The Verdi Suite at Grand Hotel et de Milan

Why it is on the list

Giuseppe Verdi moved into these rooms in 1872 and kept the hotel as his Milan home for 27 years.¹² On the night Otello opened at La Scala in 1887, the crowd followed him to Via Manzoni and he came out onto this suite's balcony with the tenor Tamagno, who sang an encore from it.³ He had his stroke in the hotel in January 1901 and died there six days later.⁴ The rooms have been kept as his suite since, and his personal desk is still in them.¹⁵

The suite is 100 sqm: a lounge with a fireplace, a connecting bedroom, two bathrooms in marble, and ceiling-high French windows onto three balconies over Via Manzoni, restored recently.¹ La Scala is 300 metres away and the hotel is a partner of the theatre.⁶⁷ The balconies face the street. For a suite that looks onto a courtyard instead, take the Fornasetti Suite at Mandarin Oriental, a few streets away.⁸

How to get it

Call the hotel on +39 02 723141 or write to info@grandhoteletdemilan.it and ask for the Verdi Suite by name; the hotel calls it its presidential suite, and there is only one.⁶² For a night at La Scala, write to the concierge at concierge@grandhoteletdemilan.it when you book: as the theatre's partner the hotel arranges reserved tickets and backstage tours.⁷ Linate is 20 minutes by car and Malpensa 45; Central Station is 10.⁶

Discretion

The hotel is small, 72 rooms and 23 suites and junior suites in a 19th-century building.² The suite's balconies look onto Via Manzoni, a street in the Montenapoleone district, not a courtyard.¹⁶ The Montenapoleone metro stop is 10 metres from the door.⁶