Villa San Michele

The road from Florence climbs through San Domenico, bends beneath a long stone front set into the hillside, and stops at a gate among cypresses. Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel in Fiesole began as a Franciscan monastery in the fifteenth century, and the view explains the site: the Duomo, the Arno and the whole bowl of Florence lie beneath the terrace. Belmond runs it as a seasonal luxury hotel in Fiesole, open from spring to late autumn.

History

The Davanzati family, Florentine merchants, founded the monastery for the Franciscan order in the fifteenth century, and the dedication to the archangel Michael gave the house its name. The facade and the loggia that runs along it are attributed to Michelangelo, a claim repeated since the eighteenth century and never settled. The friars left after the Napoleonic suppression of religious orders in the early nineteenth century, and the building passed into private hands. The French hotelier Lucien Teissier bought it after the Second World War, restored it and opened it as a hotel in the 1950s. Orient-Express Hotels acquired it in 1982, one of the company's earliest purchases outside Venice, and the group took the Belmond name in 2014. LVMH bought Belmond in 2019.

Architecture and design

The plan is still that of a monastery. A cloister sits behind the loggia, the old refectory and chapel survive, and the monks' cells along the upper corridor have become bedrooms. The garden rises in terraces behind the building, planted with olives, roses and box, and a single avenue of cypresses leads to the pool at the top. The facade is pietra serena, the grey Florentine sandstone, and the loggia along it is where guests eat in warm weather.

Rooms and suites

There are 45 rooms and suites. Those in the original building are small by the standards of a modern hotel and keep vaulted ceilings, terracotta floors and shuttered windows onto the valley. Rooms added in the garden have private terraces and more space. The largest suites have a private garden or a terrace with a view over Florence, and the hotel prices them accordingly.

Dining

La Loggia, the restaurant, serves Tuscan dishes on the covered loggia and in a dining room behind it. The bar occupies the former chapel. A cookery school runs morning classes in the hotel kitchens through the season, and the gardens supply herbs and some vegetables. Breakfast is taken on the loggia with the city below.

Wellness

The pool sits on the highest terrace, reached by the cypress walk, and is the reason many guests choose the hotel over one in the city. There is no spa building; treatments are given in the rooms or in a dedicated treatment room, and a small gym is available.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts weddings on the terraces and in the former chapel, with dinner on the loggia or in the garden. Numbers are limited by the size of the terraces rather than by any ballroom, and the whole property can be taken over for a private event. Meetings use a single room off the cloister. The season runs from April to November.

Location

Fiesole is an Etruscan town eight kilometres north-east of the centre of Florence. The hotel runs a shuttle to the city through the day. Florence Peretola airport is about 15 kilometres away, Pisa airport around 90, and the main station is Santa Maria Novella. The Roman theatre and archaeological area of Fiesole are a few minutes uphill by car.