Six older houses make up this part of the guide. Some were built as private villas, one served the city before it served guests, and each keeps rooms that were not planned for sleeping. The notes describe what stands, where it stands and what the shared rooms hold, as published by the houses themselves.
Sina Villa Medici stands a short walk from the Santa Maria Novella station, on a street that runs quietly behind the traffic of central Florence. The house is an eighteenth-century villa rather than a purpose-built hotel, and it keeps a garden behind it, which is unusual this close to the middle of the city. The old front gives little sign of what is inside.
Reception rooms on the ground floor keep their proportions, with high ceilings, plaster work and long windows onto the garden. The garden itself holds mature planting and a terrace used for meals in warm weather. Guest floors sit above, reached from a stair hall that has been left in its original position rather than replaced with a modern core.
Ask the house whether the garden and terrace are open during a stay, since both depend on the weather and on private use. It is worth asking which rooms face the garden rather than the street, and how early luggage can be left before a room is ready.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationFlorence, Italy
Grand Universe Lucca
Lucca, Italy
Grand Universe Lucca occupies a nineteenth-century building on Piazza del Giglio, inside the walls of Lucca and beside the theatre that gives the square its name. The house has been in use for guests for a long stretch of its life. Streets around it are closed to most traffic, so arrival is on foot from the nearest gate or drop-off point.
The old plan survives in the public rooms: a stair hall, a first-floor salon with tall windows onto the square, and a bar that opens off the entrance. Guest rooms above vary in size because the building was never laid out to a grid. A roof terrace looks over the tiled roofs of the walled town toward the hills.
Ask the house how luggage reaches the door, since vehicle access inside the walls is limited and rules change. It is also worth asking whether the roof terrace is open during a stay, which rooms face the square, and what the theatre programme means for noise in the evening.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationLucca, Italy
The Ludlow
New York, United States
The Ludlow stands on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a quarter of tenements, small shops and later infill. The building is modern but sits tight to its neighbours and keeps to the street line. Subway lines on Delancey Street are a short walk away, and the bridge approach runs a couple of blocks to the south.
The lobby is arranged as a sitting room, with a large fireplace, worn leather seating and a long bar that opens onto it. Behind the ground floor there is a planted courtyard used in warm weather. Guest floors are compact, and windows in the upper rooms look out across low roofs rather than into the wall opposite.
Ask the house whether the courtyard is open on the dates in mind, since it closes in cold weather and for private use. It is worth asking which rooms face the street, how the lobby bar affects noise at night, and how early luggage can be left.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationNew York, United States
Maison de la Luz
New Orleans, United States
Maison de la Luz stands in the Warehouse District of New Orleans, in a building that served the city before it served guests: it was raised as a municipal annex to the old city hall. The conversion kept the outside largely as it was. The street sits a short walk from the Central Business District and from the river side of the city.
Rooms inside are laid out as a house rather than as a corridor of numbered doors, with a salon on the ground floor arranged for sitting and reading, and a smaller bar beside it. Original openings and stair positions survive in the plan. Guest rooms carry high ceilings and long windows left from the civic use of the building.
Ask the house which of the ground floor rooms are open to guests through the day and which are held for private use. It is worth asking about breakfast arrangements, the walk to the streetcar line, and how early a room can be entered on the day of arrival.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationNew Orleans, United States
Hotel Brummell
Barcelona, Spain
Hotel Brummell occupies a house in Poble-Sec, the quarter on the lower slope of Montjuïc in Barcelona, away from the main tourist axis. Streets here are narrow and residential, with small bars along them and the hill rising behind. The building is an older city house rather than a new block, and it keeps a courtyard at its centre.
The courtyard carries most of the shared life of the house: a small pool, planting and seating, with rooms opening around it on the upper levels. On the ground floor a café and reception share one room that runs through to the yard. Guest rooms differ in size and outlook because the old plan was kept rather than regularised.
Ask the house whether the courtyard and pool are open in the season of a stay, since both depend on the weather. It is worth asking which rooms face the yard rather than the street, and how steep the walk is from the nearest metro station.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationBarcelona, Spain
Casa Ellul
Valletta, Malta
Casa Ellul stands on Old Theatre Street in Valletta, inside the walled capital of Malta and close to the churches and civic buildings of the old town. The house dates from the nineteenth century and keeps its stone front and enclosed timber balcony. Streets around it are narrow and stepped in places, so arrival by vehicle needs planning.
A modern extension has been added behind the old front, which gives the house two characters: the historic rooms toward the street and newer volumes at the back. The building is small, with few rooms in all, and the shared space is limited to a stair hall and a terrace rather than a large lobby. Some rooms open onto private outdoor space.
Ask the house how a car reaches the door, since Valletta restricts vehicles and the street is narrow. It is worth asking which rooms sit in the old part and which in the extension, whether the terrace is open, and how breakfast is served in a house of this size.
CategoryArt Hotels
LocationValletta, Malta
This guide is independent and descriptive. The notes rest on published sources and can fall behind the buildings they describe. Shared rooms, gardens and courtyards are not always open to every guest at every hour. The site is connected to no hotel, sells nothing and books nothing; ask the house before you travel.
