Milan has its share of boutique hotels -- from Corso Como's Maison Moschino to Corso Matteotti's Boscolo -- but as OC was hanging out in deserted Milan the past week, she walked past the latest contender in the city's stake for tourist dollars (pounds/yen/rubles) on via dell'Orso: Hotel MilanoScala [warning: embedded music filez], an opera-themed hotel that opens on August 30.
The 4-star hotel has sixty-two rooms throughout seven floors, with amenities capitalizing on Milan's rich legacy of classical music: a "Prima Donna" bar and a restaurant called "La Traviata" (although there's a neutrally-named "Sky Terrace Bar", too). Suites have been named after Italy's opera theaters and operas (Carmen, Aida, La Fenice, San Carlo, etc.) Starting at 200 euro-a-night and running through 500, frankly we expected worse for this restored 19th century mansion just a block away from La Scala. Props to them (regardless of how they change OC's neighborhood) for being Milan's first zero-emission hotel.