The 51 to 100 Bars 2026
With today’s release of the 2026 51-100 list, now in its tenth year, the countdown to 7 October is officially on. This year the ceremony is in Milano, the first time Italy has played host.
Four Italian bars made the cut: two in Rome, one in Florence and one in Milano. No other European country has more on the extended list, with Spain and the UK close behind on three apiece.
No.62: Freni e Frizioni, Rome
Italy’s top entry this year is the Trastevere favourite housed in an old bicycle workshop, which is where the name (“brakes and clutches”) comes from. Riccardo Rossi and Freni e Frizioni did much to shape the modern Roman aperitivo, and on a warm evening the piazza out front is overflowing. It was on the extended list last year too, and No.62 rewards that reliability.
No.91: Gucci Giardino, Florence
Gucci Giardino returns to the extended list from its home inside the Gucci Garden on Piazza della Signoria. The repeat appearance suggests voters look past the fashion-house glamour to a genuinely strong cocktail program. For now, it is Tuscany’s lone entry.
No.92: Drink Kong, Rome
Few Italian bars are as instantly recognizable as Patrick Pistolesi’s neon-washed room in Monti, where Japanese-inspired design meets clean, precise drinks. Having placed 40th on the main list in 2025, No.92 marks a steep fall. Rankings are fickle, though, and I’d still send anyone heading to Rome straight to its door.
No.94: 1930, Milano
Milano’s sole entry is a genuine speakeasy run by “Benjamin” Fabio Cavagna. There is no public address, and getting in depends on who you know or an invitation. Like Drink Kong, it has dropped from the main list, where it sat at No.43 in 2025. Plenty of visiting bartenders will be trying their luck at that door during awards week.
The missing names
Last year Italy had eight bars in the top 100, so four are unaccounted for. Jerry Thomas Speakeasy, L’Antiquario and Milano’s own Moebius, among others, have either climbed into the top 50 or fallen off the list. Moebius heads into October on a strong run with the home crowd behind it, and the city will be watching.
Ceremony night at Palazzo del Ghiaccio
The awards will be held on 7 October at Palazzo del Ghiaccio, the historic ice rink on Via Piranesi dating from the 1920s. This 18th edition is the first to take place in Italy. The evening follows the familiar 50 Best script: a red carpet and drinks reception, then the countdown from No.50 all the way to The World’s Best Bar, sponsored by Perrier.
Not on the exclusive guest list? The countdown streams live on The 50’s YouTube channel from 20:00 Milano time. The ranking itself comes from more than 800 bartenders, drinks writers, educators and specialists in 29 regions, who each cast eight votes based on the last 18 months, with Deloitte checking the results.
Italy’s presence is felt among the sponsors too: Campari, Disaronno, Amaro Lucano, Mancino Vermouth, Polot 1882, Zoppis and, yes, Parmigiano Reggiano as Official Cheese Partner. In Milano, the venue partners are the Bulgari Hotel, Excelsior Hotel Gallia, Casa Brera, The Doping Milano and Ceresio7.
More than one night
The ceremony is a single evening, but the whole city will be buzzing with guest shifts, tastings and parties around it. Planning a drink (or a bed!) anywhere decent between 5 and 8 October? Book now, or prepare for tears.
Italian bartenders have been shaping bars far beyond Italy for years, so bringing the awards here feels long overdue. Come 7 October, we’ll see how many more Italian names made the top 50.
The 51-100 Bars
51. Tjoget Stockholm
52. Boadas Barcelona
53. Double Chicken Please New York
54. Coa Hong Kong
55. Baba au Rum Athens
56. Cochinchina Buenos Aires
57. Boilermaker Goa
58. LPM Dubai Dubai
59. Form + Matter Mexico City
60. MO Bar Shenzhen Shenzhen
61. Superbueno New York
62. Freni e Frizioni Rome
63. Licorería Limantour Mexico City
64. Jewel of the South New Orleans
65. Svanen Oslo
66. Salmon Guru Madrid
67. Arca Tulum
68. Bar Gabriel Istanbul
69. Penicillin Hong Kong
70. Kumiko Chicago
71. Bar Cham Seoul
72. Panda & Sons Edinburgh
73. Three Sheets (Soho) London
74. Bar Trench Tokyo
75. Maybe Sammy Sydney
76. Naked Athens
77. Scarfes Bar London
78. Employees Only New York
79. Vender Taichung
80. Front/Back Accra
81. Mius Hong Kong
82. Otro Bar San José
83. Röda Huset Stockholm
84. Three Horses Melbourne
85. G.O.D Bangkok
86. Smoke & Bitters Hiriketiya
87. La Borracha Accra
88. The SG Club Tokyo
89. Offtrack Singapore
90. Foco Barcelona
91. Gucci Giardino Florence
92. Drink Kong Rome
93. Little Red Door Paris
94. 1930 Milano
95. La Sala de Laura Bogotá
96. The Savory Project Hong Kong
97. Opium Bangkok
98. Bar 1661 Dublin
99. Vesper Bangkok
100. The Bellwood Tokyo
The 50 Best Hotels 2026
The fourth edition of The 50 Best Hotels was unveiled on 15 September 2026 at Les Salles du Carrousel in Paris, the first time the ceremony has been held outside London. Rosewood Hong Kong took the top spot for a second consecutive year, but the headline for anyone reading from this side of the Alps is Europe's dominance of the list, with 21 hotels, and Italy's share of it.
Italy and France finished level on six properties each in the top 50. Add the extended 51-100 list, published two weeks before the ceremony, and Italy pulls clear: nine more hotels, more than any other country in Europe. Fifteen Italian addresses in the global top 100.
The top 50
Passalacqua (No.5), Lake Como. The highest-ranked hotel in Europe, and therefore Best Hotel in Europe by default. It also takes the Best Boutique Hotel Award for a third consecutive year, an award reserved for the highest-ranked property with fewer than 50 rooms operating independently of a major group.
Four Seasons Firenze (No.12). The Renaissance palazzo and its eleven-acre Giardino della Gherardesca continue to do what almost nothing else in Florence can, which is offer real silence within walking distance of the Duomo. Four Seasons Firenze is also home to the Atrium Bar, one of the greatest hotel bars in the world.
Casa Maria Luigia (No.18), Modena. The highest new entry on the list, and winner of the Lavazza Highest New Entry Award. Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore's twelve-room country house outside Modena has always been more of an extension of their table than a hotel in the conventional sense, which is presumably the point.
Bulgari Roma (No.32). The jeweller's Roman flagship on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, facing the Mausoleum of Augustus, holds its place.
Portrait Milano (No.39). A new entry, and the only Milanese hotel on either list. The Lungarno Collection property occupies the sixteenth-century Archiepiscopal Seminary on Corso Venezia. Don’t miss an aperitivo (and pasta in bianco) at 10_11, the hotel’s restaurant and bar on the ground floor.
San Domenico Palace (No.50), Taormina. A new entry for the Four Seasons-managed former convent, which has been trading on its White Lotus afterglow for a few seasons now and evidently still has it.
Nine more in the 51-100
The extended list is where Italy's depth really shows, and where the geography broadens well beyond the usual Como and Amalfi axis.
No.58 Il San Pietro di Positano (new entry), the highest-ranked independent hotel anywhere on the extended list
No.60 Splendido, Portofino
No.62 Castiglion del Bosco (new entry), Montalcino
No.66 Orient Express La Minerva (new entry), Rome
No.68 Forestis Dolomites (new entry), Bressanone
No.84 Borgo Santandrea, Amalfi
No.88 Borgo Egnazia, Savelletri
No.91 Villa Treville (new entry), Positano
No.95 Reschio, Lisciano Niccone
Italian brands were unusually visible among the partners this year: Lavazza sponsoring the Highest New Entry Award, Ferrari Trento the Most Admired Hotel Group Award, Monte Vibiano the Best Hotel in Africa, and SeiBellissimi, in its first outing as Official Italian Cocktails Partner, the Art of Hospitality Award that went to Badrutt's Palace in St. Moritz. Between that and fifteen hotels in the top 100, Italy arguably had a better night in Paris than France did.
