La Réserve Firenze: Six Private Apartments in a 15th-Century Palazzo in the Oltrarno

La Réserve has arrived in Italy. With La Réserve Firenze, Michel Reybier’s collection of private residences with hotel service adds its first Italian address: six apartments in a Renaissance palazzo in the Oltrarno, the district on the left bank of the Arno that is still home to many Florentines. The concept is the one La Réserve has been refining for more than twenty years, a private home with the attention of a great hotel.

A palazzo restored by Gilles & Boissier

The building is Palazzo Segni, a 15th-century palazzo bought in 2022 by Olivia and Grégory Marciano, who have lived in Florence since 2019. Their aim, to keep the soul of the house while giving it a second life, matched Michel Reybier’s vision from the start. For four years, the interior designers Gilles & Boissier worked on the restoration and brought the palazzo’s history back to the surface: hand-restored frescoes, coffered ceilings, traditional terracotta floors and travertine from Siena now sit alongside works from the owners’ private collection.

Straight-line distances. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

For Grégory Marciano, what makes the palazzo special is not only its beauty but its address, in the middle of the neighbourhood where real Florentines live.

At home in Florence

The six apartments measure between 180 and 210 square metres and have one to three bedrooms. Guests also share a lounge, a games room with a billiard table, a library devoted to Italy, art and design, a gym and a shaded inner courtyard. Meals in the apartments come from a Florentine institution, Trattoria Cammillo, and a housekeeper looks after each apartment every day.

The Oltrarno on the doorstep

The palazzo stands on Via Santo Spirito, once the home of the great Florentine families and still the lively heart of an authentic Florence: art galleries and restaurant terraces alternate with craft workshops and small boutiques. Palazzo Pitti, the Ponte Vecchio and Via Tornabuoni are a few minutes’ walk away. A maître de maison shares the city’s best-kept secrets and arranges private cultural tours, tennis among the olive trees on the owners’ estate, wine tastings, and cooking and mixology classes.

With Florence, La Réserve now counts four hotels and seven private residences worldwide, and the new address fits its idea of luxury well: a few rooms, a lot of space, and a city seen from the inside rather than from the tourist trail.

La Réserve Firenze, Via Santo Spirito 6, Florence (Italy) · lareserve-firenze.com

About the author

Roger Hohl

Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.