The Box Hotel

Everyone knows Milan is where you’ll find Italy’s most impressive examples of contemporary design, so it’s fitting that the Viale Milano, in the seaside town of Riccione, just down the coast from Rimini, is where the Box Hotel makes its home. Here an existing hotel has been given a thorough reinvention at the hands of Marianna Chiaraluce and Alfredo Monetti, and the result is a contemporary boutique-hotel tour de force, and is, by a considerable distance, the most stylish hotel in town — every detail, from the furniture to the lighting to the décor, seems perfectly judged.

The smallest rooms are compact indeed, though sensibly laid out, and retain some of the retro-futuristic style of the now-defunct hotel that existed prior to the renovation. They also inherit the original’s small circular bathrooms — an experiment that’s worth trying once. The next size up adds a balcony, and soon you’re adding whirlpool baths, king beds, and eventually freestanding bathtubs in the bedrooms themselves.

Though it might sound like sacrilege, this very Italian hotel nevertheless features an American-inspired café, serving brewed coffee and avocado toast alongside more typically European selections. Breakfast gives way to brunch and an all-day menu as well as an inspired cocktail program. And all this just steps from the sea — you’re practically right across from the beach.