The St. Regis Florence is at its best at six in the evening, when a bartender sabres a bottle of champagne under the glass dome of the Winter Garden, and first thing in the morning, when you pull back the curtains on the Arno. Our butler looked after us from the welcome bear on the bed to the morning coffee. The rooms are grand and ornate, but they were last done in 2011 and nothing in ours felt new. The back rooms are smaller and darker and come without a butler. At about $1,000 a night it costs far less than the Four Seasons, but Portrait Firenze gives you a newer suite on the Ponte Vecchio for no more money. If you do stay, it's for the river and the palace, so pay for a room that faces the Arno. See pictures ↓
Service
The doorman took our bags at the kerb on Piazza Ognissanti, and at the desk I was handed a heavy brass key engraved with the hotel's crest, the kind you're glad to leave at reception when you go out. Our butler had been in the suite before us. Sitting on the bed was a little teddy bear in a St. Regis hoodie, holding the string of a pink balloon, and there was a bottle of sparkling wine to go with it. I liked that touch far more than I expected to.
Butler service comes with the rooms that face the Arno and with the suites, around the clock, and it's the best reason to pay for one. Ours sorted out everything we asked for without any fuss, and coffee or tea brought up in the morning costs nothing. Afternoon coffee does go on the bill, which caught me out after a morning of being spoiled. The back rooms don't get a butler at all, so a guest there has a plainer stay in the same building.
Down in the public rooms the welcome is polished and a little formal. On a busy evening in the Winter Garden the waiters were polite and kept their distance, which suits the room, though nobody down there got to know us the way our butler did. If you want a day out of the city, the concierge can send you off in the hotel's Bentley.
Rooms
The first thing I did in our Arno-view Junior Suite was pull back the dark green velvet curtain. Below the window the river runs wide and slow, the colour of milky tea on a grey November day, with two old stone bridges one behind the other and the ochre and yellow houses of the Oltrarno climbing to the cypresses on the hill. I could have watched it all afternoon, and I went back to that window every time we came in.
The bedroom is white and bright, with grey mouldings drawn into arches across the walls, a wrought-iron chandelier, a carved gilt mirror over the big bed and an old X-framed chair in the corner. Next door the sitting room has a velvet sofa, a desk with barley-twist legs, a mirrored wall and panels of faded fresco, all on a wide oak floor. The bathroom is marble, with a black and white chequerboard floor, two basins, a deep tub and a TV set into the mirror, and like the rest of the suite it was spotless.
It's a handsome suite, but the rooms were last done when the hotel reopened in 2011, in a heavy traditional style, and nothing in ours felt new. I didn't mind in a suite this light, though I'd feel differently paying the same money for one of the darker rooms. Nearly half the rooms face the Arno, and those are the ones to book. If a suite is more than you want to spend, the Premium Deluxe Arno River View is the room I'd pick. The rest look onto the courtyard and the side street, and they're smaller and darker and come without the butler. Ask for a room on the first two floors, where the ceilings are highest.
Food and drink
At about six each evening a bartender in the Winter Garden takes a sabre to a bottle of champagne, and the neck of the bottle flies off with a pop. We took two glasses of sparkling wine and a little dish of snacks to a table under the arches while the pianist played, and of everything we did at the hotel, that's what I remember best. Order the Brunello Bloody Mary at least once, since it's the bar's own drink.
Breakfast is in the Balconata, up under the glass dome, with a buffet of pastries and fruit and hot dishes cooked to order. I had eggs and a good cappuccino and could happily have stayed until they stopped serving at eleven. It's worth booking a rate with breakfast in it. Afternoon tea is at Caffè Ginori, among shelves of coloured porcelain, with a tea sommelier to steer you, and the grilled octopus I had on blue and white Ginori was the best thing I ate here.
Dinner at Winter Garden by Caino is a formal affair under the painted glass ceiling, with the pianist playing and Tuscan cooking from Valeria Piccini, whose Da Caino is in Montemerano in southern Tuscany. It's a dressed-up night, and with Florence's trattorias a short walk away I'd book it once and eat out in the city on the other evenings. One night we had spaghetti sent up to the suite on pink Ginori plates, and it was exactly what I wanted.
Setting
Coming back across Piazza Ognissanti at dusk, with the sky turning orange and the hotel's ochre stone front lit up on the river side of the square, I thought there can't be many better doors to come home to in Florence. The Duomo is about 15 minutes away on foot, and the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi are closer still along the river. I liked walking home along the Arno after dinner.
The hotel is Palazzo Giuntini, a 15th-century palace that spent years as the Grand Hotel Florence before it reopened as the St. Regis in 2011. The Winter Garden is the heart of it, with stained glass in the vaulted ceiling, a huge glass chandelier and marble floors laid in sweeping circles round the grand piano. On a grey afternoon I liked the library lounge best, with its leather sofas and marble busts under a glowing stained-glass window. One evening we went up to the rooftop bar of the hotel across the road, and the view was ordinary next to the one from our own window.
There's no pool, and the spa is small, built around private treatment suites with gold and silver walls and Carrara marble, so for a hot summer afternoon the Four Seasons, with its garden and pool, wins easily. The gym is small too, though it's open day and night. If you're driving, hand the car to the valet at the door, who deals with the car-free zone so you don't need a permit.
Value
I kept weighing the price against that view from the window. An entry Deluxe room here usually costs about $600 to $800 a night in the quieter months and more than $1,000 when Florence is busy, and the average across the year is about $1,000. The Arno-view rooms and suites cost more again, and they're the ones I'd pay for. You earn Marriott Bonvoy points on the stay and can spend them here too.
The Four Seasons Firenze is the obvious comparison, at about $1,800 a night, and for that you get a big garden and a pool. Portrait Firenze, right on the Ponte Vecchio, costs about $750 to $1,000, and nearly all its rooms are suites, so for no more money it gives you more space and a newer fit-out. Helvetia & Bristol, near Palazzo Strozzi, is about $600 to $760 and the one to look at on a tighter budget.
So the St. Regis sits in the middle on price and at the old-fashioned end on rooms. With an Arno view and a butler, the river and the evenings under the dome made it worth the money for me. At the entry rate, in a room on the courtyard, it isn't competitive, and I'd book Portrait instead.
Who it suits
Couples who love old-world grandeur and want to walk everywhere will be happiest here, especially Bonvoy members and anyone who'll pay for a room facing the Arno. It isn't for anyone who wants a pool and a proper spa, or who needs their room to feel new, and I wouldn't book the entry rooms on the courtyard. For a newer suite on the Ponte Vecchio at the same price, book Portrait Firenze, and for a garden and a pool, the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze.
