Introduction - La Dorchester Vita
Buongiorno! We’ve just returned from a week in Italy, after visiting Lake Como, Milan and Rome. My partner had some business in Milan and Rome, so we decided to make a trip out of it. We have been doing cheeky European summers for the past few years, but this was one of the earliest in the season. I quite like going to Europe before the masses, as the crowds and the lack of robust AC are simply not worth it. Even still, both of our transatlantic flights were completely full.
The main destination of this trip was Lake Como. We’ve had to scrap our previous two trips to Como due to schedule conflicts, so the third time really is the charm. Como has a vibrant hotel scene, and it’s about to get even more exciting. You’ve probably heard of Grand Hotel Tremezzo or Villa d'Este, both have been around for more than a century. The more recent entrants include the Mandarin Oriental and Il Sereno. The newest star on the lake is the Edition Lake Como. We were actually supposed to stay there last year when it first opened but had to cancel. In a few years, there will be a Ritz-Carlton, a Raffles and a Belmond. We had a few Marriott free night awards expiring soon, so we were able to use them to book the Edition Lake Como. Timely enough, Marriott implemented a new policy that allows you to top up 25,000 Marriott points to the 85K free night awards. The points required for our dates were exactly 110,000 per night, so we really lucked out. The cash rate would have been around $1,500 a night for a base level room, with no lake view. Personally, I think having a lake view is non-negotiable. It’s like going to the Maldives and not stay in an overwater villa - what’s the point? I knew we were early in the season, and the hotel didn’t appear to be that full. I chanced it and applied our Marriott nightly upgrade awards, and they cleared us into a deluxe lake view suite as I expected. Talk about a phenomenal redemption! It’s stays like this that keep you on the Bonvoy hamster wheel, lol.
Rome and Milan are both blessed with endless luxury hotels. We heard great things from friends about Hotel Eden in Rome, a Dorchester Collection property. I had not stayed at a Dorchester Collection hotel before and was very excited to check it out. In absolute terms, the rates were pretty expensive. We booked a base level room for around $1,500 a night. However, considering the W Rome was almost $1k for our dates, it didn’t seem that bad relatively. As I was booking Hotel Eden, I discovered there was a Dorchester in Milan - Hotel Principe di Savoia. The rates there were a much more palatable $700. Hotel Principe has over 300 rooms, while Hotel Eden has around 90. If you’re interested in staying at a Dorchester Collection property, I highly recommend booking via the Dorchester Collection Diamond Club program. There are many property-specific benefits that aren’t available to bookings via Amex Fine Hotels or Virtuoso. For example, our stay at Hotel Principe included guaranteed 8AM check-in and 8PM check-out, among other standard perks like room upgrade and property credit. Most hotel check-in is at 3pm and check-out at noon, so to extend your stay by 15 hours is absolutely wild. Feel free to dm me or drop me a note, and I’ll be happy to check if your desired Dorchester property has anything similar.
There won’t be any flight reviews on this trip, as we took the direct flight from Miami to Milan, and the direct flight back to Miami from Rome. Both were operated by American Airlines. In the end, this trip review series looks something like this:
Review - The Lake Como Edition
Review - Hotel Principe di Savoia, Milan
Review - Hotel Eden, Rome
For a somewhat serious undertaking, I’m a bit surprised by how clean our itinerary was. I’m glad to have checked out all of the Italian Dorchester hotels, and we loved our time in Como. Italy has incredible diversity in its tourism offerings. There are so many other places on my list that we didn’t have the time to explore, from Sardinia to the Dolomites. Well, I guess you gotta start somewhere!