Even Florence can be wearying. Those queues for the Uffizi, the tourists herding along Via dei Calziuoli between the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio, the crowds in Santa Croce. Relax. Escape to the fragrant hills of Fiesole, a 15-minute drive from the city centre, and check in to the Hotel Salviatino.
This handsome building stands in 11 acres of olive trees, vines and conifers. From the moment you walk in the door you can tell this is a place of distinction. There is nothing as vulgar as a reception desk, just an elegant aide proffering a glass of prosecco. Then, with a shimmer worthy of Jeeves, the cases are whisked off to your room by a smart bellboy in a grey uniform. Sorry, he is called the Intuitive Service Ambassador and his job it is to 'cater to every need and whim'.
Intuitive he certainly is, appearing as if from nowhere, wanting to know if there is anything I could possibly require. A drink, a snack, a bath? If only I could think of a need or a whim and if only I had concentrated when he explained how to work the all-in-one lighting switch. Shaving in the dark is always tricky.
The rooms are combination of the new — Nespresso coffee machines, Bose sound systems, iPod docks and a TV that morphs miraculously out of a huge mirror like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat in reverse.
And the old: the windows are at least 20ft high, the wood panelling is solid, there are marble fireplaces, coats of arms and portraits. The bath is huge, the shower just the right side of bracing and the positively Baroque shell-shaped sink is as deep as, well, another bath.
The hotel, which has 45 rooms ranging from the 'double deluxe' to the opulent Ojetti penthouse suite has been opened for only a year. Built in 1427, the Salviati family owned it for nearly 300 years, an American owner added the grand staircase in the 19th century, and in the early 20th century Italian poet Ugo Ojetti installed the library — a splendid room with books from floor to ceiling.
Great care - and £13 million — has been lavished to restore everything from the vaulted ceilings to the terracotta floors. The downstairs rooms have been kept to their original shapes and sizes, which results in some beguiling small rooms in which the guests can use to have a drink or a meal.
The chef specialises in Florentine food such as the mushroom pie with arugula and pecorino cheese starter, chubby spaghetti with duck stewed in Chianti and for the main course veal shank with sautéed Swiss chard. If you have any strength left finish off with wine grape cake. Phew.
Outside there are woods and formal gardens, an indoor and outdoor pool and the Devarna Spa which offers traditional Thai massage and all round luxury pampering. Devarana, by the way, translates as 'garden in heaven'.
Heavenly too, to sit on the terrace at sunset and watch as the Duomo and the stark tower of Palazzo Vecchio first catch the setting sun, then blur into the dusk before the floodlights are switched to bring a glow to one of the most familiar, most fabled sights in the world.
I've just thought of a whim, and a need: 'Another prosecco, per favore'.
Il Salviantino, Via del Salviatino, Florence 21, Italy (+39 055 904 1111; salviatino.com). Room rates start from £267 per room per night.
