SINS OF CREATIVITY

Thank god an enthusiastic extrovert Italian called Valeriano Antonioli, then 13, was expelled from seminary because he was ‘too creative’. Without that life-changing act, Portrait Milano, already being talked about as Europe’s best hotel even though it’s only 18 months old, would never have happened.

HOLY GROUND 

Fast-forward to 2016. Antonioli, now CEO of the Ferragamo family’s Lungarno Collection hotels, saw a boarded-up five-storey building in Piazza del Quadrilatero, the hub of Milan’s Montenapoleone golden triangle, some of the most expensive real estate in Europe. Built in the year 1500 as a convent, it was still owned by the Church, and they definitely didn’t want it converted into a hotel. Ever a creative sleuth, the former seminarian found out that the good brother who had expelled him all those years ago was now the high and mighty decision-maker on the Montenapoleone property.

COVENT TO COUTURE

After a democratic bidding process against 16 other interested parties – think all top global luxury hotel names – and never-ending civil and historic hiccups, Lungarno won (did the Ferragamo name give comfort to the holy fathers?). Italy’s top residential designer, Michele Bonan, has produced 73 stunning suites, bottled green and champagne, and obviously Italian furniture. Add such details as Ferragamo toiletries and dozens of all the latest art books you would indeed love in your own home.

FEELS LIKE HOME

'We have purposely set out to make Portrait Milano feel like a second home’, says General Manager Diego Roggero, whose background includes five years in top London hotels. The typical hotel lobby is here replaced by a high-ceilinged centuries-old room with dozens of yet more arty tomes, from Gaudi to Versace, and comfy seating where Milan’s chicest Gen Zs are glued to their laptops. Some are local WFHers calling in for a regular break. Others, recognised by discreet signs, are hotel employees, concierges or lifestyle agents, perhaps preparing the next edition of the hotel’s excellent A3-sized full-colour Weekly Tips newsletter.

MILAN'S HOTTEST

Weekly Tips provides details of Brit Julian Opie’s eight large silhouette sculptures, ‘Walking in Milan’, as it’s called, is a Piazza popup through this August. The Piazza is popular with locals. One boutique, Antonia is a city favourite. Its neighbour, The Longevity Spa TLS, is a growing Europe-wide cult, attracting those who can bear a maximum of three minutes of minus-87° cryotherapy (TLS was started by a Milanese couple, and it’s fast expanding throughout Europe and Dubai.)

AUTHENTIC EATS AND GARDEN SEATS

There’s a Beefbar restaurant in the Piazza, and Milanese also flock to the hotel’s own restaurant, 10_11, inside or out, in gorgeous gardens. No Michelin here, intentionally. It’s authentic food with a bit of fun. Panini and pizzas vie with Longevity Spa items - low-carb pizza with smoked salmon, avocado and burrata – and real food. Perhaps start with a Bellavista Franciacorta Alma Cuvée Brut from Lombardy and a signature dish, a cooking tray holding eight bite-sized meatballs finished with spots of saffron mayonnaise atop. Go on to seabass baked in a salt crust and finish on gelato with salt crumble atop.

A WEALTH OF FLAVOURS

And oh, the breakfast buffet. Whole ricotta, artichoke tart, those squat white peaches that one associates with the Medicis. There are well-labelled Venice pastries and at least a dozen varieties of croissants (which other hotel has a master pastry cook who gave up practising medicine to follow his passion?). It’s all, from arriving to departing Portrait Milano, uniquely authentic and more than a bit of fun.