A pool day at Collegio alla Querce, with kids: an honest review

We spent the Fourth of July at a swimming pool in the Florentine hills — two families, kids in tow, a full day at Collegio alla Querce, the city's newest five-star hotel. This is a review of buying a day pass to that pool, what it cost, and whether it's worth it. The short version: it's expensive, it doesn't pretend not to be, and it gave us one of the best days of our Florentine summer. Not a pool day — an experience.

One thing up front, because it matters: we paid our own way, in full, and the hotel had no idea we were reviewing it. The visit and the verdict here are ours; AI only helped with the writing.

The place

Collegio alla Querce sits on the hillside above the city, where Florence gives way to the countryside — a grand old building that spent a long life as a boarding school before reopening in 2025 as part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, its terraced gardens and frescoed rooms restored (Auberge). The pool and its oak-shaded bar sit down among those tiered gardens, looking out over the Renaissance city on one side and the Tuscan hills on the other.

Getting there is no problem: it starts where the city ends, and ends where the hills start. One of our families drove; the other took a taxi. For the various ways up, see getting around Florence.

The mechanics

You don't have to be a hotel guest to use the pool — there are day passes, which we booked over the phone (a warm, patient voice named Viola talked us through it). Here's what we paid, in July 2026; rates and rules drift, so confirm when you book.

The details were thoughtful in the way five stars are supposed to be and often aren't: towels waiting and a bottle of sun cream in the cabana. Not long after we'd settled in, the cabana perks arrived: a bottle of prosecco for the adults, and a plate of watermelon slices on a mound of ice — which the kids demolished before they'd even swum. The pool ran 09:00 to 19:00, the bar until 18:00.

The day

The pools were the easy win, especially with kids. The main pool is slightly heated, so it was comfortable for everyone rather than the usual gasp-and-adjust; there are also two smaller hot pools, which sound mad in a Tuscan July but were lovely. Ours swam in all three, repeatedly. We fell into the easy rhythm of it: the kids in and out of the water, the adults retreating to the cabana's shade in the fierce midday sun, a spritz — €20, but a good one — never far away.

The moment we'll actually remember, though, wasn't on any menu. The woman running the wood-fired oven waved our son over, put the baker's long peel in his hands, and let him pull a focaccia out of the fire himself — then let the other child slice it, under her eye. No performance, no upsell; just a kitchen that clearly liked having children around. That said more about the place than any five-star checklist could — and the warmth wasn't a one-off, either: the staff were quick and unhurried all day, and entirely unbothered by two families' worth of kids.

The food backed it up. We care about what we eat, and everything was good and fresh. The pool gelato comes from Vivoli, handed round in free little cups — a nice touch. One honest note, since we'd just been to the source: the affogato from the poolside Vivoli cart didn't quite match the real thing at Vivoli itself a week earlier (that original is the cup at the top of our gelato guide). Good, but not the same.

For lunch we ordered from the pool restaurant — grilled skewers with salad and charred lemon, straightforward and well done. The standout dish was the insalata estiva: watermelon, tomato, and toasted almonds, fresh and bright in the heat (~€27 on the menu when we went).

And then there was the view. For a while it felt like tasting all of Tuscany from one spot — the great villa, the pool, the blue sky and the hard sun, green everywhere, the trees and the hills rolling off behind. That's what you're really paying for.

The bill, honestly

Here are the real numbers. Between the two families we took two sunbeds and one shared cabana, which came to €800 for the group — €200 of that returned as credit. On top, each family spent around €180 on food and drink across the day, though, in fairness, we had a lot (a spritz here is €20). So call it a genuinely expensive day out.

But it's expensive in an honest way. Nothing about the pricing is hidden or sly; it's a five-star hotel charging five-star prices for a five-star day, and it's upfront about all of it. It's expensive, but it isn't pretending to be anything else.

What wasn't perfect

Reviews without a downside are just adverts, so: the price is the obvious one, stated plainly above — this is not a cheap day, and you could absolutely find a pool for a fraction of it. The only other miss was that poolside affogato not living up to the real Vivoli. Beyond those two things, honestly, nothing bothered us — and we'd rather say that than manufacture a complaint.

Who it's for

Not everyone, at these prices. But if you're marking something — an anniversary, a birthday, a last day of a big trip — this is close to perfect; if you've got an anniversary coming, this is the gift. And if a day like this sits comfortably in your budget, just go: it isn't a pool day, it's an experience, and we'd happily go back. It's the kind of day you plan a trip around rather than stumble into — and if you do go, take the cabana: the shade and the small extras make a long day in the July sun effortless. For the rest of the city at ground level, start with our other Florence guides, part of Florence.City.