The Best Places to Stay and Do in Italy

Tucked into a hillside above Lake Garda, with 27 acres of woodland and olive groves between you and the outside world, this luxury wellness resort earns its Forbes Four Star. Every suite faces the lake, the spa stretches across 46,000 square feet and blends Chinese medicine with Western science, and two restaurants plus a cigar lounge handle the rest. The kind of place where doing nothing feels like a full itinerary.

A grand hotel that sits right on the edge of Villa Borghese, which means you get the park on one side and the Roman chaos on the other, and you get to choose how much of each you want. The lobby is all old-world stateliness, the rooms run elegant rather than trendy, and the restaurant looks out over a proper Italian garden. The kind of place where the city feels like a day trip you can return from.

Liz Taylor honeymooned here four times, which says something about either the hotel or her taste in husbands. Splendido is a coastal resort above Portofino's harbour, terraced Ligurian gardens framing views that haven't changed much since the place was a monastery. Bow-tied bartenders, a resident pianist, and tomato spaghetti that's been on the menu long enough to become legend. A recent renovation updated the rooms; the views stayed exactly as they were. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

Floor-to-ceiling triangular windows frame glaciers, silver peaks, and the River Sacra from nearly every room in this eco-friendly Alpine resort. Suites come with warm tones, a fireplace, and more of those views. The spa, one of the Alps' largest, runs four floors and includes an indoor saltwater lake infused with magnesium, which sounds made up until you're floating in it. Skiing, hiking, and two golf courses handle the rest. Forbes Four Star.

A Belmond property spread across a hilltop estate near Siena, with an infinity pool that looks out over the kind of oak forest that made early Tuscans believe in gods. Stone buildings, artifacts found in the soil underfoot, and staff who make a 2,000-acre property feel like a village. A Forbes Four Star resort that runs on slow lunches, good wine, and the general agreement that nothing urgent is happening today.

Perched on Monte Mario in a 15-acre park, this grand Waldorf Astoria hotel sits apart from central Rome with panoramic views stretching to the Vatican. The 1960s architecture and Franco Albini interiors give it the feel of a very well-maintained time capsule, and the private art collection roaming the corridors would embarrass most museums. Alfresco pools, a sprawling spa, and La Pergola on the roof round out the picture for guests who prefer their Eternal City with elbow room.

Thirty-seven acres of botanical gardens spill down toward the Costa Smeralda, which tells you most of what you need to know about the scale of ambition here. This Forbes Four Star resort in Baja Sardinia has the bones of an Italian villa, sand-toned stone and traditional textiles keeping it grounded, while the live DJs and late-night cocktails are imported directly from the Ibiza playbook. Porto Cervo is close, but the property is secluded enough that you'll barely notice.

The spa pool here drifts between indoors and outdoors, mirroring the Dolomite plateau around it until you genuinely can't tell where the building ends. This eco-conscious mountain resort, designed by a local firm using sustainable materials, earns its Forbes Four Star in the kind of setting that makes wellness-speak feel less embarrassing than usual. The COMO Shambhala spa runs Finnish and bio-herb saunas alongside guided snowshoe hikes, ski excursions, and summer climbs.

A saltwater pool carved from granite sits at the edge of the sea, which tells you everything about the philosophy here. Hotel Pitrizza is a small, secluded luxury resort on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda, where the buildings are so thoroughly folded into the hillside that rooftop gardens disappear into the landscape. Rustic Sardinian stonework and handcrafted furnishings do the heavy lifting inside; outside, a private beach handles the rest.

A 1,500-hectare Umbrian estate where the rooms used to be farm ruins and oak woodlands, restored over decades by one family with an evident allergy to cutting corners. Reschio is a countryside hotel that lands somewhere between working estate and fever dream: stone, hills, biodiversity, and the particular quiet that only comes with that much land around you. It ranked on The World's 50 Best Hotels list.

Perched near the top of Positano's steep hillside, this boutique hotel started life as a private residence, and the rooms still feel more like a borrowed house than a lobby operation. Thirty-eight rooms, a rooftop pool with the kind of views that make you cancel your afternoon plans, a small spa, and a complimentary shuttle to the beach for anyone unwilling to negotiate the steps twice in an afternoon.

A private tunnel connects the hotel to its floating beach club on the Bay of Naples, which tells you pretty much everything about the register here. This cliffside hotel in Sant'Agnello sits just past Sorrento's crowds, with a nautical palette of deep blues and white linens, lemon-scented gardens around the pool, a rooftop restaurant, and a spa. The art deco bones have been restored with care, and the family-run feel keeps it from tipping into corporate cool.

A soft pink palazzo perched above the Amalfi Coast, its gardens tumbling down the mountainside toward the sea. This mountaintop hotel has been around forever, a proper old-school Ravello institution with clifftop views that make it hard to check out on time. The Avino family runs it with the kind of attention you notice. Guests arrive for the scenery and stay for the particular stillness that comes with being very high up and very far from anything ordinary.

A former monastery on its own private island, a short water taxi ride from the chaos of the Rialto, San Clemente Palace is the kind of resort that makes Venice feel like a secret you kept from yourself. The grounds run to gardens and a heated pool, the lagoon views arrive with every meal, and the spa leans into the monastic herbs with some self-awareness. The rooms carry the weight of the old stone walls without feeling like a history lesson.

Seventeen different room types sounds like a lot until you're actually choosing between a sea-view terrace and a private patio with the Sardinian coast as your sleep soundtrack. This Forbes Four Star resort sits on a mountainside above some of the island's quietest beaches, with Studio Marco Piva interiors that lean on local stone and minimalist lines rather than fighting the view. Bespoke excursions, an outdoor spa lounge, and an alfresco dining room do the rest.

Its own private island in the Venice lagoon, connected to the city by hotel boat, which already tells you what kind of trip this is. The JW Marriott Venice is a full resort spread across five distinct accommodation areas, from garden rooms in the main building to a two-bedroom villa with a private pool facing the water. A century-old olive grove shades one wing; the lagoon is never far from any of them. Pack accordingly.

A Forbes Four Star resort on Sicily's southern coast, Verdura sprawls across 560 acres of olive groves between the Mediterranean and not much else. That isolation is the whole point: golf, a private beach with capoeira classes, tennis with former pros, and a pool long enough to swim actual laps mean guests rarely feel the pull to leave. The Rocco Forte property is built for people who want maximum options and the freedom to ignore every one of them.

Perched on the western shore of Lake Garda, this grand old lakeside hotel has been turning its terrace into an argument for doing absolutely nothing all afternoon for well over a century. Vaulted ceilings, antique furnishings, and a spa filled with natural light set the tone inside, while the hotel's own boats offer a way out onto the water when the view from your glass of red wine stops being enough.

Pink and purple jellyfish hang from the ceiling near the staircase, and a goggled diver crouches frozen mid-launch by the pool wall: Capri Tiberio Palace commits to its retro bit with real conviction. This boutique hotel runs on a 1950s and '60s aesthetic, vine-covered garden paths, a rooftop terrace, spa, restaurant, and Jacky Bar for nights that go late. The Piazzetta is a short walk, so the oasis is optional.

The name means "here one heals," which remains a reasonable excuse to book a suite on Capri's most famous street. This grand hotel has been the island's social headquarters since forever, its white facade and orange-blossom gardens drawing the kind of guests who prefer not to carry their own luggage. Pools, terraces, a spa, and the street-side Quisi Bar keep guests occupied from breakfast through whatever hour counts as late on Capri.

Peach-colored walls on a cliff above the Faraglioni rocks, with a pedigree that traces back to Le Corbusier's original design. This small luxury hotel on Capri rewards the climb with sweeping sea views and interiors that blend original tapestries and antique paintings with 1930s-inflected furniture from a recent refresh. The pool terrace is where everyone eventually ends up, staring at the same water they came to Capri to stare at.

Original art by Keith Haring and Arnaldo Pomodoro lines the corridors of this whitewashed resort perched above Anacapri, which makes the gin bar feel like a bonus rather than the main event. Five restaurants and bars, most with sea views, handle the eating. The spa runs a signature circulation treatment called Leg School Therapy, which sounds made up until you're already booked. Helicopters, speedboats, and chauffeurs sort the transfers.

A cliff hotel perched a thousand feet above the Bay of Naples, with views that sweep from Vesuvius to the Sorrentine peninsula and down to water so blue it looks retouched. The Terrace Bar serves oysters and champagne while you absorb the spectacle, and nearly every one of the 55 rooms faces the sea. A statue of Caesar Augustus stands guard on the grounds, eyes fixed on the water, apparently unmoved by the whole thing.

A converted medieval hamlet in the Chianti hills, Borgo San Felice is a 60-room resort where the buildings were once a bakery, an olive press, and wine cellars. The vineyard is still working, the spa leans into grape-must treatments, and two restaurants keep you from ever needing to leave. Siena is close enough for a day trip, but the hot air balloon over the hills at dawn makes a reasonable argument for staying put.

A neoclassical facade on the Lake Como waterfront in Menaggio, with the kind of ornate molding and chandeliers that make you feel underdressed just walking through the lobby. This hotel pairs that old-world bones with freshened interiors and modern furnishings, so it reads more lake house than museum. Balconies look straight out over the water, the spa is properly calm, and the pool is the sort you photograph before you get in.

The low-slung terracotta rooflines and weathered wooden beams were designed to look like a Sardinian fishing village, which is an ambitious premise for one of the Costa Smeralda's grandest luxury resorts. It works, somehow. Private coves, a waterfront pool, and suites with hand-painted furniture and sea views keep things from feeling too theme-park about it. Watersports and yacht excursions are on hand for guests who find lying still professionally difficult.

Six hundred year old columns greet you in the lobby of this hotel, housed in a Renaissance palazzo a short walk from the Trevi Fountain. The team kept the bones intact, so cocciopesto plaster, Travertine stone, and a monumental marble staircase do most of the decorating. It's the kind of place that makes you feel like a guest of the building as much as the brand, which is a neat trick for a wellness hotel group.

Art nouveau bones, a courtyard that feels borrowed from a film set, and the kind of slightly faded glamour that no interior designer can fake. Hotel Locarno is a historic Rome property steps from the Piazza del Popolo, and it still carries the bohemian mood that drew Fellini and his crowd decades ago. The current owner inherited it from family and has kept it exactly as it should be: atmospheric, a little theatrical, and blessedly unmodernized.

The Antinori estate slides into the Chianti hillside so quietly you could almost miss it, which is the point. This is a winery visit with architecture, a museum, and a restaurant attached, all belonging to a family that has been growing grapes here for 26 generations. The gravitational winemaking facility and rotating exhibitions give you something to look at between glasses, and the kitchen turns local produce into food polished enough to hold its own against the wine.

The barrels here have been stacked in the same vaulted cellars since before Sicily was part of Italy, and the architecture makes a decent argument on its own. Donnafugata's Marsala winery runs guided visits through its cellars and production spaces, pairing the tour with tastings of the estate's wines alongside Sicilian bites. It's the kind of afternoon that starts as education and quietly becomes a long, pleasant sit.

Irpinia has been growing grapes since Pliny wrote it down, and the hills around Sorbo Serpico still carry that feeling of a landscape that knows what it's doing. Feudi di San Gregorio is a wine estate worth making a day of, set among vineyards, olive groves, and hazel trees with the Apennines keeping watch. Medieval villages, old castles, and volcanic mud fields fill out the surroundings, and the airport is only half an hour away.

The cellars here tunnel beneath a royal hunting estate, which tells you something about the scale of Fontanafredda's ambitions. This sprawling Langhe winery is best known for its Barolo, and visitors can walk the biodynamic vineyards, poke around the historic cellars, and work through tastings that lean heavily on Nebbiolo. It's the kind of place that takes most of an afternoon, which Piedmont generally rewards.

Masi built its name on appassimento, the practice of drying harvested grapes to concentrate their sugars before fermentation, and Amarone della Valpolicella is the result. This is a winery visit in classic Veneto countryside, where the family operation runs single-vineyard estates and welcomes guests to explore them. The Foresteria Serego Alighieri, owned by descendants of Dante himself, offers apartments among the vines for anyone who'd like to stay.

A Palladian palace with an 18th-century barrel cellar underneath it is a good argument for rearranging your itinerary. Villa Sandi offers winery visits and tastings, including one by candlelight if you want to feel appropriately dramatic about Prosecco. Tours move through the cellar galleries where the estate's still and sparkling wines are aging, and masterclasses cover everything from winemaking to dining etiquette, which is a wide brief.

The tenth floor is the whole argument: Cecconi's wraps you in a 360-degree panorama of Rome while serving Italian classics to a crowd that came for cocktails and stayed for dinner. As a place to stay, it leans on the Soho House formula of muted tones, terrazzo floors, and locally made wall hangings, which manages to feel warm rather than branded. The Discovery list from The 50 gives it a nod.

A former boarding school on the northern hillside above Florence, converted into a five-star resort with enough restraint that the frescoes and coffered ceilings stayed put. Original classrooms are now suites with hand-painted walls, stone bathrooms, and small wine cellars, all looking out over the Duomo from a comfortable distance. The Auberge Collection's Italian debut landed a spot on The 50 Discovery list.

Twelve suites inside a centuries-old palazzo that has never left the founding family's hands, which is either a remarkable preservation story or a very long estate dispute, probably both. The rooms range from frescoed ceilings edged in gold to a suite with its own gilded chapel. Boutique hotel barely covers it. Named a Discovery by The 50, it sits on one of Genoa's grandest streets and sleeps like a private museum that finally let you in.

A rooftop pool with the Dolomite peaks arranged around it like they know what they're doing sets the tone at this 14-suite boutique hotel in Castelbello. South Tyrol practically invented this genre of grown-up mountain retreat, and Amaril fits the template with natural materials, a proper spa, and a no-guests-under-14 rule that keeps things quiet. Apartments come with kitchenettes if you're settling in for a while.

Floor-to-ceiling glass and Patricia Urquiola's interiors face the eastern shore, where Il Sereno sits among Lake Como's old money mansions looking conspicuously, deliberately modern. It's a boutique luxury hotel with 40 suites, a 60-foot infinity pool, a boathouse converted into a spa, and a waterfront restaurant that holds a Michelin star. The kind of place where the lake does half the decorating, and the design team handles the rest.

Perched at 1,800 metres in the South Tyrol, this spa resort sits close enough to the clouds that the distinction feels negotiable. Floor-to-ceiling windows and stone-accented interiors keep the architecture out of the landscape's way rather than competing with it, and balconied rooms make ignoring the Dolomite peaks essentially impossible. A spot on The 50 Discovery list confirms the pilgimage has a point.

A 16th-century watchtower anchors this resort on Ischia's quieter western edge, part of the Pellicano group but content to let its more famous sibling steal the spotlight. Rooms and cottages sit inside a lush private park, dressed in hand-painted tiles, handwoven wall hangings, and soft creams that feel less like a design brief and more like someone's actual taste. A private bay keeps the crowds at arm's length.

An 800-year-old Tuscan villa set across 200 acres of gardens, wild land, and a working kitchen garden, all of it painstakingly restored by its Danish owners into a boutique resort that somehow feels like a very grand private home. The grounds alone justify the visit, but the interiors match them beat for beat. A Discovery from The World's 50 Best Hotels, and easy to see why once you're standing in the orto at dusk.

The Ferragamo family bought an entire medieval Tuscan hamlet and turned it into a resort, which is a sentence that explains a great deal about the atmosphere. Il Borro's 38 suites occupy centuries-old stone buildings scattered across the property, each fitted with exposed beams, open fireplaces, and antiques chosen by hand. The kind of place where the grounds themselves feel like the amenity, and the village outside your door has been there since the thirteenth century.

A medieval castle in the Maremma countryside, converted into a ten-suite boutique hotel where the kitchen is rustic and the service feels like a neighbor insisted you stay. Marble pools sit among cypress trees, with olive groves and vineyards rolling out in every direction, and the gardens smell the way Tuscany is supposed to smell in other people's photos. It's castle-as-farmhouse, and somehow more relaxing for it.