci.

Suites and apartments also come with kitchenettes, which help you navigate around the Palazzo’s somewhat Parisian avoidance of a hotel restaurant. Then again, the same thing we always say about Paris holds true here as well: if you can’t find something worth eating nearby, your world-traveler card is summarily revoked.