What is the one thing you love the most in a hotel? Feeling like coming back to your home away from home? Which formula transforms hotels into homes?
My story can’t get more personal than this. One of the first steps I took into the world of luxury travel was Principe di Savoia, the Milanese shining jewel of the Dorchester Collection. I won’t count my stays at the emblematic building in Piazza della Repubblica. But I will keep track of the time passed since the people of Principe made me understand how high a 5 stars concept is aiming. 6 years. And it’s not like I planned it. I just enjoy looking back and wondering how fast I got to know everyone here. From the doorman to reception, from concierge to the people taking care of breakfast. There is the memory of smiling faces and of the little gestures that follow me when I am away. If I concentrate, I can recall the white dreamy bathrooms and the perfume discreetly enriching the interiors. Nevertheless, the defining element is made of smiling faces. Therefore, the need of coming back to the historic address should do with feelings and not things.
If we talk technical details, Principe di Savoia has all the things you would imagine in the world of luxury travel. It is somehow at the right point between classic and contemporary. It is fortunate to have a story that spans almost a century. The first modern business hotel of Europe and the glamour of the place to be in Milan are just two chapters that sparkle for real in an over marketed present. The modern reinterpretation adds cool features of comfort, acting like a hospitality lesson for the guests. But then, again, the after taste I keep between the stays is not related to the material side. It is a recipe composed by the image of perfectly dressed people in the lobby or a joke I heard while waiting for the taxi outside.
For sure Milan has its hotspots but only a few can be proud to have feelings among standards. Principe serves its lesson so intense as it can be considered an Academy of Good Taste. Each time I pass the classic rotating door I am somehow eager to enjoy the details I already learned and somehow curios to discover the new ones. And I love how the new fits in the right proportion, exactly as much as to be intuitive. I don’t think there is a school for this but I am sure the people of Principe feel exactly like me. Or they taught me to feel exactly like them. A form of education I love so much as I can’t wait to be back in class. And not especially for the mind, but for the heart.
For more details and feelings click here.
