You’d also be remiss not to have an aperitivo—or, for that matter, a digestivo—in Bar Bertelli, the wood-paneled former headmaster’s office that features a handful of charming nods to the building’s former life, whether in the portraits of former head boys that line the gaps between the bookshelves and the ceiling, or the cocktails inspired by history textbooks they discovered in the renovation process. The Timoteo, for example, is inspired by the Greek classics, and blends tequila blanco with a cold-pressed cucumber cordial and a dash of yogurt to create a refreshing, tzatziki-like tonic—yes, it’s a little odd, but it’s also oddly delicious.
Photo: Courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection
Photo: Courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection
And of course, making the most of all that outdoor space is the expansive, cabana-lined pool area—at 35 meters, it’s the longest spot to take a splash in the city—which sits adjacent to Cafe Focolare, where the specialities are grilled fish and wood-fired pizzas with perfectly blistered crusts.
Photo: Courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection
Given the resort-like feel of the property, it’s easy to forget just how close you are to the city center, even if the ever-obliging concierge team will be happy to arrange tickets to any of the city’s major sights. But for the more intrepid traveler—or those on a return visit to Florence, with the urge to do something a little more off-the-beaten-path than traipse through the Uffizi or queue outside the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David—there’s a genuinely unique range of experiences the team here have curated to truly get under the skin of the city. On a balmy afternoon, we headed to Profumoir Firenze, tucked away on a cobblestoned street in the city’s residential San Niccolò neighborhood: on an enormous antique table surrounded by bottles on apothecary-style shelves painted a deep, velvety blue, we set to work creating our own unique fragrances, which we decorated with our own labels and sealed up in plush boxes to unpack a month later, after our blends had settled.
On another day, we trundled down to the busy streets just north of the Duomo to step through a discreet doorway and into the serene courtyard of Palazzo Pucci, the striking palace that has been owned by the Pucci family for centuries, and which served as the headquarters for the late Emilio Pucci’s kaleidoscopic fashion empire; today, it’s overseen by his daughter Laudomia, who will cheerily take you on a tour of her family’s archives and art collections over prosecco and biscotti. And while the culinary offering within the four walls of the hotel is varied enough to keep you happily fed and watered for the entire stay, team Collegio took a special delight in recommending local’s-favorite restaurants throughout the city for heaving platters of bistecca alla Fiorentina or freshly made pasta with wild boar ragú. The standout experience, however? A morning meditation session in the school’s former chapel, where an opera singer performed a “live sound bath” as dappled light fell through the postage stamp windows up in the rafters—if there’s an activity as strangely transcendent as this on offer at any other hotel in Florence, I’d be surprised.
Photo: Courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection
Photo: Courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection
Despite my post-opera meditation state of zen, my visit to the hotel just so happened to coincide with a particularly busy week in Florence, when the hotel had a glittering array of guests in residence. The first wave was there to attend a candlelit garden dinner hosted by the cult interiors Cabana; then, the following day, a phalanx of fashion editors arrived to take in the Gucci cruise show that was happening that week in the Italian fashion house’s archives near Piazza Santo Spirito. (There might have been an official afterparty in the cloisters of the Santa Maria Novella church, but the after-afterparty was very much taking place in the corridors and suites of Collegio alla Querce.) I overheard a gaggle of American editors heading home in their sprinter vans chattering about the hotel’s beauty and unlikely sense of tranquility, and their plans to spread the word among their friends in New York—so don’t be surprised if you start seeing the hotel crop up on the Instagram feed of the most stylish people you follow.
