A Roman palazzo with echoes of Stendhal and a freshly restored Ligurian monastery that has defined the glamour of the Italian Riviera for decades: Italy has claimed two places on the prestigious Prix Versailles World’s Most Beautiful Hotels List 2026.
The Prix Versailles revealed its World’s Most Beautiful Hotels List 2026 earlier this month, selecting 16 newly opened or recently restored properties from across the globe. Announced annually at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Prix Versailles is a series of architectural competitions that celebrate outstanding contemporary architecture and design, with selections judged on criteria including creativity, cultural heritage, ecological efficiency and social connection.
At the end of 2026, three of the 16 featured hotels will receive a further world title of “Prix Versailles, Interior or Exterior.” Italy, with two entries, is among the best-represented nations on this year’s list, which spans properties from the Hijaz Mountains of Saudi Arabia to the jungles of Tulum.
Orient Express La Minerva, Rome
Housed in a 17th-century palazzo a few steps from the Pantheon in the historic centre of Rome, Orient Express La Minerva is the Italian capital’s contribution to this year’s list.
The hotel, designed by architect Hugo Toro, draws on the golden age of rail travel for its visual language: marble surfaces, polished woods, bespoke lighting and decorative details that subtly evoke the atmosphere of historic train carriages and the grand European tours they made possible. Prix Versailles described it as “the epitome of timeless, understated luxury.”
The building carries considerable literary weight. Stendhal and Herman Melville were among the writers who stayed in the palazzo in earlier incarnations, and the interiors have been designed to let the building’s original architectural features remain the dominant presence. Above it all, a rooftop terrace opens onto one of the most celebrated panoramas in Europe: terracotta rooftops stretching towards the Pantheon and St Peter’s Basilica.
Splendido, a Belmond Hotel, Portofino
Few hotels in Italy carry the same weight of accumulated mythology as Splendido. Perched above Portofino’s harbour in a former 16th-century Benedictine monastery, the Belmond property has long been synonymous with the particular brand of discreet, sun-drenched glamour that defines the Ligurian Riviera at its most seductive.
Splendido reopened earlier this year following 18 months of restoration works led by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, with Prix Versailles describing the result as “the perfect blend of Ligurian heritage and contemporary elegance.” The restoration introduced richly patterned interiors, hand-painted details and softer coastal colour palettes, carefully updating the property without stripping away what the magazine Condé Nast Traveler — which has placed Splendido on its Gold List five times — describes as its “faded grandeur.”
Among the most significant aspects of the restoration is the opening of Villa Beatrice — a private summer residence inspired by Art Nouveau and Gothic Revival styles — to the public for the first time. Gardens continue to spill down the hillside towards the Ligurian Sea, with terraces and suites framing uninterrupted views over the harbour below.
Italy in illustrious company
The full list of 16 properties reflects the breadth of the Prix Versailles’ global reach, taking in a lakeside retreat beside one of China’s last matriarchal societies, a Soviet-era communications headquarters transformed in Tbilisi, a desert resort built into the rock faces of Saudi Arabia’s Hijaz Mountains, and a boutique hotel assembled from 15 restored heritage shophouses in Penang. Of the 16 selected hotels, seven are located in Europe.
