The St. Regis Florence

The St. Regis Florence is a five-star hotel on Piazza Ognissanti, facing the Arno with views toward the Ponte Vecchio. It holds 100 rooms and suites, signature butler service, the Winter Garden Restaurant and Bar, Cafe Ginori, and myBlend Spa Suites. It sits in a historic Renaissance palace and has no pool.

"A ceremonious Arno-front palace with St. Regis butler service and richly dressed rooms, though it has no pool and only a small spa."

Aggregate 9.4/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Facts verified against official sources and the 2026 Michelin Guide in July 2026.

What makes The St. Regis Florence special?

The St. Regis Florence is the grander, more formal of the two five-star hotels that share Piazza Ognissanti, and its calling card is old-world ceremony delivered with genuine polish. Every stay comes with a dedicated butler, a St. Regis hallmark since 1904, who handles unpacking, garment pressing, and morning coffee service. The building is a converted Renaissance palace on the north bank of the Arno, tied historically to the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and its public rooms lean into that heritage with frescoes, stucco work, and the turn-of-the-century Sala delle Feste ballroom modelled on the Pitti Palace. Three daily St. Regis rituals frame the day: the Afternoon Tea Ritual, the Bloody Mary served here as a local Bloody Brunello, and an evening sabrage of sparkling wine at the Winter Garden Bar. The hotel is a designated smoke-free property, welcomes one dog per room up to 18kg, and levies the standard Florence city tax of eight euros per person per night. It is a place for travellers who want service theatre, riverfront address, and Renaissance-era architecture rather than a resort with gardens or a pool.

Which room should you book?

The St. Regis Florence has 100 rooms and suites, made up of roughly 81 rooms and 19 suites, so it reads as an intimate grand hotel rather than a large one. Accommodation is styled around Florentine craft: handmade upholstery and linens in traditional local patterns, reproductions of sixteenth-century furnishings, and, in the Deluxe Suites, living-room walls painted with fresco scenes of Renaissance life. Many rooms and suites face the Arno, with French or furnished balconies looking across the river; others overlook the interior of the palace. At the top of the range, the Presidential Suite runs to around 200 square metres on the facade of the palace, and the Royal Suite draws its decorative scheme from the Court of the Medici. Every room has air conditioning, an electronic safe, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a hairdryer. In line with fire regulations in a historic palace, in-room kettles, coffee makers, and irons are not permitted, though pressing service is provided and suites include complimentary butler pressing of two garments a day. Twin-bed setups and connecting rooms are available on request, subject to availability, and cribs are complimentary for infants.

Where should you eat and drink?

Dining centres on the Winter Garden Restaurant, which serves contemporary Tuscan cuisine under a nineteenth-century glass ceiling and a hand-blown Murano chandelier, and is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Alongside it, the Winter Garden Bar sits beneath dramatic arches and is the setting for cocktails, aperitivo, and the evening sabrage ritual; the house signature is the Bloody Brunello, made with grappa from Brunello di Montalcino grapes. Cafe Ginori is a partnership with the historic Ginori porcelain house and offers a tea-sommelier-curated afternoon tea served on Ginori collections. Breakfast is staged separately in the Balconata, a room capped by a stained-glass ceiling. For wine, La Cantinetta is a cellar holding more than 300 Italian and international labels, which can also be booked for private tastings and events. On the record that matters most here: the Winter Garden is featured in the Michelin Guide but does not hold a Michelin star in the 2026 guide, and none of the hotel's outlets are Michelin-starred. Buffet breakfast is priced at 52 euros per person for guests not on an inclusive rate.

What is the spa and pool like?

Wellness at The St. Regis Florence is compact rather than resort-scale. The centrepiece is the Spa Suites, private treatment rooms run in collaboration with the skincare house myBlend, offering tailored facial and body treatments, massages, and beauty services; the spa is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8pm and Sundays from 3pm to 8pm. There is a 24-hour Fitness Studio fitted with Technogym equipment, accessible with a room key and complimentary to all guests. Note the honest limitation for a luxury hotel of this level: there is no swimming pool and no thermal or hydrotherapy circuit, so guests seeking a full spa day with pool and heat experiences will find the offer here modest. The wellness proposition is best understood as a refined in-house treatment service for guests already staying, rather than a destination spa. Guests of the neighbouring Excelsior across the piazza also use these same Spa Suites, so booking ahead in high season is sensible.

Where is The St. Regis Florence, and how do you get there?

The hotel stands at Piazza Ognissanti 1, 50123 Florence, on the north bank of the Arno in the historic centre, roughly a ten-minute walk from the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi and close to the Santa Maria Novella railway station. The address is prime for sightseeing on foot: the Duomo, the Accademia, and the shopping streets around Via de' Tornabuoni are all within an easy walk, while the piazza itself faces the river with the church of Ognissanti alongside. The setting is central and lively rather than quiet; Piazza Ognissanti carries traffic and the riverfront can be busy, so light-sleeping guests should request a courtyard-facing room over an Arno-view one. The hotel sits inside the ZTL limited-traffic zone, which restricts private cars, so arrivals are usually by taxi or private transfer; valet parking is available at a nearby garage for around 70 euros per day. Florence Airport (Peretola) is about seven kilometres away, roughly twenty minutes by car, with Pisa and Bologna airports reachable for wider connections. For travellers who prize a walkable central base, the location is hard to beat.

What do guests consistently say?

Guests consistently single out the butler service and the front-of-house team, describing staff who anticipate requests and handle logistics smoothly, along with the drama of the public rooms and the Arno views from riverside accommodation. The Renaissance architecture, the frescoed suites, and the ceremony of the St. Regis rituals draw praise from travellers who want a sense of occasion. The location earns steady approval for putting the major sights within walking distance. On the other side, the hotel is not universally loved: some reviewers feel the room product and dining do not always match the price or the brand's top billing, and a share of critical reviews describe an experience that fell short of expectations for a five-star rate. The absence of a pool and a full spa is a recurring note for guests expecting resort-level wellness. Traffic noise on the piazza and river side, and the practical constraints of a protected historic building such as no in-room kettles, also come up. In short, service and setting are the strengths, while value and consistency are where opinions divide.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

The clearest trade-offs are structural. There is no swimming pool and only a small treatment-room spa, so this is not a choice for a wellness-led stay. The hotel occupies a protected historic palace, which brings genuine charm but also constraints: no in-room kettles, coffee makers, or irons, and the layout and room sizes vary. Piazza Ognissanti and the Arno frontage carry traffic, so quieter rooms face the interior and lose the river view, forcing a choice between vista and calm. Pricing sits at the top of the Florence market, and a meaningful share of guest reviews question whether the room and dining product justifies the rate, so value is not guaranteed. Parking is off-site valet at extra cost, and the ZTL zone complicates arriving by car. Dining is limited to the Winter Garden outlets plus Cafe Ginori, and while competent and Michelin-listed, none of it holds a star, so serious gastronomes may look elsewhere in the city. Finally, the shared spa arrangement with the neighbouring Excelsior means treatment slots can be tight in peak periods.