Il Palagio

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Restaurant Rooted in Tuscany, Shaped by the World

Inside the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze on Borgo Pinti, Il Palagio holds a Michelin star that it has carried with consistent conviction — reconfirmed in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Italy. The setting is historic Florence at its most atmospheric: Renaissance architecture, frescoed interiors, and the centuries-old Gherardesca Garden just beyond the windows. Wine Spectator has also recognised the restaurant with its Best of Award of Excellence, a reflection of the serious cellar that backs up the kitchen's ambitions.

The Chef: Italian Heart, Brazilian Soul

Executive Chef Paolo Lavezzini grew up in Salsomaggiore Terme in Emilia Romagna, where, as he tells it, his grandmother's kitchen — the smell of sauce, pots on the fire, glass misted with steam — set him on his path. He started cooking on the Tuscan coast at sixteen, then moved through some of Europe's most demanding kitchens: Angelo Paracucchi's Carpaccio at the Royal Monceau in Paris, seven years at the three-Michelin-star Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, and Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée. In 2012 he moved to Brazil as Executive Chef of Hotel Fasano in Rio de Janeiro, leading it to recognition as the best Italian restaurant in the country, before heading the opening of Four Seasons São Paulo's "Neto" restaurant. He arrived at Il Palagio in 2021, bringing what he calls "an Italian heart and a Brazilian soul" — and with it, a strong instinct for seasonality and sustainable sourcing.

Alongside Lavezzini, Chef de Cuisine Carlotta Aggio and Executive Pastry Chef Mariano Dileo complete a kitchen team that the restaurant describes as driven by "kindness and human relationships" as much as technique.

What Arrives at the Table

The menus read as a considered dialogue between Tuscan tradition and wider influence. The tasting menu "The Queen's Spices" is built around six spices said to have shaped Catherine de' Medici's table — dishes include a Tuscan red curry with Tyrrhenian Sea prawns and kaffir lime, pappardella stuffed with potatoes and Tuscan saffron alongside scorpion fish, and Casentino lamb with black garlic, licorice and citron. The "Gherardesca" menu follows a path from the hotel's own garden to the sea and back, with Riserva San Massimo rice cooked with Tyrrhenian molluscs and crustaceans, and agnolotti filled with burrata stracciatella and roasted Livornese cockerel cream.

À la carte, the Italian cuisine holds its own: crispy zucchini flowers stuffed with whipped buffalo ricotta, linguine with Tyrrhenian pink prawns and Champagne air, a line-caught sea bass "Wellington" with shrimp moqueca and okra. The kitchen's philosophy is plain — "farmers, craftsmanship, simplicity, handmade pasta and bread, fire and wood, tradition and passion."

Beyond the Dining Room

The restaurant extends well beyond its main room. A private dinner under the Weeping Beech in the Gherardesca Garden — the oldest tree on the property, dating to 1850 — or on the hotel's rooftop Altana Terrace with sunset views over the city are among the experiences the team can arrange. There is also a private dining option in the hotel's historic Lobby Chapel, with original frescoes intact. For those who want Florence itself as the backdrop, the team can organise a private dinner on a terrace above Ponte Vecchio, with a four-course menu crafted to the setting.