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Italy

16 new hotel openings in Italy to watch in 2026

The Mediterranean • Stay • 16 new hotel openings in Italy to watch in 2026

Italy’s 2026 hotel openings move between palazzi, rural estates and coastal hideaways, but the most interesting ones bring strong regional character and a clear design hand. This is our curated, regularly updated list of new hotels opening across Italy in 2026, with key details added as they are confirmed.

For the full Mediterranean roundup, see our 2026 Mediterranean hotel openings hot list.

Top photography courtesy of François Halard and Villa San Michele

2/7

Hotel Aurora

Merano, Italy

A family-run Merano landmark since 1964 has become a hotel, restaurant and cultural club under the same roof. Third-generation owners Melanie and Philipp Aukenthaler commissioned South Tyrolean architect Hannes Peer and Vienna studio Feld72 to complete the first phase of Hotel Aurora’s redesign, covering 18 of its 59 rooms and the principal guest spaces. Travertine, walnut, brass and Laas marble meet an aluminium outer skin and references to 1970s California and Alpine modernism. The Listening Bar is reserved for hotel guests and members, while Restaurant Arté serves chef Gennaro Santoro’s regional cooking beside the Passer promenade. Book an Iconic room to experience the new scheme.

Hotel Aurora

Passeggiata lungo Passirio 38
Merano
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Hotel Aurora

1/7

Hotel Danieli

Venice, Italy

Hotel Danieli has never pretended to be discreet. It sits openly on the Riva degli Schiavoni, facing the lagoon with the confidence of a building that knows it has seen more Venetian history than most museums. What makes it singular is not polish, but accumulation. Three palazzi from different centuries stitched together by bridges and staircases, with no attempt to smooth the seams. You move from the 14th-century Palazzo Dandolo into later additions almost without noticing, except for a sudden change in ceiling height, light or temperature. Public spaces feel ceremonial, almost excessive, while some rooms retain an idiosyncratic, old-world awkwardness that newer luxury hotels edit out. Arrival by boat still matters here. Under Four Seasons management from 2026, the interest lies in restraint: preserving Danieli’s irregularity, theatrical scale and unapologetic historic weight, rather than sanding it down into something polite.

Hotel Danieli

Riva degli Schiavoni, 4196,
Venice
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Hotel Danieli

13/6

Le Lappe Relais

Montegonzi, Italy

Le Lappe Relais sits in the wooded Chianti hills near Montegonzi, where Tuscany feels less staged. Lorenza Calabrese de Feo opened the 11-room hotel and restaurant in 2010 after restoring two buildings: one on the ruins of a medieval tower, the other a former convent. Its relaunch by interior designer Remy Renzullo and architect Niccolò Calabrese de Feo keeps the place layered and slightly eccentric, with iron beds, botanical panels, dark timber, brick arches, a tower bar and painted walls by Florentine decorative artist Assia Pallavicino. Gardens by Tania Compton and Heli Carr-Smith fold the agricultural estate back into the rooms.

Le Lappe Relais

Loc. Rimontoli, Fraz. Montegonzi
Cavriglia
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Le Lappe Relais

5/6

Hotel Bella Vista

Trafoi, Italy

Hotel Bella Vista is not a new hotel and should not read like one. Its strength is continuity: the Thöni family has run this Trafoi address inside Stelvio National Park, at the foot of Ortler, since 1875. What brings it back into focus is The Nest, a 24-suite timber-framed wing added in 2026 by family friend Matteo Thun. The new structure connects to the historic building without trying to outshout the mountains, with large windows, blue-and-white rooms by Christina Biasi von Berg of Studio Biquadra, Home of Gold lounge, adults-only spa and infinity pool facing the peaks.

Hotel Bella Vista

Trafoi 11
Trafoi
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Hotel Bella Vista

1/6

Experimental Roma

Rome, Italy

Experimental Roma is Experimental Group’s Rome address in the Ludovisi district, close to Via Veneto and the Swiss Institute. The hotel is built in a converted former office building with 82 rooms and suites. Rodolphe Parente handled the architecture and interiors. A glass-roof restaurant anchors the ground floor. The Experimental Cocktail Club Roma bar does the group’s calling card: tight classics and high tempo. Upstairs, a rooftop terrace adds a suspended pool and a reason to come back before dinner.

Experimental Roma

Via Ludovisi, 46
Rome
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Giulio Ghirardi and Experimental Roma

1/6

Dimora Camille

Sicily, Italy

Dimora Camille turns an 1800s Sicilian farm ruin into a small retreat that still reads through stone, heat and agricultural memory. Set in the countryside outside Scicli, a UNESCO-listed Baroque town in south-eastern Sicily, the property was created by Sammi Coubeche with architect Viviana Haddad, who handled architecture, interiors and landscape. There are three rooms, one suite and four apartments, with a pool built inside the former stone animal enclosure and a gym beyond it. The location is practical too: seven kilometres from Scicli, with Donnalucata, Marina di Ragusa and Sampieri close enough for beach days.

Dimora Camille

Contrada Spinazza, 375
Scicli
Sicily
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Dimora Camille

17/5

La Darbia in Chianti

Greve in Chianti, Italy

An abandoned 11th-century hamlet now gives Chianti a hotel that feels built from the landscape rather than placed on top of it. Architect brothers Gian Carlo and Matteo Primatesta restored La Darbia across three historic farmhouses on a 15-hectare estate between Greve and Panzano. Its 17 suites use local stone, terracotta, travertine and timber, with four family options adding bunk rooms, gardens or loggias. Two panoramic pools look across olive groves, woodland and lavender fields. The restaurant keeps the focus regional, with chef Sebastiano Pagliaro cooking Tuscan produce for hotel guests against the same wide rural view.

La Darbia in Chianti

Via Case Sparse 16
Greve in Chianti
Italy

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Photography courtesy of La Darbia in Chianti

16/5

Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze

Florence, Italy

Occupying a building first documented in 1386, Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze carries more genuine history than most Florentine stays can claim. A comprehensive renovation completed in May 2026 retained frescoed walls, vaulted ceilings and the medieval Torre Monalda while giving its 69 rooms and suites a richer layer of leather, embroidered wallcoverings and draped textiles. Six signature suites draw directly on the building’s past, led by the tower suite with 360-degree views across Florence. Downstairs, the lobby is conceived as a contemporary piazza, joined by a bistro bar and a restaurant concept from Michelin-starred chef Paulo Airaudo focused on Tuscan ingredients and Italian cooking.

Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze

Via Porta Rossa 19
Florence
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze

1/5

W Sardinia Poltu Quatu

Sardinia, Italy

A whitewashed marina village carved into a natural fjord is stronger than any hotel logo, which is why W Sardinia Poltu Quatu is well worth a stay. It sits in one of Costa Smeralda’s strangest resort settings, a “hidden port” between Porto Cervo and Baia Sardinia, where the hotel feels carved into the inlet rather than placed beside it. Inside, Meyer Davis and DE.TALES pull the W vocabulary towards Sardinia with rounded forms, sandy tones, Orosei marble, hammered metal, ceramics, textiles and local art. There are 157 rooms and suites, TANIT for marina-front seafood, WET Deck for pool life, AWAY Spa and enough theatre to keep the place awake.

W Sardinia Poltu Quatu

Poltu Quatu
Porto Cervo
Sassari
Sardinia
Italy

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Photography courtesy of W Sardinia Poltu Quatu

28/4

Villa San Michele

Florence, Italy

High above Florence, where the city feels like a painted backdrop, Villa San Michele has always played by its own rules. Built as a 15th-century Franciscan monastery in Fiesole, the property reopens in 2026 after an 18-month renovation that favours clarity over gloss. There are just 39 rooms and suites, reshaped by Florence-based Luigi Fragola Architects using stone, terracotta and antique fragments that let the building speak. Three new signature suites take centre stage, including Limonaia in the former orangery and The Grand Tour, once home to Napoleon Bonaparte. A first-ever Guerlain spa slips into the hillside.

Villa San Michele

Via Doccia 4
Fiesole
Italy

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Photography courtesy of François Halard and Villa San Michele

9/4

The Monteleone

Monteleone dʼOrvieto, Italy

On the edge of Umbria, with Tuscany almost within arm’s reach, The Monteleone turns a restored medieval borgo in Monteleone d’Orvieto into a retreat for travellers who want countryside without farmhouse cosplay. The 17-room hotel keeps things light, pared back and tactile, with natural materials, garden-facing suites and a pool looking out over the hills. Breakfast leans local – honey, cured meats, cheeses, homemade pastries and fresh bread – and the better move is to use it as a base for wine tastings, truffle hunts, village drives and long detours to Orvieto or Città della Pieve. Slow, yes, but not sleepy.

The Monteleone

Via Sandro Pertini, 10
Monteleone dʼOrvieto
Italy

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Photography courtesy of The Monteleone

1/4

Airelles Palladio Venice

Venice, Italy

Quiet gardens and a view straight across to St Mark’s Square set the tone on Giudecca, where Airelles Palladio Venice occupies a sixteenth-century property with the rare luxury of space. Inside, hand-painted frescoes, Rubelli and Fortuny fabrics and antique furniture give the 17 rooms and 28 suites real texture rather than generic palazzo gloss. The draw, though, is how much the place lets you exhale: nearly a hectare of gardens, three pools and a 1,700-square-metre spa in a city that usually asks you to keep moving. Five minutes by boat gets you back into central Venice, but that is not really the point.

Airelles Palladio Venice

Fondamenta Zitelle, 33
Venice
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Airelles

30/3

Orient Express Venezia

Venice, Italy

Pink-and-white Gothic drama on a quiet Cannaregio canal gives Orient Express Venezia immediate bite, but the real hook is inside. The hotel occupies the 15th-century Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, reworked by architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman into 47 rooms and suites layered with Murano glass, Art Deco touches and restored frescoes. This is not one for ticking off between sights. Linger in the salons, study the shell fireplaces and flying figures, then take a drink at the Wagon Bar once your eye has adjusted to the level of finish. It has proper theatre, but also the calm to make that theatre land.

Orient Express Venezia

Strada Nova, 2292
Venice
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Orient Express Venezia

10/3

The Lake Como Edition

Cadenabbia, Italy

Set on Lake Como’s western shore, The Lake Como Edition arrives in March 2026 with a confidence that feels deliberately restrained. Housed in a restored 19th-century palazzo, the hotel resists nostalgia in favour of clarity: original arches and vaulted volumes are kept intact, then sharpened by Neri & Hu’s pared-back modernism. This is Edition at its most architectural. A floating pool edges out onto the lake. Interiors lean on stone, terrazzo and shadow rather than ornament. Food matters here too. Three-Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco makes his first move on Italian soil, shaping four dining spaces rooted in nature rather than spectacle. The Longevity Spa signals an interesting shift for Como: less glamour, more intent.

The Lake Como Edition

Via Regina 41
Griante Cadenabbia
Italy

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Photography courtesy of The Lake Como Edition

9/3

Corinthia Rome

Rome, Italy

In Rome’s Campo Marzio, Corinthia Rome has taken over a former Bank of Italy stronghold and turned it into something closer to a discreet members’ club that happens to have rooms. The building was constructed between 1913 and 1921 by Pio and Marcello Piacentini and the restoration keeps the serious stuff – marble panelling, stuccoes, mosaics and painted ceilings – then softens it with contemporary interiors by G.A. Design. There are sixty rooms including twenty-one suites, plus a spa carved into the old vaults, with treatments developed with Seed to Skin Tuscany and 111Skin. Food and drink are curated by Carlo Cracco across Viride, Piazzetta and Ocra Bar.

Corinthia Rome

P.za del Parlamento, 18
Rome
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Corinthia Rome

23/2

Aethos Milan

Milan, Italy

In Milan neighbourhood Navigli, just off the Darsena, Aethos Milan runs as a boutique hotel and members’ club, which explains the social charge in the building after dark. The 35 rooms and suites all differ, with vintage Italian furniture, original décor and in many cases private balconies. ZAÏA handles Mediterranean cooking built for sharing, The Doping covers the cocktails, and the club side is not just branding: there is curated programming, cultural events and regular happenings including listening sessions, yoga and pilates. Aethos is good for anyone who wants Milan with some local access already baked in.

Aethos Milan

Piazza XXIV Maggio 8
Milan
Italy

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Photography courtesy of Aethos Milan