Antica Locanda dei Mercanti

Antica Locanda dei Mercanti occupies the upper floors of an eighteenth-century palazzo on Via San Tomaso, a short pedestrian street between the Castello Sforzesco and the Duomo. There are fifteen rooms and suites, four of them opening onto private planted terraces, and the character is domestic rather than corporate: white walls, fresh flowers and tall double windows that make the rooms unusually light for central Milan. Reception is staffed around the clock and the hotel has long been family-run. There is no restaurant or grand lobby, so breakfast is brought to the room and meals are taken locally. The position suits walkers: the Brera district and its Pinacoteca, La Scala and the shops of Via Dante are all within a few minutes.