Residenza del Cardinale is open in Milan, at Via Cardinal Federico 1, with 28 rooms and suites. On its own page, Meliá places it ten metres from the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and about 450 metres from the Duomo. It is the second Italian address of The Meliá Collection, after Tenuta di Artimino in Tuscany, and its restaurant, Nocciola, looks to Piedmont. Meliá’s release on the opening reached the Italian trade press on 5 October. The hotel’s official category, in Meliá’s words, is still pending, so it carries no star rating yet.
28 rooms, from 30 to 91 square metres
The rooms come in nine categories. On melia.com the Deluxe rooms measure about 30 square metres and the Superior rooms about 31, or 37 with a terrace. The suites carry the neighbourhood’s names: the Ambrosiana Suite, about 38 square metres, the Caravaggio Suite with a balcony, about 37, and the Raffaello Grand Suite, about 51. Meliá describes 28 rooms and suites “each with its own identity, where historic charm coexists with modern comfort”. Read the sizes before the names.
Three penthouses at the top
The penthouses are the largest rooms in the house. The Cardinal Penthouse with Terraces, about 61 square metres, is laid out on two levels. The Borromeo Penthouse with Terrace, about 71, sits on the top floor. The Da Vinci Penthouse, about 91 square metres, has a balcony, a private fitness area and two bathrooms.
Nocciola and the Piedmont table
Nocciola is described on melia.com as a Piedmont-inspired restaurant in the centre of Milan, with a patio, a wine cellar and its own entrance from the street. According to Meliá’s release, as carried by the Italian trade press, it seats 40 inside and 30 in the courtyard and is overseen by the Piedmontese chef Carlo Zarri, with truffle, Fassona beef, Barolo, vitello tonnato and bagna càuda among its references. Opening hours and menus have not been published.
A palazzo beside Federico Borromeo’s Ambrosiana
The building is old. Meliá’s release describes a 13th-century palazzo whose interiors had been divided into apartments and have now found a new unity, restored by Studio Simonetti and Progetto CMR. Its neighbour explains the room names. Cardinal Federico Borromeo founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana on 7 September 1607 and opened it on 8 December 1609, and the Pinacoteca followed in April 1618, according to the Ambrosiana. The Pinacoteca’s own pages name Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit, Raphael’s cartoon for The School of Athens and the drawings of Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus among its works.
The Meliá Collection in Italy
Milan is the brand’s second Italian hotel. The first is Hotel Tenuta di Artimino, at Artimino in the province of Prato. Meliá also announced, on 29 September, a hotel of 67 rooms on Via XX Settembre in Rome, due in 2027, with a rooftop bar and a wellness area.
The Luxury.it perspective
Residenza del Cardinale is a hotel to choose by the room. The sizes run from about 30 square metres to 91, and the suites named after Caravaggio and Raphael are not the largest spaces in the house. For a stay built around the Ambrosiana, the address does the work: ten metres from the Pinacoteca, about 450 from the Duomo, with a Piedmont table downstairs.
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