Rivoli Boutique Hotel, the historic Franciscan cloister where you can now dine under the stars

In the heart of Florence, a place that has been welcoming travelers from all over the world for over seven centuries

Rivoli Boutique Hotel is a four-star hotel in the historic centre of Florence, on Via della Scala, just a few steps from the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, housed within a former Franciscan complex dating back to the 14th century. Here, along Via della Scala and just moments from Santa Maria Novella, time seems to have paused.

Step through the discreet entrance of Rivoli Boutique Hotel and you find yourself in a 14th-century Franciscan cloister, surrounded by pietra serena columns, hidden gardens and a silence that seems to belong to another Florence. Here, luxury is gentle, never ostentatious. It is the luxury of authenticity.

Rivoli Boutique Hotel

Because the Rivoli is not simply a hotel housed in an ancient convent. It is a place that, for more than seven hundred years, has continued to fulfil the same mission: welcoming those who arrive in Florence. Once, they were pilgrims travelling towards Rome. Today, they are travellers from every corner of the world. The origins of the building date back to the 14th century. Originally a Franciscan monastery and hospital, it still preserves its original cloister, cross vaults, ancient stone portals and even the coats of arms of the religious orders that once lived here. But the story of the Rivoli does not belong only to the Renaissance. It also belongs to 20th-century Florence.

A Woman Who Pioneered Hospitality Before Bed & Breakfasts

The modern history of the hotel begins in 1950. Mirra Vegni Caridi, left alone during the war with two children to raise, decided to open the doors of her home to pilgrims travelling for the Holy Year. Long before anyone spoke of albergo diffuso or Bed & Breakfasts, she had already understood that Florence's future would be closely linked to hospitality. From that small guesthouse would grow one of the city's longest-established hotel businesses.

Rivoli Boutique Hotel

The Boy from the Convent Who Returned to Buy It

Then there is an episode that seems to have come straight from a novel. As a child, Gianni Caridi, Mirra's son, had spent time at the convent of the Canossian Sisters, which then occupied the building. Many years later, in 1963, he returned to purchase it. The Mother Superior recognised him as the boy she had watched grow up in those corridors and decided to sell the convent to him. The following year, Rivoli Boutique Hotel was officially born. Ever since, the same family has continued to care for this place, now in its third generation with Chiara Caridi.

The Understated Luxury of Made in Italy

In recent years, the Rivoli has embarked on an extensive renovation project designed not to erase its history, but to enter into dialogue with it. The new rooms feature furniture made by Tuscan artisans, Italian herringbone parquet flooring, Carrara marble bathrooms, walk-in showers with chromotherapy and bespoke details. Even the choice of bathroom amenities tells a Florentine story, thanks to the historic Farmacia SS. Annunziata.

It reflects a very precise idea of hospitality: not to standardise, but to celebrate Italian craftsmanship and know-how. It is the concept the Caridi family calls ospitalità artigiana - artisanal hospitality.

A form of hospitality rooted in the most authentic Italian tradition of welcoming guests, where each person is recognised and received through a relationship that is human, personal and never standardised. It is an approach to hôtellerie in which even the objects tell a story: that of the family that has cared for this place for generations, or that of the Florentine and Tuscan artisans whose skills have helped shape its identity.

Where Wellbeing Is Found in Silence

In Florence's historic centre, true luxury is often silence. The Rivoli's cloister remains the heart of the hotel. During its most recent major renovation, the number of rooms was reduced to 81, creating larger spaces designed to offer guests every comfort.

Chiostro, Rivoli Boutique Hotel

Aqua Spa, the hotel's exclusive spa created within the ancient spaces of the convent, adds another dimension to the experience, with a year-round heated Jacuzzi, sauna, hammam and a selection of treatments. It is an intimate approach to wellbeing, far removed from the concept of a large urban spa. Here, wellness comes above all from the feeling of having entered a place that still preserves the slower rhythm of its monastic origins.

Benedicta, Where the Cloister Becomes a Dining Room

When the Caridi family decided to open Ristorante Benedicta to outside guests in 2008, the choice was no coincidence. In a boutique hotel, hospitality also extends to the kitchen, which becomes an integral part of the guest experience.

The restaurant offers contemporary Italian cuisine rooted in Tuscan tradition and guided by the seasons, with particular attention to small local producers and a selection of wines from the region. The atmosphere changes with the seasons too: in summer, guests dine surrounded by the greenery of the inner garden, in one of the most secluded corners of Florence's historic centre. Dining under the stars, in the heart of Florence, thus becomes part of the story itself: an experience in which the setting, the cuisine and the atmosphere come together to create something truly memorable.

Ristorante Benedicta

More Than a Hotel, a Florentine Home

There are hotels that tell the story of a city. And then there are hotels that are part of that story. Rivoli Boutique Hotel belongs to the latter. Because here, history is not a backdrop created for tourism. It is an unbroken continuity spanning seven centuries, made of stone, families, artisans and people who have always regarded hospitality not simply as a profession, but as a responsibility. Perhaps that is the greatest difference of all. A boutique hotel where you have the feeling of being a guest in a Florentine home that, day after day, continues to write its own story.

Rivoli Boutique Hotel
Via della Scala, 33
ph. +39 055 27861
info@hotelrivoli.it
hotelrivoli.it