|
Contact: info@bownsbest.com
Home - Austria - Benelux - France & Monaco - Germany - Russia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - United Kingdom - United States |
||
|
MILAN CARLTON HOTEL BAGLIONI
|
|
ADDRESSES
CARLTON HOTEL BAGLIONI
|
||
© Francis Bown 2003
Those of us who are interested in fashion – whether it is for men or for women – know that we must visit Milan. The great city is the fulcrum of Italy’s spinning obsession with clothes. For most Italians, dressing well is not a passing interest: it is a lifelong passion. I do not always share their taste, but I have to recognize that an Italian without style is a glaring oxymoron. So we travel to join the Milanese as they go about the business of buying and selling some of the most desirable garments in the world. And the epicentre of all this activity is the famous Via della Spiga. Here are to be found the emporia with the names to make the ladies (and not a few gentlemen) swoon. And here, too, is one of Milan’s best hotels, The Carlton Baglioni.
My room was on the third floor. Number 311 was a ‘Deluxe Double’ and was therefore 507 euros a night, bed and breakfast for two. In this expensive town (fashion is, after all, about conspicuous spending), this must be considered good value. In its small entrance hall were fitted wardrobes (with mirrored doors and a private safe) and the door to the bathroom. I judged the air-conditioned bedroom to measure about ten feet by fifteen feet. I approved of the striped silk on the walls and the parquet floor under my feet. Lighting came from two table lamps, two wall lights and a six-branch chandelier. Within the white tiled bathroom were two wash basins, a bidet, a loo and a large tub. The bed was initially very hard, but the Housekeeping Department came to the rescue of my wretched back, and – after twelve blankets and two duvets were expertly installed under the bottom sheet – softness and comfort was achieved.
Most impressive about this accommodation, however, was what was outside. Through the French window was my very own terrace, fifteen feet square. Upon it was an exotic striped tent of the open sort, with striped awnings in burgundy and yellow and with four wicker work armchairs. This would have been an ideal spot for having a bottle of bubbly after a fashion show, for the Via della Spiga was directly below. Quiet and sunny, this was also a convenient retreat for an hour of reading. (I do recommend that you ask for a room – like 311 – which is away from the traffic at the front of the hotel.)
The Carlton Baglioni has a dining room (also on the ground floor) which is highly regarded by local diners. Intriguingly, the restaurant Il Baretto was designed to suggest “an English clubhouse of the early 1900s”. Over its fireplace is a map of London. Its décor is based upon the partnering of dark brown and dark green and there is much polished wood. Its armchairs are upholstered in leather. It sounds intimate and comfortable – ‘clubby’, in fact – and such it is. The maitre d’ Vincenzo Lagaria, a suave and dapper gentleman, showed me to my table and caused the candle in the silver candlestick to be lit. In this atmosphere I expected traditional dishes, based on good ingredients and prepared with skill. And that is precisely what arrived.
Most of the wines on the list are Italian, and vintages are frequently not given. Prices start at 35ε and go up to 750ε (for the 2001 Cheval Blanc). The following caught my eye: Luce (160ε), Tignanello (120ε), Solaia (280ε), Ornellaia (240ε), Sassicaia (300ε) and Mr Gaja’s Barbaresco (240ε). For my own drinking, I went to Sicily and to that excellent producer, Planeta, and was delighted with both bottles. The 2007 chardonnay (48ε) was smooth, firmly structured and had notes of melon and lychees, and the 2004 merlot (45ε) was highly perfumed with hints of red fruit among the black.
