The best hotels in Milan

Hotel Kennedy - There's absolutely nothing special about the Hotel Kennedy except this: It's where I usually stay if I need to be near(ish) the train station (it's several very long blocks south of Stazione Centrale). First of all, it's dirt cheap (double rooms can be as low as €36; though €50–€60 is more standard). Secondly, while its décor it utterly basic, everything is spotlessly clean. What's more the multi-generational family that runs it is friendly as can be. One drawback: only two of the 13 rooms have full private bathrooms. Three others have shower and sinks (no toilets); the rest just sinks. Viale Tunisia 6; Metro; Repubblica or Porta Venezia.

On Via Rovello

Via Rovello is Milan's miracle street for mid-priced hotels: bang in the center of town—a ten-minute stroll in either direction from the Duomo and the Castello—and home to a trio of moderate inns. It’s a quiet side street that feels worlds away from the hurly burly, yet is parallel to bustling Via Dante, which is lined by cafes and stores.

Hotel Rovello - The 10-room Rovello is perhaps the most character filled of the three hotels on this quiet street near the Castello—and often the cheapest. It has renovated with shiny new wood floors, stylish furnishings, and orthopedic beds, but has also retained the structure's original wood-beamed ceilings, classy dressing rooms off the baths, nice modern furnishings, and unusually spaciousness bedrooms... Via Rovello 18
Metro: Cardusio.

Hotel Giulio Cesare - The Giulio Cesare is the most modern of the trio of hotels on this quiet street between the Duomo and Castello. It sports sleek new baths and flashy contemporary furnishings lit by elegantly tall windows under high ceilings. The amenities are perhaps a notch below those of its neighbors, with a gruff staff and no laundry or concierge service. Warning: some of the singles are minuscule... Via Rovello 10; Metro: Cardusio.

Hotel London - The London is most old-fashioned of the three moderate hotels on this quiet block near the Castello. It offers smiling service, bright and roomy accommodations with worn but solid old furnishings, and 10% off meals in the restaurant next-door. Rooms get smaller as you go up each floor, so try for the first floor... Via Rovello 3; Metro: Cardusio.

Elsewhere in central Milan

Ariston Hotel - The Ariston is one of the first eco-hotels to open in Italy. All its electric devices are low-power and the showers conserve water. All paper products recycled, and the air and water are purified. Even the breakfast is organic. Befitting its ethos, there are free bikes for guests—though there's also a tram stop just a few dozen feet away—and it has a great location about halfway between the Duomo and the Navigli canal district of bars, restaurants, jazz clubs, and art galleries. Largo Carrobbio 2; Metro: Missori.

Ariosto Hotel - In the residential Magenta neighborhood, halfway between the Fiera (convention/expo center) and Leonard Da Vinci's Last Supper (which is just 200 yards away), the Ariosto is a quiet hotel of 48 rooms offering four-star style and amenities at low three star prices. Some rooms—wicker and wood furnishings on parquet floors—overlook the private garden from windows or small balconies; others the Liberty Style (Italian Art Nouveau) facades of the surrounding houses. Nice touches: high speed Internet, in-room VCRs, and free bikes (which helps make up for it being at the very edge of the historic center). Via Ariosto 22; Metro: Conciliazione.

Hotel Vecchia Milano - It's on the high end of inexpensive, but well worth it for the semi-rustic wood paneling, good-sized tile-floored rooms whose modern built-in units come with marble tabletops, complement of amenities from TV to A/C, and location a quiet side street that's not quite near anything, yet close to everything. That is to say, it's within 500 yards (easy walking distance) of many top sights, including the Duomo, Castello, Da Vinci's Last Supper, and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Also, frugal families take note: many rooms come with third beds that flip down from the wall... Via Borromei 4; Metro: Cardusio.

Hotel Gritti - OK, the Gritti is a blandly modern, slightly dingy (but friendly) three-star, but it does have one big selling point: it's just 100 meters from Piazza del Duomo. Plus, half the rooms this quiet little piazza opening off busy Via Torino—and a few on the top floor actually peek across the rooftops to the topmost spires of the Duomo. The elderly owner is always around to keep an eye on things, and the location and rich amenities (A/C, minibar, TV) make it a steal at these prices. Piazza S. Maria Beltrade 4 (off via Torino); Metro: Duomo.

Hotel Star - This modern, three-star hotel has an enviable location on a quiet side-street between the hopping Brera neighborhood and the Castello. The parquet floors with their Oriental rugs support orthopedic beds and (slightly worn) functional furnishings. "Superior" rooms come with a splash of whimsy: a colorful mural-like painting of a big cat (cheetah, tiger, lion cubs, etc.) above the bed. The baths are ultra-modern; some come with hydromassage showers that can act as steam rooms. Via dei Bossi 5; Metro: Duomo.

The Gray - This chic five-star hotel courtesy of the Sina family has been done entirely along crisp modernist lines in gray, black and white picked out with red highlights and avant-garde styling. Best of all, it sits just steps away from Piazza del Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Via San Raffaele 6; Metro: Duomo.

Straf Hotel - This nouveau boutique inn combines cutting-edge decor and tons of sometimes questionable modern art (some rooms are lovely, even stunning; others feel a bit like a show at a contemporary gallery you regret having come to but you now cannot escape). Like its neighbor, the Gray, it, too, is just half a block off the central Duomo Square. Via San Raffaele 3; Metro: Duomo.

Hotel Manzoni - The Manzoni is a nicely appointed but otherwise pretty nondescript four-star property, though it's very comfortable, comes with a friendly family management, and sits in the center of Milan's famed quadrilatero d'oro top shopping district. Its real selling points are the location and relatively low rates, for while it may enjoy only half the class of its top-flight neighbors—the Milan Four Seasons and the Grand Hotel—it also rings in at half the price, leaving you more in your pocket to hit the nearby boutiques. One suggestion: don't bother putting down the extra Euros for the suites, since they differ from regular rooms only in that they are slightly larger. Via Santo Spirito 20; Metro: Montenapoleone.

Cartlon Hotel Baglioni - An old-school luxury hotel of silk brocades, parquet floors, and baths sheathed in black granite in the Quadrilatero d'Oro high fashion shopping district. Via Senato 5; Metro: Montenapoleone or S. Babila.

Antica Locanda Solferino - In such a business-minded, workaday city as Milan, it's nice to find a genuinely eccentric hotel like the Solferino. It’s a personable old inn in the heart of the fashionable Brera district beloved by fashion gurus and movie stars. What it lacks in amenities (no to minibars, but yes to WiFi) and cramped baths it more than makes up for with its quirky style, the breakfast in bed, flower-fringed balconies on street-side rooms, and the comforting, homey furnishings that mismatch everything from rustic antique to Liberty-style. Via Castelfidardo 2; Metro: Moscova or Repubblica

Grand Hotel et Du Milan - The place to stay since the 1863, halfway between La Scala opera house and the cathedral in the heart of the Quadrilatero d'Oro high fashion shopping district. Completely overhauled in 1993–95, it's now a mix of modern luxe and old-fashioned plush luxury, harking back to the days when Callas would stay nowhere else. Need more pedigree? Composer Giuseppe Verdi spent his final 30 years ensconced in the presidential-style suite, which retains the desk upon which he composed many of his operas... Via Manzoni 29; Metro: Montenapoleone.

Town House - Gorgeous pied à terre actually inside the swank Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping center that connects the central Piazza del Duomo and its cathedral with La Scala opera house. You do pay (loads) for the location, though. Via Silvio Pellico 8; Metro: Duomo.