Hotels in Milan

As you might expect from a global fashion capital, many hotels in Milan are exceedingly chic: legendary couture brands such as Bulgari and Armani even operate their own luxury hotels here, most of them within the old city walls. Though the city’s sprawling size ensures there’s no single hotel hub, many cheap Milan hotels are positioned near the main Milano Centrale station.

What about Milan’s best city-centre hotels? These are predominantly found in the Brera district, or just within the fashion-focussed Quadrilatero della Moda – often called the Quadrilatero d’Oro or just Montenapo, in reference to Via Montenapoleone.

Brera is the main area: often referred to as a ‘Milanese Montmartre’ and dusted with cafes, cobbles, ateliers and markets, it also offers grand buildings and perfect privacy only a skip and a hop away from the Duomo.

Five-star hotel standouts include the Mandarin Oriental Milan, blending Italian style with an Oriental approach in a high-ceilinged former bank, and the longstanding, family-run Grand Hotel et de Milan, but the luxury options are widespread and many. Wherever you stay, spas, pools and illustrious cuisine, plus beautiful design and large rooms, are a given.

Scala itself also boasts some grand establishments, all of them boastfully close to Piazza del Duomo.

The streets surrounding Parco Sempione, Milan’s biggest green space and the home of UNESCO-protected Sforza Castle and its Michelangelo sculpture, are another preserve of the upscale crowd.

Also near here is the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, and thus Leonardo’s ‘The Last Supper’, and Cadorna railway station has direct trains to Malpensa Airport.