Milan
Italy


The Experience

Behind a verdant screen of rock gardens, cypresses and nearly-century-old magnolias, this grande dame with a strategic location in the heart of Milan was once part of Aga Khan's still-lamented CIGA hotel chain, the group that set the gold standard for Italian luxury hotels for many years. Now part of the Dorchester Group, it still breathes a certain pedigreed refinement but has stayed up-to-date with continuous renovations and enhancements, the most famous of which was the addition of one of the most impressive presidential suites in all of Europe. Today it's as popular with fashion industry executives who need a flawless full-service address during fashion-collection week as it is with heads of state and with travelers craving a dose of perfect Old World luxury.

The Rooms

Other than the suites, the best bets are the 48 new Deluxe Mosaic rooms, completed in spring 2006, which overlook the Piazza della Repubblica and come with lavish bathrooms. Their color schemes vary, yet all have leather-upholstered closet doors, rosewood headboards and lots of one-of-a-kind artwork, including Murano glass and oil paintings. No other hotel in Milan offers such a lavish menu of suites, where French doors with lace veneer curtains connect bedrooms to spacious sitting rooms. So-called Elegant Suites measure a full 538 square feet and have a boardroom feel, with oil paintings and dark-stained oak paneling, while the 1,435-square-feet Deluxe Suites overlook the Piazza della Repubblica. And if you book that presidential suite, you won't even need your bathing suit: It includes a 100-foot-long indoor pool.

The Service

Since it became part of the Dorchester Group, the service at the Principe di Savoia has improved considerably (previously it too often varied between imperiousness and indifference). Today, new recruits have been trained to an international style of service that mixes European style with North American efficiency.

The Highlights

The excellent restaurant Acanto overlooks a gorgeous garden through a glass veranda, and young chef Fabrizio Cadei is winning raves for his modern Lombardian cooking. The Club 10 Fitness and Beauty Centre is the best in town, too, with a heated, glass-enclosed pool, sauna, steam bath and high-tech gym. The bar, one of the most popular in Milan, attests to the fact that old-fashioned classic cocktail-bar culture continues to thrive in Italy. It's a spectacular spot for a tipple too, since the magnificent stained-glass cupola above the bar beams multicolored shafts of sunlight around the room, and bartenders in white jackets serve expertly mixed Negronis.

-- Alexander Lobrano

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