Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / Florence / Bernini Palace Hotel
Bernini Palace Hotel
Florence, Tuscany, Italy · Independent · Core Luxury
When Florence was capital of Italy from 1865 to 1870, deputies used this fifteenth-century palazzo as lodgings and a buvette; the frescoed Sala del Parlamento is now the breakfast room, with Risorgimento portraits still on the walls. Bernini Palace sits on Piazza di San Firenze, a three-minute walk from the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio, with La Chiostrina in the sixteenth-century loggia. Due Torri still runs the house; it joined Historic Hotels Worldwide in 2015 after a 2020-2022 stone restoration.
- 74 rooms
- Opened 1500
- Neighborhood: Piazza di San Firenze
About Bernini Palace Hotel
- A marble plaque still quotes Dante's Paradiso on the Pera family lineage of this fifteenth-century house.
- In the seventeenth century it was already an inn, remembered as Florence's only hotel with running water and shelter for travellers' animals.
- When the house traded as Hotel Columbia Parlamento, the breakfast salone held a parliamentary buvette beneath Risorgimento portraits of Garibaldi, Cavour, Gioberti, and Manin.
- Due Torri still runs the palazzo; a 2020-2022 restoration relaid Florentine stone in the lobby and kept the capital-era rooms.
History
Bernini Palace Hotel occupies a fifteenth-century palazzo on Piazza di San Firenze, between Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno, in fabric the atlas dates to 1500. Historic Hotels Worldwide records it as a Pera family house; a marble plaque still quotes Dante's Paradiso on that lineage. In the seventeenth century it was already an inn, remembered as the only hotel in Florence with running water and shelter for travellers' animals. By the mid-nineteenth century it traded as Albergo dello Scudo di Francia, the Hotel of the Shield of France.
When Florence was capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1870, the Scudo became Hotel Columbia Parlamento. Deputies sitting in Palazzo Vecchio and senators from Palazzo Pitti used it as lodgings and a buvette. The frescoed Sala del Parlamento, now the breakfast room, still shows Risorgimento portraits: Garibaldi, Cavour, Gioberti, Balbo, La Marmora, Daniele Manin, and their peers. The sixteenth-century loggia holds La Chiostrina restaurant. The lobby niches with female heads remember a later hat shop in the same rooms.
Due Torri still runs the house as an independent Florence palazzo hotel, not a chain tower. It joined Historic Hotels Worldwide in 2015. A restoration in 2020-2022 relaid Florentine stone in the lobby, rebuilt corridors, rooms, and bathrooms, and kept the capital-era salone that guests still meet on San Firenze, a three-minute walk from the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio. The breakfast room remains the old parliamentary buvette; the courtyard restaurant remains the loggia.
The setting
Bernini Palace Hotel occupies a 15th-century palazzo on Piazza di San Firenze, set between Piazza della Signoria and the Arno — the Uffizi Galleries and Palazzo Vecchio each a three-minute walk, the Basilica di Santa Croce four minutes, and Ponte Vecchio seven minutes on foot. The building carries a notable civic distinction: when Florence served as capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1870, members of Parliament gathered here, leaving behind the frescoed Sala del Parlamento that today serves as the breakfast room. Amid a cluster of landmark luxury hotels, Piazza di San Firenze offers genuine walkability to every canonical Florentine monument from a single Renaissance address.
Experiences
- AMARIDAMARE — A series dedicated to the culture of amari (bitter Italian liqueurs), hosted at the hotel from 30 September to 25 November 2026.
Amenities
- Pet-friendly
Open Bernini Palace Hotel in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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