I Portici Hotel Bologna

Maybe it’s out of necessity, or maybe it’s an aesthetic preference, but in either case, nowhere do they blend the historical and the contemporary more seamlessly than in Italy. And it’s in Bologna, one of Italy’s more picturesque old cities, that we find I Portici, a contemporary boutique-style hotel hidden away behind the facade of a 19th-century palazzo that faces onto the Via Indipendenza, adjacent to the city-center Parco della Montagnola.

The building itself is in the Liberty style, which is the Italian version of Art Nouveau; and while much of the original architecture remains, the hotel conversion has clearly been done with an eye toward the stylistic sensibilities of the modern traveler. Some rooms are much more modern than others, but nowhere are they either needlessly avant-garde nor too terribly old-fashioned.

If it’s primarily oriented towards the business traveler, that’s more a function of its city-center location — there’s plenty to recommend it to the leisure guest as well, not least the Eden Theatre, the in-house performance venue. And in keeping with Bologna’s status as a culinary capital, the hotel features a very fine high-end restaurant, the small and stylish Ristorante I Portici.