Villa San Michele, Florence
Plush Life’s Maddi enjoys a spoiling Renaissance escape in the hills above Florence at Belmond Villa San Michele
The façade of Villa San Michele has been attributed to Michelangelo
In the peaceful hills overlooking Florence, in Fiesole, sits Belmond Villa San Michele. It is quite possibly one of the most tastefully luxurious places to stay when visiting the Renaissance city. When I arrived to check in with my friend Carrie, I felt like I had stepped into a fantasy.
The former 15th-century monastery has a façade attributed to Michaelangelo and is positioned on Montececeri hill, the nature reserve where artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci infamously tested his human “flying machine” contraption in 1506.
As Villa San Michele it has long attracted a celebrity crowd, from Napoleon Bonaparte and members of the British royal family to Brigitte Bardot and Julia Roberts.
It also happens to be where Kim Kardashian’s wedding party stayed when she married Kanye West at Forte di Belvedere, a Florentine fortress in the city’s Boboli Gardens.
The poolside setting is sublime. We spent an afternoon relaxing there after exploring the 2.5 hectare Monte Ceceri hilly ‘Leonardo Woodland’. Little bowls of fruit sorbet were brought to us (unprompted) to enjoy as we reclined in the Italian early autumn sunshine.
Villa San Michele is full of surprises; as part of the turn-down service, rooms are strewn nightly with beautiful selection of different seasonal flowers from the gardens.
Its intimate terrace restaurant, La Loggia, is atmospheric beyond belief – with views of the Duomo in the twinkling distance.
Head chef Alessandro Cozzolino’s meticulous, sensory tasting menus, served on white tablecloths on the terrace, express his appreciation of Tuscan cuisine. His dishes feature produce grown in Villa San Michele’s own vegetable gardens
When we dined, delicious wines were paired with saline oysters with chamomile, risotto with fennel-infused Casentino sausage meatballs, and pigeon breast served with smoked aubergine and peach sauce.
Today, Villa San Michele has 46 rooms and suites, each one distinctive and filled with antiques and art. It also boasts idyllic gardens, filled with an abundance of lemon trees and rose bushes. The turn-down service of the rooms sees the crisp bedding adorned with fresh flowers and roses.
La Limonaia, the hotel’s most luxurious suite, is hidden away in the 17th century orangery. It has a heated stone plunge pool, a private garden of its own with a natural water spring, Tuscan furnishings, and views of the Arno valley. La Limonaia sleeps up to four, and it’s also possible to have a private butler on hand.
I adored the selection of coffee books in the suites. By my bedside was Tuscany Artists' Homes compiled by Mariella Sgaravatti and photographer Mario Siampi, which features twenty-five residences owned by the most renowned contemporary artists living in Tuscany today.
Villa San Michele was renamed the Belmond Villa San Michele in 2014, when Orient-Express Hotels Ltd (which acquired it in 1982) changed its name to Belmond Ltd.
Since 2019, Belmond has been part of the world’s leading luxury group, LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), and it continues to ‘pioneer the future of luxury’.
A specialist in slow travel for 45 years, the Belmond group also counts such lavish properties across the globe as Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, The Cadogan Hotel in London, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire and Coquelicot, a plush floating barge hotel in France’s Champagne region.
During my stay, a hike around the surrounding woodland of Villa San Michele and up to Fiesole itself was a delightful jaunt. After a few days amidst the crowds of Florence’s city centre, Villa San Michele and Fiesole felt calm and peaceful.
In Fiesole, there’s the awe-inspiring ruins of a Roman amphitheatre and Etruscan walls dating back to 400BC to explore. At Fiesole’s celebrated traditional bakery, Bar Pasticceria Alcedo, I took the time to sample a traditional torta della nonna tart and picked up a bag of homemade cantuccini and a bottle of Vin Santo to take back to the UK.
When we checked out of Belmond Villa San Michele, I said goodbye to the Baroque painter Nicodemo Ferrucci’s (1574–1650) mesmerizing Last Supper fresco in the reception area (the monastery’s former refectory) which had greeted me on arrival.
During my stay, this historic work of art was juxtaposed with modern sculptures by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, as part of the Belmond hotel group’s ‘MITICO’ collaboration with Galleria Continua, which sees art installations add yet another layer of beauty and fascination to the hotel group’s spellbinding landmarks.
‘Mitico’ means ‘mythical’ in Italian, and for me, the myth and magic of Villa San Michele exceeded all of my wildest expectations.
The Plush Life verdict: A breathtaking property which has set the bar incredibly high for future Plush Life exploits, brought to you by Fleur and I.
The details: Villa San Michele (00 39 055 567 8200; belmond.com) offers doubles from £936
