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Portrait Milano
Portrait Milano
Portrait Milano

39

Portrait Milano

Milan

A 16th-century seminary reborn

Give me the background: Portrait Milano occupies the former Seminario Arcivescovile, the Archbishop's Seminary founded under Charles Borromeo in the 1560s, at Corso Venezia 11 in Milan's Quadrilatero della Moda fashion district. It's operated by the Ferragamo family's Lungarno Collection, the Florence-founded hospitality group that also runs Portrait properties in Rome and Florence, alongside Hotel Lungarno and Gallery Hotel Art on the banks of the Arno.

What's the concept: Interior designer Michele Bönan has shaped the hotel's spaces to enhance the seminary's original architecture, centred on a column-lined cloister that is now open to the public as the Piazza del Quadrilatero, bringing together dining, wellness, culture and shopping in one space that welcomes hotel guests, locals and visitors alike throughout the year.

Any suites to know: The 73 rooms and suites are spread across the first four floors of the seminary, some overlooking a secret garden and others opening onto glazed loggias or private terraces. Categories range from 36-square-metre studios and a 75-square-metre Suite Executive up to the 210-square-metre three-bedroom Borromeo Suite, and include the 77.5-square-metre Portrait Suite and the sprawling 165-square-metre Borromeo Suite.

Eating and drinking: Restaurant 10_11 takes its name from its two entrances, on Via Sant'Andrea 10 and Corso Venezia 11, and is led by executive chef Luigi Cinotti and executive pastry chef Cesare Murzilli; it runs all day, from 7am to 1am, across a bar, garden and colonnade, and has picked up Best Breakfast honours at the Best Luxury Hotel Awards and from Food & Wine Italia.

The wellness offering: The Longevity Spa's pool sits in a vaulted hall resting on ten granite columns, designed to resemble an ancient cistern, alongside a sauna, steam room, Biostrength and Technogym fitness equipment, and dedicated treatment rooms drawing on Blue Zones longevity principles. 

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