Hotel Cerretani Firenze - MGallery by Sofitel

Hotel Cerretani Firenze - MGallery by Sofitel

On Via de' Cerretani, in the stretch of streets running between the Duomo and Piazza Santa Maria Novella, the Hotel Cerretani Firenze occupies a palazzo whose facade dates to the sixteenth century, its angled front and baroque mirrored panels a leftover of a mid-century refit that touched several buildings in this part of the city. The Duomo is a few minutes on foot, the Medici Chapels closer still, and Santa Maria Novella station is a five-minute walk, which makes the hotel's 86 rooms and suites as practical for a weekend as for a week. The property belongs to Accor's MGallery collection, the group's boutique arm long associated with the Sofitel name, and was most recently renovated in 2016. Veronica Broccardi Schelmi runs it as general manager, overseeing a front desk that works in five languages and handles everything from late checkouts to airport transfers without much fuss. Inside, the room range tops out with the Medici Suite, fifty-three square metres with a view over the Medici Chapels and the rooftops behind them, while the Junior Suites run to thirty-five square metres with king beds and deep wardrobes. Executive rooms come with a Nespresso machine, a detail MGallery repeats across its properties, and bathrooms throughout are stocked with Culti toiletries, not a house-branded line. Breakfast is served at Il Patio, a buffet built from Tuscan produce with a gluten-free selection alongside the usual pastries and espresso; in the evening, the wine bar Il Michelangelo pours a list weighted toward regional Tuscan labels, the kind of place where a Chianti Classico or a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano gets more attention than a cocktail menu. A small gym stays open around the clock, and the hotel holds Green Key certification for its environmental practices, one of relatively few Florence hotels of its size to bother with the paperwork. What it feels like is a well-run Accor property that happens to occupy a historic shell, not a boutique hotel with a strong identity of its own. The conference centre and meeting rooms see regular use from business travellers, and the connecting rooms are set up for families more than for couples chasing privacy. It suits someone who wants the Duomo ten minutes away on foot, dependable service in several languages, and a room that will not surprise them, more than someone hunting for the editorial flourishes that come with a smaller, owner-run palazzo down the street. You should not come here if you want a hotel with a singular design identity, or if a business centre and pay-per-view television make a stay feel more corporate than Florentine. You should not come if you are chasing the quiet of a courtyard set back from the street, since Via de' Cerretani carries its share of daytime foot traffic. You should come for the location, which puts the Duomo, the Medici Chapels and the shopping along Via de' Tornabuoni within a short walk in any direction, for the reliability of an international group behind the desk, and for a wine bar that takes Tuscan labels more seriously than most hotel bars bother to. The short version: A 4-star, 86-room MGallery hotel in a sixteenth-century palazzo on Via de' Cerretani, renovated in 2016, five minutes from the Duomo, with a Tuscan wine bar and dependable, multilingual Accor service.