Italy

The History

Italy invented leisure travel. From the seventeenth century, young aristocrats crossed the Alps on the Grand Tour to finish their education among Roman ruins and Renaissance masters — and the locande of Venice, Florence and Rome grew into Europe's first grand hotels to receive them.

The golden age followed the travellers south. Venice opened its palazzos — the Gritti, the Danieli — to doges and divas; on the Amalfi Coast a family turned their Positano summer house into Le Sirenuse in 1951; and in Rome, the Hotel de Russie planted its secret terraced garden between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo.

Then came the cinema years: la dolce vita. Paparazzi on the Via Veneto, starlets at the Excelsior, directors holding court in hotel bars. Italy's great hotels became film sets that never closed — and walking into one today still feels like stepping onto the screen.