If only Miss Lucy Honeychurch, the protagonist of E. M. Forster’s novel A Room with a View, could experience the vistas of Florence’s Centro Storico from Collegio alla Querce, Auberge, a new hotel in the hills above town.
Brunelleschi’s imposing Duomo and Giotto’s marble Campanile have been admired from this site overlooking the city center since the 16th century. The hotel was originally the home of a noble Italian family. They covered its walls in frescoes, many of which are still visible today. It passed into the hands of the Barnabite monks in the mid–18th century, and Collegio alla Querce—college of the oaks—became a boarding school for the order’s elites. It closed in the 1990s and has been abandoned ever since.
Now, its educational past looms large. Oil paintings of the principe degli studi—top students—line the hotel’s walls. Bar Bertelli was named for the headmaster who once used the formerly austere space as a study. (Try head barman Edoardo Felsini’s olive-oil-washed-gin Negroni and his superb martini.)
Collegio alla Querce, Auberge, is owned by Analjit Singh, a telecom magnate who also founded the Leeu Collection, comprising boutique hotels. Singh’s contemporary art is found all over the property, which was recently reimagined by Esteva i Esteva, a father-son architectural firm from Spain. The Florentine interior-design firm ArchFlorence achieved a homey feel by decorating the public spaces and rooms with books, sculptures, and a warm, earthy palette of greens and browns, accented with cardinal red.
Chef Nicola Zamperetti, who was formerly at the W Hotel in Rome, is now in charge of La Gamella—the lunch box. The open kitchen was built in Florence by the master craftsmen at the renowned workshop Officine Gullo. It solidifies the home-rather-than-hotel tone, and the Tuscan classics continue the theme. The pollo alla cacciatora is delicious, but don’t miss the ricotta-and-wild-herb cappellacci with rabbit-chicken-and-guinea-fowl ragù, finished with Pecorino Toscana.
Wile away a summer’s day in the garden, where the fountains, columns, and sweet-smelling jasmine are as appealing as the meals.
The pool sits up above the hotel, and at 115 feet long is likely to be among the largest in Florence. Pizzas, crudos, and panini are served at Cafe Focolare in the shade of a vine-covered trellis.
The only new addition to the property is the wing that houses Aelia, the spa, which offers treatments from the sustainably sourced Sicilian skin-care brand Furtuna Skin. Here, especially, guests will appreciate the distance from the hurly-burly of the Centro Storico. Instead of fighting the crowds, listen to the birds and admire the views of the gently rolling hills, which have remained unchanged for centuries.
The writer was a guest of Collegio alla Querce, Auberge, where room rates begin at $1,360 per night
Mary Lussiana is a Lisbon-based writer and reviewer of hotels
