The proprietors of Florence’s SoprArno Suites, not content to own and operate just one practically perfect boutique hotel, have got a second: Ad Astra, a stylish bed and breakfast in the Oltrarno district, south of the river, overlooking the splendid Torrigiani Garden. In this less dense corner of Florence there’s space not just for massive gardens but for a “hôtel particulier” as well — a freestanding residence originally meant for aristocratic weekenders, comprising just nine rooms, each one unique and all of them decorated with the same playful, eclectic eye that’s responsible for SoprArno.

There’s no question the Brunelleschi Hotel has a legitimate claim to the name. With its top-floor view taking in the entire panorama of Brunelleschi’s masterpiece, the Florence Cathedral, it’s more or less as close as you can get to the Duomo without taking religious orders. The location has always been a strength, and after a very thorough renovation, the Brunelleschi can finally boast of interiors that are worthy of the view.

Hardly a hotel at all, Casa Botticelli in San Felice is a nine-room boutique in the heart of Florence. And while it’s practically negligible compared to the scale of the local tourist industry, it looms large — or should — in the mind of anyone who wants a hotel stay to show them a unique perspective on a familiar destination. Casa Botticelli accomplishes this not just on the merits of what’s inside its walls — it does that too, and we’ll return to the topic — but on the merits of its location, in what the hoteliers consider to be Florence’s coolest neighborhood.

Though it rather modestly styles itself a bed and breakfast, Corte Calzaiuoli, situated in a palazzo built by Florence’s De’ Macci family, offers uncommon luxury in its eight lavishly restored rooms and suites. It’s surrounded by the incomparable Renaissance architecture of the city center, in the central restricted-traffic zone between the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria, which means an extra measure of quiet. Even the substantial foot traffic, brought to Via Calzaiuoli for the endless blocks of brand-name shopping, is no issue; the Corte’s rooms are soundproofed.

Florence isn’t exactly short on impressive hotels, but the Grand Hotel Minerva stands out in a few categories. First there’s the location, on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, right between the rail station and the historic city center. Second, there’s the rooftop pool, a rarity in this town, and a welcome one at that. And third, there’s, well, the whole thing — the hotel originally dates back to the 19th century, but it was famously redesigned in the Fifties by architect Carlo Scarpa, and a more recent renovation at the hands of Piera Tempesti Benelli leaves the Minerva’s particular blend of classical grandeur and mid-century glamour looking as fresh as can be.

Visiting Florence is obligatory, but staying in the busy city center can be a bit much. Thankfully the universe has seen fit to supply the city with a solution: Oltrarno, the quieter but no less cultured neighborhood on the other side of the Arno river. With that context in mind, the name Oltrarno Splendid is simply a matter-of-fact description of the circumstances: here we have a stylish and eclectic 14-room bed and breakfast, conceived by no less illustrious a team than Francesco Maestrelli, Matteo & Marco Perduca, and Betty Soldi, the minds behind Florentine Tablet favorites SoprArno Suites and AdAstra.

In the foreigner’s mind, Florence strains under the weight of so much history that it’s sometimes difficult to remember that it’s the 21st century there too. It’s not all Renaissance architecture and crumbling frescoes — modern life goes on there, just like anywhere else, and contemporary small hotels like the Residence Hilda operate alongside the grand old-fashioned five-stars.

In Italy even the most modern hotel has hundreds or thousands of years of architectural history to deal with; one hypermodern hotel in Rome has a working archaeological site in the basement. By these standards, Riva Lofts is on the young side: this 19th-century complex on the banks of the Arno river has lived only three previous lives — a factory, artisans’ workshops, an architectural studio — on the way to its present incarnation, an immaculately designed ten-suite modernist luxury boutique.

The eclectic, bohemian, vintage-inspired style that’s currently all the rage in the United States is also, you’ll find, all the rage in Europe — and in Italy, where the word “vintage” covers several hundred more years of history, the resulting style is rich indeed. For an illustration, you could hardly do better than Soprarno Suites, a small, quiet, intimate little ten-suite hotel right in the heart of Florence, a few minutes’ walk from the (not at all quiet) Ponte Vecchio.

The Mugello Valley of northern Tuscany, less than an hour due north of Florence, is rather like the rest of the region, but just a shade more dramatic. Similarly, Tenuta le Tre Virtù is a familiar type — a Tuscan villa turned luxury boutique hotel, with a fine restaurant attached — but it’s the details that elevate it into something far out of the ordinary.

If we had a nickel for every pocket-sized jungle-themed luxury boutique hotel we’ve seen over the years, we’d have a grand total of five cents. Velona’s Jungle Luxury Suites is the only one of its kind, and much of that has to do with Velona himself. That’s Pasquale Velona, antique dealer and dear departed grandfather of the proprietor, Veronica Grechi — this hotel, just to the west of Florence’s busy city center, clearly contains generations’ worth of details.

Sometimes the name more or less says it all. Corso 281 Luxury Suites stands on the Via del Corso, nearly all the way to the Piazza Venezia end, which means it’s right in the thick of things, from a sightseeing perspective, with the Trevi Fountain, the Forum and the Colosseum all a short stroll away. Meanwhile, inside, they promise luxury suites, and it’s luxury suites they deliver: twelve of them, all kitted out in the sort of crisp contemporary style that’s perfectly suited to Rome’s eclectic, era-spanning visual history.

You won’t be surprised to hear that we’re partial to proper, full-scale hotels, but if there’s one city where apartment life holds a particular attraction, it’s Rome. Especially when the apartments in question are as fashionable as those on offer at CasaCau. Here, in the midst of one of Rome’s most heavily traveled neighborhoods, success depends on the personal touch — and if there’s one kind of touch these six totally individual, totally unique apartments are eminently capable of delivering, it’s the personal one.

Rome has glamorous hotels, opulent hotels, luxurious hotels. But it doesn’t have many hotels that are in the top tier when it comes to pure style. Maybe the Eternal City is focused on timeless concerns, leaving matters of fashion to Milan. Whatever the explanation, Hotel Chapter Roma is an illuminating exception. Maybe the difference is that designer Tristan Du Plessis was respectful of the hotel’s 19th-century digs, but not worshipful — add one part dark and moody industrial modernism, one part gem-toned Art Deco-inspired swank, and one part irreverent street-inspired art and you’ve got yourself a hotel experience that’s literally unforgettable.

Hoteliers in Rome seem to feel the pressure of thousands of years of civilization — most hotels strive to be as monumental as the city they serve. A place like Crossing Condotti, by contrast, shows there’s wisdom in keeping things relatively understated. It’s not your typical hotel, but these nine swanky accommodations in a townhouse just off the Spanish Steps are probably truer to the notion of contemporary Roman luxury than any number of marbled, colonnaded grand hotels.

As the old saying goes, you take the rough with the smooth. It means something rather different when the rough in question is G-Rough, the Roman sequel to Venice’s high-design PalazzinaG. Here, aside from some raw textures and finishes, the rough side very rarely comes up — and the concept, outfitting a 17th-century building with Italian design classics from the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, is the very definition of smooth itself.

Tucked down an unassuming side street in the heart of Rome, practically right around the corner from the Pantheon, is a hidden gem: Hotel Scenario stands behind the façade of a well-worn 17th-century palazzo, but its interiors are pure 21st-century design-hotel chic. That is, 21st-century Roman-style — designers Studio MORQ have installed contemporary-luxe fixtures and furnishings, and reorganized the hotel into clean-lined, modernist spaces, but they’ve left intact plenty of antique elements, like frescoes, columns, timbered ceilings, and weathered stone staircases.

It’s named for the emperor who built the last of Rome’s fora, and in fact it stands just outside the walls of the Forum of Nerva, a few streets up from the Colosseum. But don’t go expecting an Imperial Roman experience from the Nerva Boutique Hotel. It’s housed in an antique building — of recent vintage compared to the Forum, mind — but inside it’s coolly contemporary in that effortless Roman way, confidently indifferent to the antiqities that lie outside its walls.

Politicians and noblemen have a funny way of snapping up the best real estate for their own personal use. So it’s no surprise that one of Albania’s great national heroes, George Castriot — that’s Scanderbeg (1405-1468) to you — didn’t care to settle for some kind of ordinary apartment during his frequent stays in Rome. Even in the fifteenth century, it seems, location, location, location was a thing: his palazzo is mere steps from the Trevi Fountain. The building has been through a number of phases since then, including a recent stint as a museum dedicated to pasta. These days, the Palazzo Scanderbeg has gone back to its roots, re-opening its doors as a small hotel with classic elegance and a modern edge.

Florence is perhaps best known as a cultural destination, a place where you feed your mind by exposure to Europe’s greatest concentration of artistic treasures. But this is a city that’s also not averse to creature comforts, either — after all, all those treasures only ended up here because of Florence’s immense wealth. A hotel like Hotel Firenze Number Nine, then, is perfectly placed to cater to the needs of both the body and the mind.

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