Hotel Savona 18 Suites

Milan’s got plenty of hotels that cater primarily to the local industries — finance and fashion keep the city’s astonishingly opulent luxury hotels in business. But this city is also the unquestioned capital of contemporary Italian design, which isn’t always synonymous with what the big luxury brands are producing. A hotel like the Savona 18 Suites is of perhaps more interest to architects and designers than to Golden Quadrangle shoppers.

Here the Italian architect Aldo Cibic has transformed a largely forgotten 20th-century building into a stylish and inventive boutique hotel, one oriented around a private inner courtyard, overlooked by communal balconies, in classic casa di ringhiera style. The interior architecture is sparse, but it’s populated with lively furnishings by Cibic himself, as well as complementary artwork.

The location, in Navigli, near the via Tortona, is a desirable one — it’s just to the southwest of the old city center, and is home to no end of bars and restaurants, as well as destinations of particular interest to visiting creative types. The hotel’s own Petit Café will get you started, and will welcome you back for a cocktail as well — and the courtyard, weather permitting, is not to be missed.