"There’s no shortage of elegant hotels in Florence, but something about The St. Regis keeps it a perennial favorite. It might be that, for a palazzo of 15th-century frescoes and crystal chandeliers, it is just so cozy, full of stained-glass-lit nooks in which to disappear for hours with a copy of La Repubblica. Of course, the Renaissance never feels far away. Filippo Brunelleschi, the brains behind the Duomo, designed the original palazzo in the early 1400s, and it became a hotel in 1866. If the exquisitely detailed cherubs on the ceiling of the Salone delle Feste ballroom could talk, they might tell tales that the wonderful staff here are mostly too tactful to divulge: of Botticelli and Amerigo Vespucci (the explorer who gave America its name), but also of Madonna and Keith Richards. Still, it’s not just the great and the good who are treated exquisitely: Clothes are magically unpacked and ironed, tickets awarded to skip the queues for the Diocesan Museum or Santa Maria del Fiore’s dome. Rooms, all brocades and canopied beds, mostly have views of the River Arno, while the Winter Garden restaurant is at the reverential end of Italian cooking, with dishes served under a great glass ceiling. Still, this is also a hotel that can let its hair down. Last Christmas, during the nightly Champagne ritual that kicks off with a waiter popping a bottle with a saber, a giant teddy bear was given pride of place by the fire. This is a hotel where the royal treatment is for everyone. —Sara Magro" - Nicky Swallow, Erica Firpo
