SEA OF ROSES WALLPAPER SERIES
SEA OF ROSES WALLPAPER FREE

Relaxed luxury is the name of the game at this intimate member of Design Hotels in a restored monastery in Umbria, Italy’s green heart. Suites are roomy Milanese mid-century apartments in walnut and cardinal red velvet, with luxe details like antler-like leather handles by Florentine craftsmen and comprehensive vanity kits in the powder rooms. Meanwhile, its ground floor is set to be a new Milanese playground with a roll-call of Italian fashion, spa, and restaurant coups. Its vast private courtyard was inaugurated as a new public piazza by Milan’s mayor in December 2022. Portrait Milano places visitors at the city’s physical, spiritual, and luxurious heart with the restoration of this baroque religious college hidden in the lauded Fashion Quadrilateral. It’s a must-do weekend with a raft of museum expansions, “centralissimo” restaurants, and a second wave of hotel openings just a five-minute whoosh away from Linate Airport on the city’s high-speed sustainable metro. Over the last decade, Italy’s now-leafy design capital has transformed itself from a grey business blur into a dashing contemporary feather in the nation’s cap.

Even if you aren’t a big golfer (the hotel offers direct access to two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones and 12 more within a 15-minute drive), La Zambra is well worth your time – the sunlight really is out of this world. The late-afternoon sun casts shadows on whitewashed walls, natural stone floors, and handcrafted ceramics, and the staff are coolly dressed in neutral cotton and linen. An iron-frame door slides open onto a patio planted with succulents basket chairs and loungers look over a silvery pool and golf course to the Andalucian hills.

SEA OF ROSES WALLPAPER SERIES

This leads to an airy lobby and a series of patios and fountains, with glimpses of leafy gardens through latticework and arches. You’ll know when you’ve arrived: The gate is immaculately edged in lavender it opens onto a white courtyard in which three soaring palms and high Moorish walls draw the eye up to the porcelain-blue sky.

SEA OF ROSES WALLPAPER FREE

This is a clean contemporary take on Andalucia, named after a style of Flamenco that is danced in bare feet (the idea is that guests should feel free to do their thing). On the ground floor, chef Enrique Olvera disembarks from Mexico City with a restaurant (Jerónimo) that eschews fancy fine dining for a streamlined modern interpretation of traditional Mexican cuisine if budgetary restrictions apply, an evening in the EDITION’s rooftop wonderland would be a great way of catching the hotel’s hedonistic vibe. The public spaces have a low-lit calm but go all-out for contrast: An antique tapestry hangs behind an all-white pool table lined with electric-blue baize, and you might find a minimalist bench artfully draped with a traditional Spanish shawl. The drama of the building – cunningly repurposed from a boxy modern former bank HQ on the old-town Plaza de Celenque – begins with the ornate 18th-century granite doorway by Pedro de Rivera (one of the few historic elements remaining from the original site) and continues into a vast spiral staircase in pearly-white stone, curving spectacularly upwards like a giant seashell. But even in the face of tough competition from big-name luxury brands, the new EDITION is plainly the cherry on the cake – or the prawn on the paella. Despite its many virtues, the Spanish capital has never been replete with top-notch hotels but in the last five years, the situation has improved beyond recognition.

Sea of roses wallpaper