THE FACTS ABOUT TOWN HOUSE 12

Italy Milan

Encouraged by the success of his first hotel, Town House 31, Alessandro Rosso has opened a second property half a mile north of the city centre near the Fiera di Milano. Town House 12 upstages its older sister in several ways. It is, for example, the only Italian hotel with an Absolut Icebar, where everything from the sofas and tables to the glasses and light fittings is made from Norwegian ice. Town House 12 is also cooler than Rosso's first property from a design point of view. Conceived as a calm, Zen-like retreat, it is predominantly light charcoal-grey, offset with baby-pink cushions, reindeer-skin rugs and antique Oriental chests. In the 18 rooms, clean-lined modern elegance comes in the form of dark wengé-wood furniture and coconut-fibre carpets while bathrooms (some of which are a little tight for comfort) have white walls, matt-grey tiles and contemporary, metallic fittings. The public spaces are lively and sociable. In the breakfast room (there's no restaurant), up to 24 guests (models, young business types, design-conscious tourists) enjoy each other's company at one huge wooden table. Out on the pretty decked terrace, seating is around a communal trestle-table shaded by potted palms; and up in the so-called 'terrace-bar', half of which is open-air during the summer months, the open-plan table arrangement makes meeting the neighbours inevitable. WHEN TO GO The first two weeks of January and July for the sales ROOM TO BOOK Deluxe rooms 105, 106 or 205, which have good-sized balconies CONTACT Town House 12, piazza Gerusalemme 12 (00 39 02 8907 8511; fax: 8907 8517; www.townhouse.it). Doubles from euro 200; deluxe rooms from euro 240