Grand Visconti Palace

The charm of the Grand Visconti Palace lies in its ability to place its guests into a dimension of welcome comprising atmospheres, feelings and areas in which they can take care of themselves, and settings far away from the bustle and noise to relax and work in.

At the Grand Visconti Palace, you are in the heart of lived - in Milan, the Milan of the Milanese. In a district which sprang up at the beginning of the 20th century, with straight roads and beautiful precise buildings now known as Old Milan style.

Close to a railway branch which is no longer in use, a building stands on the area of one of the reference points of industrial Milan. From 1920 onwards this area accommodated the Verga Mill: trains used to come right into the courtyard to load flour to be transported all over Italy.

Nowadays that courtyard, which houses the bedrooms, the Health Centre and the Conference Centre, is an extraordinary spacious green area in the Italian garden style.

A hotel that is both modern and old, classical but without trimmings, fashionable but without being trendy, and sober, elegant and true, the Grand Visconti Palace presents itself forward as a dynamic, versatile reality - an area to experience as a natural, prestigious location for events, shows, exhibitions, fashion shows and much more besides.

The Grand Visconti Palace is the only City Resort in Milan.

The city's image has always been linked with the world of work, and hotel guests' choices of hotel are made almost exclusively in order to optimize the time available, with their own wellbeing often taking second place.

Up to now it was not thought that "A Resort in the City" could be realized in Italy's economic capital: so the owners created a green oasis in an attempt to offer the guests the chance to take care of themselves before and after a busy working day, and to rediscover the pleasant feeling of treating themselves to a little calm and relaxation.

After thinking up and realizing this project from the structural point of view, the desire was to satisfy your needs and humour your expectations.

Their wish was to reintroduce the pleasure of "offering hospitality" which was in use last century in grand hotels throughout the world, when the doorman was the butler, the barman the keeper of secrets and the manager the watchful, discrete landlord.

The Verga Mill stood in a 12,000 square metre area situated in a central position with easy access, on 1920. The mill later became the premises of a famous biscuit factory, which moved elsewhere at the end of the ’90s.

On September 2001, a building in the heart of Milan came up: part of the building was refurbished and another part was demolished and rebuilt with the specific desire of maintaining intact the design of the old building which dated back to the early years of last century.

The intention was to capture the charm which only period buildings can transmit, and to allow it to be experienced in the future.

172 rooms, a conference centre, a banqueting hall, a restaurant, a health centre with an indoor swimming pool, a park, a garage with spaces for 70 cars and a car-park for 3 coaches complete the offering.

For the name of the hotel, they chose the name of an important Lordship - the Viscontis, who from the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century were in charge of what was the largest and most powerful state of Italy at that time. Tradition united with innovation.

The names of the rooms are those of the main city gates of Milan, while for the restaurant and the bar they opted for more original and modern names, playing on the letter “V” in their logo.

Thus the “Al V Piano” restaurant (corresponding exactly to the floor on which it is situated) and the “Visavis” Bar (intentionally Italianized in the writing) came into being.

The Grand Visconti Palace hotel in Milan is situated a few minutes away from Porta Romana, one of the ancient city gates which marked the border of the centre of old Milan.

The hotel is located in a residential area rich in commerce, and if you walk along Corso Lodi and Corso di Porta Romana you can admire some characteristic Milanese shops.

After Piazza Missori you will reach Piazza del Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele arcade.

Motorways: "Autostrada del Sole" motorway (A1) - Rogoredo exit on the "tangenziale Est" orbital. Milan to Venice motorway (A4) - Rogoredo exit on the "tangenziale Est" orbital.

Public Transport: Underground: Line 3 (the Yellow line). Lodi T.I.B.B. station: 150 m. Bus: 90, 91 and 92: 100 m. Ferrovie dello Stato railway: Central Station: 2 km. Ferrovie Nord railway: Cadorna Station: 5 km.

• Al V piano

Restaurant "Al V piano" - both by name and in reality. Overlooking the roofs of Milan, it is accessed via a lift.

It is a cosy area with a half arched ceiling, a large antique mirror as scene design, ostrich chairs and design lamps.

The design is essential but not cold - modern classicality in every shade of dove-grey and sand. The restaurant is the realm of light, but sophisticated cuisine based on the Mediterranean influence while daring to effect some creative touches, and without neglecting the great classic Lombardy and Milanese dishes and some old dishes.

Fusion and reminiscence are the words which chef likes to use for summing up his cuisine.

The Salone Visconti is available for banquets and functions. Bright and elegant, its large windows overlook the park.

• Visavis Lounge Bar

Compared with Milan's other cocktail bars, the Visavis is the ideal solution for enjoying spending time in.

The Visavis bar is the place for pre-dinner drinks and informal meetings in an intimate setting, in which to enjoy the best cocktails or even just a coffee.

Named Visavis precisely because it is vis-à-vis or face to face, you can come here with colleagues to discuss matters, with friends to joke with them, with your partner or soul mate to make plans, or sometimes even on your own to do some thinking.

• Not Just Jazz

Every week, the winter garden of the Grand Visconti Palace is transformed into "Not Just Jazz" - the most intimate and appealing of Milanese music clubs, and a stage for thrilling live appearances open not only to the hotel guests but also to all music lovers, not just jazz buffs.

Not Just Jazz was born thanks to the specific desire of General Manager Claudio Gnoni, who right from the very beginning wished to strongly connote the hotel as a meeting place for musical and cultural events.

The idea behind the project was to create a veritable "cultural salon", a club promoting the quality music culture and which would abolish the artificial barriers between the public and the artists to allow exchanges of ideas and a refreshing reciprocal transfer of emotions, ideas and perceptions.

The intuition of the founders of Not Just Jazz was to bring Jazz to the hotel, by moving into Italy a means of exploitation that is unusual here but absolutely normal in the USA, and without neglecting other types of music on condition that it is high level music.

The programming is managed with skill and passion by the Art Directors of the Grand Visconti Palace. It puts forward all "colours" of Jazz music and other music too, through concerts and evenings with artists of national and international importance.

In addition, the hotel's art directors can offer any type of artistic service on a "turnkey" basis for functions, events and conferences.