Four Seasons Hotel Firenze

Florence grew its first mandarin oranges in 1844, in the garden behind Borgo Pinti 99, and the garden is still there: four and a half hectares, walled in, which in the middle of this city is an extravagance on the scale of a fresco. Count Guido Alberto della Gherardesca made it over as an English park, with footpaths, an artificial lake and rare trees, a sequoia among them, with an Ionic temple and a coffee house by Giuseppe Cacialli to walk to. The palazzo at the front is older. Giuliano da Sangallo built it in the 1470s for Bartolomeo Scala, chancellor of the Florentine Republic, and Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici owned it before his sister Costanza took it into the Della Gherardesca family by marriage. The ballroom keeps its frescoes, with 18th-century chandeliers hanging from them, and a former convent church, frescoed up to its tall ceilings, now does duty for private dinners.

Recommended for anyone who wants the great museums on foot and a park to come home to, and for families: cots are free for children up to three, and extra beds up to eighteen. The Duomo and Michelangelo's David are each ten to fifteen minutes' walk. Back inside the walls, the outdoor pool is 28 metres long and open in season, and in summer the poolside has been given over to bocce and mini golf, with Trattoria Al Fresco grilling meat and fish over a Josper alongside. Palazzo del Nero, the second building, is shut for works until the end of March 2027, and Onde, its restaurant, with it. Dinner, meanwhile, is at Il Palagio, which holds a Michelin star; half of its 120 seats are outside, and on a summer night those are the ones to ask for.