I Stayed at Milan’s Most Anticipated New Hotel, Casa Laveni, During Design Week—Here’s How It Was

2 min read

When it comes to hotels in a city like Milan, the address alone does a lot of the work. Casa Laveni, a 30-room boutique that just debuted in a restored neoclassical palazzo, has that part figured out—Via dei Bossi, two blocks from La Scala, and three from the Duomo. The hotel represents the Milan debut of Bohopo, a European boutique hospitality group, and they’ve treated the building accordingly. The palazzo was once home to an engineer named Giuseppe Laveni, and the architects at Delogu Architecture have honored that with a residential feel that includes cloud-covered ceilings, a hand-blown crystal chandelier in the lobby, herringbone oak floors, and natural stone bathrooms stocked with Etro essentials.

Kasia Gatkowska

The breakfast room at Casa Laveni.

I was there for the opening celebrations, which Bohopo rather bravely timed to coincide with Milan Design Week, and the lobby rarely emptied. AnanasAnanas, the food-art studio, kicked things off Monday night with an installation of experimental stainless-steel tableware. The following evening, Crosby Studios—the New York–based design practice founded by Harry Nuriev—unveiled The Movie Room in the basement: a mirrored, immersive space that was open to the public through the week where your own reflection kept multiplying and shifting.

Kasia Gatkowska

A room terrace at Casa Laveni.

The instinct to pull people in runs through the hotel more broadly. Complimentary breakfast is by Michelin-awarded F&B operator AM Holdings, evenings default to complimentary aperitivo at the self-service bar, and the street-facing windows host Laveni Curates, a rotating fashion-and-design program that gives the facade a reason to stop at even on an ordinary Tuesday.

For a hotel still in its first week, it had a remarkably good sense of what it wanted to be. We’ll be back.

Julia Cancilla is the social media & news editor at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s socials and covers design, pop culture, and emerging trends. She also authors the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. Her work has appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.