Bulgari Hotel Milan, where you can enjoy the Mediterranean sun from the shade of Il Giardino
Bulgari has become one of the most celebrated luxury city hotel brands, and here we visit their flagship offerings in Milan and Rome
Anyone who is anyone knows that Milan is now the buzzing place in Europe. Yes, the city that previously was known only for its fashion shows and design week, whose residents spent each week planning how to escape for the weekend, is now the place for people too move to, eat in, and show off at.
Milan is still a club, though. People know each other, and it’s social death to be seen in the wrong places. That, dear LUX reader, is why we are taking you to the epicentre of the social scene – or one of them anyway. Specifically, to our dinner table at the Bulgari hotel’s Niko Romito restaurant.
The luxury yet comfortable lobby at Bulgari’s Milan flagship
Situated up a few steps from the circular bar and more casual dining area, swathed in dark light (if that makes sense), you sit here like an Emperor in Europe’s new capital of affluence. Across from us, his back to the banquette, was a well-known fashion elder statesman, who sat happily and purposefully through his piccata, pasta and bottle of Barolo, surveying the scene like a king, his eye never turning to his phone.
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We enjoyed an excellent wine also, from the nearby Alpine Dolomites region, along with some tortelli with ricotta cheese and black pepper beef. The food is brilliant, and B hotels somehow seem even more in their element in their ancestral homeland, more comfortable in their skin.
Speaking about comfort and skin, we had arrived in a state of slight discomfort as LUX had left a company laptop on board the British Airways plane we arrived on a couple of days previously – we had spent the intervening time at the country house of a reader, contacting British Airways and the airport to absolutely no avail – each referred us to the other.
The spa offers guests a retreat in the midst the bustling streets of Milan
On arriving, we had been introduced to the Bulgari hotel Butler, available 24/7 on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp Butler is one of the greatest hotel inventions of recent times, genuinely adding convenience as you don’t need to worry about whether they will pick the phone up, whether they will understand you completely, whether they will note down the details of your requirements and hand them on to the next shift.
More in desperation than hope, we mentioned the laptop situation. “We will look into it straight away sir,” came the response and within half an hour we had a message that they had located the laptop, in an office at the back of the airport, and would we like them to send someone to pick it up?
Perhaps you should expect a luxury hotel concierge to be well connected with an airport but nonetheless the concierge service that was delivered is an enormous asset to the Bulgari.
The Bulgari Bar, a meeting place not only for hotel guests but for in-the-know Milanese
Our room itself was welcomingly quiet, looking over the courtyard garden where the hotel is located. This is an extremely quiet part of central Milan, and only a six minute walk from the golden triangle of luxury shops.
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Our suite was beautifully and intensely appointed in that signature Bulgari style, overlooking the courtyard garden. This is not a hotel that looks like any other and you feel like you are in the cossetting arms of a heritage luxury brand.
Room service breakfast was served with a flourish, with lavish extra bits and table decorations. This is a place that’s hard to leave, because, you know, it’s the place to be in the place to be.
Inspired by the Roman baths, the Bulgari Paris’ 25 metre pool is intricately decorated with mosaic of gold, emerald, jade, and malachite
Bulgari Hotel Paris review
If you thought Paris was all about traditional, grand – slightly chintzy – luxury on the one hand, or self-conscious boutique chic that isn’t quite delivering luxury on the other, walking through the doors of the Bulgari Hotel on Avenue George V will rapidly change your mind.
The doormen swing the doors open for you into a glossy dark wood and light marble temple to lavishness. The reception desk, small and understated, is to the left, and a lobby lounge with dim lighting and sweeping luxury is to your right.
The Bulgari Suite is accompanied with views across Paris
Our seventh-floor suite had a terrace half the length of a city block, with views out over the Paris rooftops: the Invalides, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, in the distance. On the marble coffee table was an artfully positioned box of huge Bulgari cigar matches. You know what you are supposed to be doing here.
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The suite itself had deep pile-patterned cream carpet, and every detail touch showed that this is the creation of the masters of luxury themselves, Bulgari as owned by LVMH. The box for the creams, the box for the shoe shine, the box for the products you might have left behind – in all these cases, the containers with things you are very tempted to take home and present on a coffee table of your own. (We didn’t).
The Bulgari Hotel Paris’ Penthouse garden offers a natural retreat in the heart of Paris, where you can enjoy views of its landmarks away from the crowds
Presentation is everything in luxury, and the welcome presentation of champagne, chocolates, flowers, and three citrus fruit on three Bulgari plates was too good to touch or eat.
Room service breakfast was even more so; an exhibition of oatmeal, Goji berries, different nuts, seeds, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries, each one occupying its own dish ranged around the bowl like numbers on a clock face. Tasted good too.
At the Bulgari‘s heart downstairs is Il Ristorante, which looks out a little courtyard garden where you can sit in summer. Our weather was not suitable for terrace dwelling, but we enjoyed a long and indulgent dinner of accompanied by excellent bottle of Barbaresco from Piedmont, the service correctly Italian and perfect.
Il Ristorante, led by three-Michelin-starred Chef Niko Romito
And then there is the location: walk out onto George V and you can walk into the flagship or nearly-flagship boutique of every luxury brand in France and possibly the world. The Champs Elysées is five minutes one way, the Eiffel Tower probably 10 minutes the other (we didn’t go). If you’re there for Art Basel Paris, probably the best art fair in the world, it’s around an eight minute walk.
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Luxury reinvented in Paris? Close to it, for sure. The only thing we missed was being able to use our terrace, and a little garden. Paris does doesn’t always play ball with the weather, and even the gods of LVMH can’t change that. Yet.
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