Three Italian B&Bs with sprezzatura

A creative haven in the heart of Florence

Martino di Napoli Rampolla founded Numeroventi in 2016 as a combination artists’ and chefs’ residence, research studio and boutique hotel. Rampolla’s idea was to always have guests and Florentines of a creative bent – artisans, architects, writers, designers, winemakers, events planners – meeting and communing in spaces designed by Openhouse magazine editor Andrew Trotter (who also designed Puglia’s ultra-sleek Masseria Moroseta).

There are just six suites in the 16th-century Palazzo Galli Tassi, each furnished sparingly with contemporary and 20th-century design pieces. The building is its own story – after it was a noble home, it housed ministries and functioned in the 19th century as a syrup-making plant – and is worth a stay simply for the pleasures of its courtyard and grand double staircase. Soaring ceilings allow for loft-like configurations in three of the suites, which are minimalist and airy. The remaining three are moodier, with warmer and deeper tones. Loft 7, clocking in at just 15sq m, is the chicest take on minuscule in the city; Loft 10, a 60sq m two-room apartment, has walls covered in half-restored frescoes. When the shows are over and you’re ready for a night’s peace, consider San Carlo, Numeroventi’s one-bedroom retreat on the hill near the Torre di Bellosguardo – an easy 10-minute drive or 40-minute walk.

Atelier life alla Napoletana in buzzy La Sanità

It wasn’t that long ago that you’d not have wanted to stroll too long after dark around La Sanità, Naples’s cacophonous and deeply atmospheric heart. But the quartiere has cleaned up of late, and its crooked lanes, cantankerous fishmongers and general air of barely contained chaos have become downright sought-after. Atelier Inès is the Sanità’s open-secret best place to stay by a mile. Vincenzo Oste and Inès Sellàmi opened their nine-room guesthouse on the piano nobile of the 1947-vintage palazzo built by Vincenzo’s father Annibale, a renowned woodworker and sculptor.

The house’s artisan life lives on and the ground floor space is now Vincenzo and his sister’s studio; all those amazing mirrors, brass and bronze furnishings and terrazzo-style cocktail trays are their designs. Sellàmi oversees the hospitality, which includes daily breakfast and aperitivo in the palazzo’s back garden, shaded by lime trees and awnings, or on one of the front terraces. It’s a real, living atelier that goes seamlessly with its one-off interiors.

The casa to book in medieval Turin

Nothing says Italian style like sleeping in a palace that’s listed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. Such is Casa del Pingone, at the edge of Turin’s immaculately preserved medieval centre. The building’s modest four-storey corner façades belie its illustrious foundations; today its medieval tower is the last remaining visible one in the city. Its eponymous six-suite guesthouse reopened two years ago across several floors; news-wise, the hotel component took a slight backseat to the starry bistrot-bar that occupies the palace’s ground floor (initially it was more of a restaurant-with-rooms concept). But sitting as it does in the sweet spot where great value and real style meet, the hotel quickly developed its own fan base.

There’s a generosity of space – the smallest suite is 43sq m; the largest, a knockout apartment with exposed beams and bricks, is 180sq m. The Loft suite is lined with tall, arched, loggia-style windows and has access to a terrace adjacent to the tower. Tuareg mats and kilims; Superleggero chairs and Tolomeo task lighting; marble, porcelain, nickel and vintage tiles in the bathrooms: the design hits every mark.