Auberge Resorts Collection Will Open Its First Hotel in Italy in 2023 – Robb Report

Dependent in California, Auberge Resorts Selection by now helms 20 luxury resorts and resorts throughout 3 diverse continents, but it’s however breaking new floor. Now, Robb Report can completely reveal the observed hospitality outfit is opening its very first five-star outpost in Italy.

Found on a rolling hill just 3 miles from the heart of Florence, the storied 16th-century house, Collegio alla Querce, is owned by the venerable Leeu Assortment and will be dealt with to an extensive redo just before it begins welcoming visitors beneath the Auberge umbrella in 2023. Auberge has just 1 other European house, in Santorini, Greece, but is seeking to bolster its presence on the Continent and past.

“As a model, we are committed to thoughtfully growing our portfolio, with a target on equally metropolis and resort destinations in Europe and throughout the world,” Craig Reid, Auberge’s president and CEO, tells Robb Report. “Collegio alla Querce is personal, 1-of-a-variety and situated in a charming destination that conjures up extraordinary experiences, building it a fantastic in shape for the Auberge Resorts Selection portfolio.”

In truth, the hotel’s locale showcases the quite best of the boot-formed country. Collegio alla Querce is nestled amid the scenic countryside of Tuscany, ideal by a collection of notable wineries and a stone’s throw from Florence, the place globe-famed galleries and museums abound.

Relationship back again to the Italian Renaissance, Collegio alla Querce was earlier a cultural establishment and boarding faculty. The focus of Auberge’s takeover will be to completely transform the 16th-century making into a preeminent lodge although honoring its passionate heritage. In simple fact, several buildings, these as the chapel and theater, will continue to be untouched conserve for a refresh. The transformation will be carried out in collaboration with Leeu Collection’s founder, Analjit Singh, who hopes to create the most magnificent resort in the spot with aid from Auberge.

“The tactic taken by Auberge Resorts Selection is quite substantially in maintaining with the Leeu Collection ethos of crafting unmatched luxury escapes that operate with and advertise the greatest associates in the locality,” Singh explained in a statement. “This collaboration, thus, feels like a organic suit and we look forward to doing the job with them to develop a sensational desired destination.”

Acclaimed European architects Esteva i Esteva will reimagine the resort in a new modern design that seamlessly demonstrates the past, even though regional designers ArchFlorence will bring the interiors to existence with rarified art and the best Italian furnishings.

On completion, the sprawling estate will be reborn as an upscale 82-home resort, comprising 61 guest rooms, 20 suites and an epic 2,250-square-foot signature suite. It will be total to the brim with contemporary features, such as an out of doors pool, spa, fitness heart, artwork gallery and a curated boutique of–what else?–Italian fashions.

As for wining and eating, the property will be outfitted with an array of eateries, like a innovative great dining selections a glass-enclosed back garden place for lazy daytime lunches, a moody bar and cigar lounge and a devoted enoteca, or “wine repository”, where you can sip Italy’s greatest vino. The resort will also provide cooking lessons and non-public dinners showcasing Tuscan delicacies.

Outside the house, meanwhile, Collegio alla Querce’s greenery will be up to date by landscape designer Franchesca Watson and local Florentine gardeners. Replete with oak trees—fitting because Querce implies “oak” in Italian—the grouds will boast 5 concentrations of terraced Baroque gardens which on their own will be a operate of artwork.

“The resort will be a celebration of the property’s storied heritage and character whilst featuring the luxuries of a superbly built house-away-from-house for the world’s most discerning vacationers,” Reid added.

Acknowledged for these kinds of iconic resorts at Los Cabos’ Esperanza, Connecticut’s Mayflower Inn & Spa and Napa Valley’s Auberge de Soleil, Auberge has a lot more top rated-flight homes in the pipeline, too. This year, its opening lodges in these kinds of locations this sort of as Mexico, Costa Rica and California, and has some interesting projects–including the transformation of San Francisco’s Hearst Building into a hotel–for 2022 and 2023. Right after which, Reid says, the company will continue on its quest to grow outside the US.

“As Auberge now has a solid base in the Americas, we are keen to expand our assortment in Europe and Africa. In Europe precisely, we plan to continue on to evolve our supplying in this industry, as we experience the group’s ethos interprets well to several European destinations and to European tourists.”

The award-profitable model is effectively-put for worldwide enlargement, particularly if it carries on to lover with the likes of Leeu Selection, which at the moment owns a few 5-star boutique resorts in South Africa, which includes the beloved Le Quartier Français in the Franschhoek Valley wine state, as perfectly the historic Linthwaite Property in the UK’s Lake District.

Maybe Auberge Lake District is future?