No trauma awaits the habitués of Villa San Michele. After 18 months of relentless work, Belmond’s hotel on the hillside of Fiesole has reopened, completely renovated, improved and refreshed, yet without surrendering an ounce of its indefinable allure. Arrive and you’ll find the same magnificent avenue leading you towards the Renaissance facade attributed to Michelangelo. Step inside and you’ll recognise the same sophisticated elegance that has always defined the place.
The great achievement of the LVMH group, which acquired the Belmond hotels in 2018, has been to begin a process of evolution for properties that were already genuinely iconic, transforming them into models of the finest hospitality conceivable today. It seemed almost impossible. In Italy alone, the Cipriani in Venice, the Splendido in Portofino and Villa San Michele were already the ultimate expressions of luxury. And yet, without eroding anything of the history or personality of these storied hotels, this wave of renewals and restylings has opened an entirely new chapter in the history of hospitality: more exquisitely Italian than ever, playlists included, increasingly artisanal and bespoke, capable of discovering new talent and forging an original aesthetic all of its own.
Beyond the intervention of Luigi Fragola Architects who has introduced colour and lightness into the spaces in the manner of the private residences he typically designs, Villa San Michele now has a new coherence between inside and outside, between the exterior landscape and the interior one, which merge into a single image of Florence: cradle of culture, with Brunelleschi’s cupola appearing above, and its bucolic extensions, the countryside and the deep-green woods of Monte Ceceri, spreading below.
From breakfast to evening, the rhythm of the day is shaped by beauty and wellbeing. Certainly at the Spa by Guerlain — the first in Italy, opened simultaneously with another in Venice, where one enters through the illusion of a frescoed garden and emerges two hours later revitalised and, should one wish, immaculately made up. But wellbeing today extends well beyond the walls of even the most marvellous spa. The point is to reconnect — with oneself and with one’s surroundings — through the restorative experience of gongs and Tibetan singing bowls in a tiny chapel among the trees, designed by JJ Martins as part of the hotel’s new holistic programme, positioned before one of the most perfect viewpoints over Florence. From there, guests can set off along the new woodland trails through the estate, eventually arriving at the pool where glamour reasserts itself, alongside crossword puzzles, a Florentine steak four fingers thick cooked on the grill, and the beautiful gardens that green designer Luca Ghezzi has filled with citrus trees, rosemary hedges and pergolas of climbing roses.
In the kitchen garden Chef Alessandro Cozzolino gathers his herbs and aromatics, using them to sharpen the flavours of his dishes: the authentically Italian plates at San Michele (the pasta with mussels, potatoes and smoked provola is not to be missed) and the more refined creations at Antesi, gathered into three varied tasting menus, one of which, a brilliantly conceived vegetarian option, is so good you won’t regret a single course.
Discover Villa San Michele
Originally published on IlSole24Ore