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The Place Firenze
Florence, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
There is no reception desk. You come in off Piazza Santa Maria Novella, someone hands you a drink, and you end up by the fireplace as though the house were already yours. Twenty rooms, every one different, in a Florentine townhouse that opened in 2003 as J.K. Place and passed to the Babini family within months, with Claudio Meli running the door ever since. Luigi Fragola's redesign lifted its pastels straight off Alberti's marble facade across the square. Conde Nast Traveler readers voted it the second best hotel in Florence for 2025, the highest-placed five-star in the city.
- 20 rooms
- Opened 2003
- Neighborhood: Santa Maria Novella
- Architect: Luigi Fragola Architects
- Interiors: Luigi Fragola Architects
About The Place Firenze
- The Michelin Guide awarded The Place one of its Keys in 2025, and the house belongs to Leading Hotels of the World, unusual company for a hotel of twenty rooms.
- Travel + Leisure readers named it the number one hotel in Florence and the number one hotel in Europe in 2019.
- Lo Studiolo, the most private room in the hotel, carries polychrome wall decoration by the Florentine artisan Francesca Guicciardini, modelled on the Great Cloister of Santa Maria Novella next door.
- The square outside was once the vineyard of Santa Maria Novella. A rose garden grows there now, directly in front of the terrace where breakfast is served.
- Claudio Meli, born and raised in Florence and at the property since the day it opened, was named Virtuoso Hotelier of the Year in 2024.
History
The house on the corner of Piazza Santa Maria Novella opened as a hotel in 2003 under the name J.K. Place Firenze. Within a few months the Florentine entrepreneur Carlo Babini and his family bought it, and they have owned it ever since, keeping the original name for years because no sister property yet existed to share it. Claudio Meli, a Florentine, has been general manager from the first day.
The rebrand to The Place was decided in 2019 and completed alongside a redesign by the Florentine architect Luigi Fragola, who took his palette from the proto-Renaissance facade Leon Battista Alberti gave the church across the square: the same clean geometry, the same greens and whites and warm pinks, handled without nostalgia. Fragola also created Lo Studiolo, a small room in the spirit of the private studies of the Quattrocento, with wall decoration by the Florentine decorator Francesca Guicciardini drawn from the Great Cloister of Santa Maria Novella. When the team first opened the building they found ground-floor apartments where the Glass Yard now sits. A further round of work finished in 2024.
There are twenty rooms and suites across four floors, twelve rooms and eight suites, no two alike: master rooms with three windows onto the piazza, a two-floor panoramic loft, and the Duomo Penthouse at the top, whose bathroom looks straight at Brunelleschi's dome. The hotel keeps no conventional reception desk. It sits in the collection of The Hospitality Experience, the Babini group whose first house was the Londra Palace in Venice, and is a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
The setting
Piazza Santa Maria Novella was, in the Middle Ages, the edge of the city, and the ground in front of the church was the friars' vineyard. It is a rose garden today, spread out below the hotel terrace. Alberti's marble facade on the basilica faces the front door, and inside are Masaccio's Trinity and the Tornabuoni chapel frescoes. Via Tornabuoni and its shops are a short walk east, the Duomo about five minutes on foot, and Santa Maria Novella station is close enough that guests arriving by train can walk. The piazza was once used for the Palio dei Cocchi chariot races, and the two marble obelisks that marked the turns still stand in it.
Restaurants and bars
- The Kitchen & The Bar — Bar
Experiences
- Florentine artisan workshop visits — Tailor-made visits to Florentine artisan workshops in collaboration with The Place of Wonders Foundation.
- Private tours of historic residences — Private tours of historic residences to discover Florence like a local.
- Surrounding area itineraries — Itineraries in the surrounding area away from the most popular tourist routes.
Amenities
- Made-to-measure hospitality
- Free Wi-Fi throughout the property
- Luggage storage free of charge
- Concierge service
- Electric vehicle charging station (additional fee)
- Valet parking via partnered garage about 100 metres away (extra charge)
- Air conditioning
- King-size bed
- Courtesy set
- Pure cotton bathrobe and slippers
- Dyson hairdryer
- Smart TV
- Complimentary minibar
- Laptop-sized safe
- Kettle with selection of teas and herbal infusions
- 24/7 reception
Awards
- MICHELIN One Key (2026)
- Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
- Michelin Key (2025)
- Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards - #1 Hotel in Europe (2019)
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