Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel

Villa San Michele began as a Franciscan monastery in the 15th century, and its restrained Renaissance facade is traditionally attributed to Michelangelo—an origin story few hotels anywhere can approach. It sits high in the hills of Fiesole, wrapped in cypress and terraced gardens, with the whole of Florence arranged below like a fresco: Brunelleschi's dome, Giotto's campanile and the Arno valley fading toward Chianti.

Belmond runs the house with a light, reverent touch. Rooms in the original monastery keep vaulted ceilings, antique furniture and monastic proportions softened by Tuscan fabrics, while garden junior suites and villas climb the hillside behind, several with private terraces facing the view. A heated pool sits on the upper terraces amid lemon trees, and the sense throughout is of staying in an aristocratic Tuscan estate rather than a hotel.

Dinner in the loggia—the old monks' arcade, now a candlelit restaurant looking over the city lights—is one of Tuscany's most romantic tables, and a cookery school continues the culinary tradition. A shuttle drops guests in central Florence in minutes, but the hotel's real argument is the reverse commute: museums by day, hillside serenity, birdsong and that view by evening.