The 16 Best Airbnbs in Florence for the Design-Lover
Where to stay on your trip to the Italian city.
Reported by Vogue.
Florence doesn't need a pitch. The Renaissance light, the ribollita, the terracotta rooflines bleeding into a perfect Tuscan sky — it sells itself. What it does need, however, is a better answer to the question of where to stay. Hotels are fine. But if you want to actually live inside one of the world's most designed cities, you need an apartment with frescoed ceilings, a morning espresso terrace, and wood beams that have outlasted empires.
According to Vogue, the best Airbnbs in Florence range from $202 to $645 per night — a spread that covers everything from a one-bedroom on the Oltrarno riverbank to a writer's loft inside a working artist residency. Many of the properties date to the 15th century or earlier, which means you're sleeping inside actual history: stone walls, terracotta floors, and occasionally a ceiling fresco that rivals what's hanging in the Uffizi down the street. Options are organized by traveler type — solo escapes, family-friendly stays, private garden hideaways, architectural gems — so the curation does the work for you.
The Standouts Worth Booking First
The Artist's Apartment on the Arno (from $290/night) is a compact, beautifully considered pied-à-terre that originally belonged to a Florentine sculptor — the blue-and-white tiled bathroom and antique kitchen furniture are earning their keep. For something more maximalist, the Exclusive Florence Penthouse delivers chartreuse velvet, mismatched dining chairs, a green-tiled kitchen, and a rooftop terrace with a direct sightline to the Duomo. Out in Fiesole — about 15 minutes from the city center — I Palpiti is a Barbie-pink villa once owned by Franco-Tuscan painter Elisabeth Chaplin, with a mint-and-tomato kitchen interior that commits fully to its own chaos. Meanwhile, Numeroventi Loft 10 (from $645/night) sits inside a three-floor artist residency and trades rustic charm for raw materials, high ceilings, and the kind of spare, considered space that actually makes you want to create something.
The logic here is simple: Florence's design vocabulary is so saturated — Gothic grandeur, Renaissance proportion, Tuscan warmth — that even a short-term rental absorbs it. These aren't just places to sleep between museum runs. They're part of the experience, the visual immersion that makes the city stick long after you've left.
If you're using Florence as a home base for wider travel through Rome, Milan, or greater Tuscany, staying somewhere with actual character isn't a luxury — it's the whole point.
Read the original at Vogue.
