ITALY

MILAN

CARLTON HOTEL BAGLIONI

Carlton Hotel Baglioni, Milan, Italy | Bown's Best Milan is a wonderful city, and the Carlton Hotel Balglioni is a wonderful hotel. It is easy to love Milan. There is the magnificent Gothic Cathedral and an abundance of art and architecture – which includes one of the mankind’s finest paintings, Leonardo’s Last Supper. And there is more: the town’s obsession with clothes. For most Italians, dressing well is a daily routine. But for the Milanese it is a lifelong passion. I do not always share their taste, but I have to recognize that a Milanese without style is a contradiction in terms. Indeed, many of the town’s inhabitants are deeply involved in the business of buying and selling some of the most desirable garments in the world. And the epicentre of this activity is the famous Via della Spiga. Here are to be found the emporia whose names make the ladies (and not a few gentlemen) swoon. And here, too, is the splendid Carlton Baglioni.

Actually, the main entrance is on the busy Via Senato, on the other side of the building. But it is the pedestrian entrance on the Via della Spiga w Carlton Hotel Baglioni, Milan, Italy | Bown's Best hich makes the location of this hotel so special. Still, whichever entrance I used, I found the abundance of marble, crystal and polished woodwork in the lobby area much to my liking. The feeling is of old-fashioned comfort and luxury. Yet this is a place which appears much older than its years. You might think it has been here for a century and a half. In fact, it was opened only in 1962. Nevertheless, it possesses the grand stateliness of an ancient establishment. And that is one of the highest compliments I can pay to any hotel.

Moreover, it has a General Manager who is perfectly attuned to ensuring that those who seek out the highest levels of luxury and service feel entirely at home. I first met the charming Lorenzo Soleri – pictured with your correspondent – at the Hotel Caruso in Ravello. He impressed me in Ravello, and now he impressed me in Milan. Mr Soleri is a gentleman. I need say no more.

The hotel has around 100 rooms. All are comfortably furnished, some in a modern style and some in the traditional manner of an Italian luxury establishment. I prefer the latter, and so was very pleased indeed to be shown up to the second floor to room 236, The Leonardo Suite (1,000€-2,000€ a night for two, according to season). Double doors opened to reveal an apartment of gilt, crystal, marble and costly silks. In the sitting room I found a gilded console table resting upon a floor of black and white marble. On the walls were panels of green damask and from the ceiling hung a crystal chandelier of nine lights. Seating was provided by a sofa and two easy chairs. All this was very much to my taste, and so was the coffee produced by the swish machine manufactured by De Longhi. Through another set of double doors was the bedroom, with a vase of white roses, a pair of carved gilt fauteuils, a writing desk and a bed (topped by a Roccoco-style headboard) which had been made supremely comfortable for my ailing back.