Hotel Lungarno

When the Ferragamo family moved into the boutique-hotel business, eyebrows were raised — but since then, they’ve proved many times over that they’re just as skilled with a luxury suite as they are with a calfskin lace-up. They’ve got some high-caliber help, of course, in the person of Michele Bönan, Florentine hotel architect extraordinaire. And for this bunch, the Hotel Lungarno is simply another perfectly confident step. Boutique hotels don’t get much more upscale than this, luxury hotels don’t get much more stylish, and the location, right on the south bank of the Arno, is just about beyond compare.

The rooms aren’t enormous, but in a centuries-old house near the old city center you wouldn’t expect them to be. They’re more than capacious enough, however, and if you score a river-facing room, you’ll find your eye quite naturally drawn to bigger vistas. What they all are (river view or no) is impeccably composed, in that timelessly elegant, antique-influenced Bönan style.

There’s an extensive collection of 20th-century art, including works by Picasso and Jean Cocteau in the lounge, and the Restaurant Borgo San Jacopo opens onto views of the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio. Make time for a drink at the terrace bar, though — for sheer atmosphere, its location, atop a medieval tower, can’t be beat.