The Best New Hotels Opening in Italy This Year

These are the opening on the horizon in Italy in 2026, from cities to islands.

Venice

The storied Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel is putting finishing touches on its extensive and gorgeous renovation, and by the middle of 2026, Venice will see the completion of a hat trick of grand and long-awaited big-brand renovations. Airelles Palladio Venezia, the company’s first hotel outside France, is putting finishing touches on a decade-long renovation of a 17th-century Palladio-designed villa complex on Giudecca. The truly legendary Danieli along Riva degli Schiavoni will be reborn as a Four Seasons. Orient Express Venezia at Palazzo Donà Giovannelli is another grand, multi-year transformation of a 15th-century Venetian palace, the former home of the Duke of Urbino and the Donà and Giovannelli families. If this one is even a tenth as impressive as their new La Minerva hotel in Rome, we’re all in.

Florence

Down to Florence for another France-to-Italy entry: La Réserve Firenze will be six elegant one- to three-bedrooms apartments in a 15th-century palazzo. Cue the Arno views, a gym, a rooftop terrace, and the finest hotel services. (June) Palazzo Morrocchi near the Duomo, once the preferred meeting spot of the rebellious Macchiaioli painters in the 19th century, looks very stylish, elegant, and cool. (April) But the biggest news is the unveiling of the 18-month renovation of Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel in the hills outside Florence. Talk about a renaissance. (April)

Rome

You thought Rome couldn’t get any more crowded, but you’re wrong. A score of new hotels are set to open, several delayed from 2025. (Gotta love Italian bureaucracy.) First up is Casa J.K. Place Roma, an auxiliary of sorts to excellent sister hotel J.K. Place Roma a few minutes away. Thirteen one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences designed for longer stays have full kitchens and dining rooms, as well as access to a gym, restaurant, and a crack team of concierges, chefs, and butlers. A cute Hotel Alexandra Rome, part of IHG’s do-gooder Vignette Collection, opens this spring, and a sleek Thompson Rome opens in June in the former headquarters of the Italian communist party. In March, Corinthia Rome opens in the former Central Bank of Italy with a restaurant by Italian superchef Carlo Cracco and a spa is in the former bank vaults. Another bank transformation lands this autumn: Rosewood Rome in the former Banca Nazionale del Lavoro on Via Veneto. It will have 157 rooms and suites, three restaurants, obligatory Roman rooftop with a view, and a Roman-style bathhouse in the old bank vault underground. And finally, later this year the Hotel Majestic will become a ritzy, sparkly, 87-key Baccarat Rome.

Milan

Milan continues to build its luxury hotel portfolio. The Carlton, a Rocco Forte hotel, is the newest opening, and this year will see Six Senses Milan in Brera and J.K. Place Milano in the former Versace HQ.

On the Islands

In time for prime Aperol season, Rocco Forte Hotels will open Costa Smeralda along the coast in Sardinia, and Aldo Melpignano, owner of Borgo Egnazia and the hotelier preserving and revitalizing hospitality projects throughout Italy, will have finished all the residences at La Tiara del Cervo, also on the Costa Smeralda. Casa Caprile, the former home of Queen Victoria of Sweden, will open in Anacapri, Capri’s quieter hilltop village.