Florence’s most storied new hotel hides just beyond the crowds

Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Resorts Collection pairs Duomo views, frescoed rooms and Tuscan gardens with the feeling of a private estate on Florence’s leafy outskirts

I find it almost impossible to tear myself away from the view of the Duomo from our one-bedroom Florentina Suite at the brand-new Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Resorts Collection. I admire it from our expansive bed and while dining in our grand living room. I can even see it from the powder room.

The most sought-after luxury resort in Florence is actually on the Italian city’s outskirts, located down a stone-walled road lined with villas in the La Cure neighbourhood, where the last real Florentines live – because it gets a breeze in summer and there are views both over the city and the Tuscan hills.

When we arrive, I’m struck by the lushness of the landscaping for a hotel that only opened in March 2025. Vast beds of red geraniums provide lots of pop, while ancient olive trees, tall cypresses, rosemary and laurel hedges, grasses and jasmine tier up the hillside to the pool terrace.

While You’re Here

Collegio alla Querce is serious about offering guests insider experiences. At the hotel, we enjoy an excellent introduction to Tuscan wines as well as a hands-on pasta-making class. Guests can also craft their own fragrance at a Florentine profumoir, take a Ferrari for a drive through the Tuscan countryside, or enjoy a guided after-hours tour of the Accademia Gallery to admire Michelangelo’s David without the crowds.

From villa to retreat

Collegio alla Querce has an impressive pedigree, starting life as an 18th-century noble’s villa, which was expanded to become an exclusive boarding school before falling into disrepair in the late 1990s. It was ‘rediscovered’ by Indian billionaire Analjit Singh, chairman of the Leeu Collection – with hotels in South Africa and the United Kingdom – who fell in love with the building’s heritage and saw the potential to create an urban retreat in its unique location.

The hotel is expansive, with 83 rooms spread across four floors. I admit getting a little lost in the long corridors that zigzag between three interconnected buildings. But there’s always an arresting artefact or unusual painting to discover and the atmosphere is blissfully serene.

Indeed, Collegio alla Querce feels like a destination unto itself, rich in story and atmosphere and yet just 12 minutes by taxi to the centre of Florence. With its combination of careful historic restoration, exquisite design, refined wine and food, and a carefully curated collection of bespoke experiences that evade the crowds that have come to define the Italian city, the property offers a refined, quietly luxurious hotel stay.

A Florentine restoration

Singh hired Majorcan father-son architects Esteva i Esteva to manage the restoration, which included bringing original frescoes back to life, as well as the 17th-century theatre and 19th-century chapel. He appointed ArchFlorence to create the richly layered interiors filled with Tuscan artefacts, antiques and bespoke furniture, which are juxtaposed with contemporary paintings and sculptures from Singh’s own collection.

American-owned Auberge Resorts Collection worked closely with the owner and designers throughout the restoration of its first Italian property, channelling a younger, more casual ambience than the hotel’s luxe competitors in the European market. As a result, it’s likely to attract the well-heeled set from the United States and Australia.

The Conservatorio, a tree-filled atrium covering the original courtyard, offers a window into the design aesthetic. We spend hours admiring its Tuscan treasures, antique globes and books, scientific instruments and other curiosities.

Living like a Florentine

Our spacious suite has oversized windows that can be opened to let in the sound of birdsong, which further enhances that Duomo view. There are parquet floors and handcrafted oak furniture in homage to the hotel’s name – querce means ‘oak’ in Italian. Sofas and chairs have beige woollen upholstery, while dining chairs are in terracotta tones. Striking art pieces are carefully placed; a mirror hides the wide-screen television, art and history books are stacked on the expansive coffee table, and there’s even a well-stocked wine fridge. It all gives the feeling that we’re staying in a private estate rather than a hotel.

I sink into the silky Rivolta Carmignani linens on the king bed and love the copious closet space in the walk-through dressing room that leads to the spacious Grolla limestone bathroom with separate vanities, freestanding bath, shower stall and Japanese toilet in adjoining rooms.

There are 34 suites and six Grand Suites. Fifteen suites have views of the Duomo; five suites feature exquisitely restored original frescoes, and a few have shaded terraces.

Vast beds of red geraniums provide lots of pop, while ancient olive trees, tall cypresses, rosemary and laurel hedges, grasses and jasmine tier up the hillside to the pool terrace.

Olive oil and oak

The resort’s intimate four-suite, two-pool garden Aelia Spa is on the ground floor of the 1930s Palazzo Moderno. Collegio alla Querce has an exclusive arrangement with Furtuna Skin, an organic olive oil farm in Sicily, which not only supplies spa products but also furnishes the restaurants with olive oil.

Feasting under the frescoes

La Gamella, which means ‘lunchbox’ in Italian in reference to its former life as the school canteen, is the grand main restaurant with vaulted ceilings, half-moon banquettes and Palladian glass doors that open onto a flower-framed terrace lit with glass lanterns.

This is where we indulge in what can only be called a gargantuan breakfast that is laid out on huge country kitchen tables underneath a wall covered in shining copper pots. Like kids in a lolly shop, we select from a mind-bending array of house-made breads and pastries, jams and honeys, cakes and muffins, as well as cheeses, cured meats, roasted vegetables and eggs cooked to order.

That evening, we enjoy the freshest Tuscan produce and seafood on La Gamella’s terrace, the balmy early summer evening fragrant with white magnolia blossoms and red roses from the surrounding garden.

We end the night with hand-crafted cocktails in the book-lined Bar Bertelli, set in the former headmaster’s office, which is still ringed with oil paintings of the Collegio’s best students. The space is buzzing with guests and locals.

Lunch the next day is on the shady terrace of Café Focolare, surrounded by olive and oak trees and lush grasses, next to the 35-metre outdoor pool, the largest in Florence. We devour crusty pizzas cooked in the outdoor oven, topped with fresh herbs growing in pots along the wall.

Collegio alla Querce may be brand new as a hotel, but within its frescoes, oak-lined suites and jasmine-scented gardens, it carries the weight and wonder of Florence itself – a story still being written in the Renaissance capital.

Hotel Notes

Collegio alla Querce is a 15-minute taxi ride from both Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci International Airport and Santa Maria Novella Florence Train Station. Rates start from AU$2,463. aubergeresorts.com