Florence is a city of spectacle. The Duomo’s dome rises like a Renaissance exclamation mark, Brunelleschi’s genius on daily display, while Piazza della Repubblica hums with a carousel’s cheerful music, café chatter, and the swirl of modern life against centuries-old facades. At the center of it all stands Hotel Savoy, a Rocco Forte Hotel, a vantage point as theatrical as it is intimate. From some rooms, you look directly onto the terracotta-tiled majesty of the Duomo; from others, you watch the piazza’s living stage unfold, day and night.
Hotel Savoy’s position is not incidental. Since its opening in 1893, the hotel has been part of Florence’s civic heart, a crossroads for aristocrats, artists, and travelers who wanted to be where the city pulsed. Today, under the stewardship of the Rocco Forte family, it continues to embody that spirit: contemporary and cosmopolitan, but firmly Florentine at its core.
A Family Affair
Founded by Sir Rocco Forte, the hotel brand is guided by a familial sensibility that informs every property, from London to Palermo. Each family member has a hand in shaping the guest experience:
Sir Rocco Forte oversees the vision and expansion of the group. Olga Polizzi, his sister, leads design, ensuring every hotel reflects its surroundings while maintaining a distinct Forte elegance. Lydia Forte, his daughter, curates the food and beverage programs, linking gastronomy to place and season. Charles Forte, his son, focuses on development and growth, keeping the brand forward-looking. Irene Forte, another daughter, consults on the wellness offerings, bringing her eponymous skincare line, formulated in Sicily, to each property.
This familial structure is not just marketing gloss. It gives the hotels intimacy: decisions are made with long-term vision and care, not quarterly results. Guests feel it in the service, in the atmosphere, and in the considered details.
Olga Polizzi’s Florence
At Hotel Savoy, Olga Polizzi’s design balances modernity with Florentine motifs. Guestrooms are softly hued in creams, sage greens, and pale blues. Playful nods to Tuscan heritage include whimsical artworks, textured fabrics, bookshelves lined with classics, and plush furnishings.
Rooms overlooking the Duomo give you Florence at its most iconic, a waking dream where church bells ring in place of alarms. Those facing Piazza della Repubblica offer a more theatrical perspective, with café society, and street musicians as your living fresco. In either case, the city is not a distant backdrop, but part of the rooms themselves.
Bathrooms are stocked with Irene Forte’s signature bath products, created with Mediterranean botanicals from the family’s Sicilian estate, Verdura Resort. Plush robes, soft slippers, and thoughtful turndown touches (sometimes chocolates, sometimes small tokens) complete your private haven. Even the choice of morning newspaper is personalized.
Cuisine Over Which to Linger
In Italy, breakfast might be a quick cappuccino, a cornetto, and you’re on your way. At Hotel Savoy and its restaurant Irene Firenze, it’s an occasion. The spread includes seasonal fruits, just-baked breads, local cheeses and charcuterie, and eggs prepared to order. Macchiatos arrive with crema so thick they might double as dessert. More than a meal, breakfast here is an indulgence, and a ritual that sets the tempo for the day’s explorations. This is very much by design. Lydia Forte’s approach to food and beverage emphasizes authenticity and refinement, an ethos reflected at dinner where dishes might include handmade pastas, Veal Milanese, and Mugello Beef Filet, all conceived by Rocco Forte Hotels’ Creative Director of Food, the talented Chef Fulvio Pierangelini, who curates all of the restaurant menus for the brand.
Bar Artemisia: Florence After Dark
Breakfast is a sunlit ritual, and evenings at Bar Artemisia are a must. The space channels a speakeasy-like allure: dim lighting, rich materials, and creatively crafted cocktails. The menu nods to Florence’s own history of apothecaries and alchemists, blending herbs, spices, and Italian spirits into inventive compositions. The bar’s walls are a sly homage to Caravaggio, filled with reproductions of his moody masterpieces. But look closer, and you’ll find a surprise or two. In one scene, Artemisia herself (a protégé of Caravaggio) appears not in the suffering for which she is well-known, but mid-selfie. The spotlighting, quite literally, is hers: beams are trained only on the women in these dramatic scenes, correcting the imbalance of the eras male dominance.
Sip an Artemisia Royal, inspired by the classic French 75, or a Truffle Negroni, a luxurious take on the classic, and you begin to understand Artemisia’s pull. It is not simply a hotel bar but a destination in itself, glamorous and intimate. For guests, it offers the perfect bookend to a Florentine day: the city outside alive with lights, while inside, the bar hums with low conversation and the clinking of cocktails crafted with care.
Small Luxuries: The Rocco Forte Signature
What makes Hotel Savoy distinct is not just its prime location or design pedigree, but the cumulative effect of the small luxuries. A robe that feels impossibly soft after a day of museum-hopping. A turndown surprise that delights. Service that anticipates needs but respects privacy. These touches carry the unmistakable imprint of a family-run brand. And always, Florence is part of the experience. Hotel Savoy connects you outward. Step into Piazza della Repubblica, and you are immediately in the city’s flow with cafés like Gilli and Paszkowski at arm’s length. Via de’ Tornabuoni’s luxe boutiques are a short walk away. Hotel Savoy frames Florence, offering both immersion and retreat.
A Modern Classic
More than 130 years after its debut, Hotel Savoy remains a fixture of Florentine life, and under the Rocco Forte family’s care, it is something rare: a hotel that honors history without being weighed down by it.
In Florence, where art is measured in centuries and beauty is often overwhelming, Hotel Savoy distills the experience into something that is both grand and graspable. You leave not just with photographs of domes and piazzas, but with a sense of having lived Florence, with comfort, with elegance, and with the warmth of a family who have made hospitality their art.
Photos courtesy of Hotel Savoy, a Rocco Forte Hotel
