Six Senses Milan: a courtyard house in the heart of Brera
After a year's delay, Six Senses brings its second Italian hotel to Via Brera, with interiors by Tara Bernerd, a sky pool and the most serious hotel spa in central Milan.
Milan has never lacked smart or luxury hotels, but most were built for fashion weeks and the Salone del Mobile, when the city fills with people who need a sleek place to sleep between appointments. The rest of the year, the Quadrilatero's hotel bars can feel strangely empty. Six Senses, which opened its first Italian hotel in Rome in 2023, bets Milan is ready for something slower, and it has chosen the right neighbourhood.
Via Brera runs north from the edge of the fashion district into the old artists' quarter, past the Pinacoteca and the Accademia di Belle Arti, and it is still a street of galleries, framers, bookshops and small bars where students and collectors drink side by side. Number 19 is a few minutes' walk from the Duomo and closer still to the Castello Sforzesco, and on Saturdays there is a market a street away on Via San Marco.
Tara Bernerd's urban villa
The interiors are by Tara Bernerd & Partners, the London studio behind Rosewood Munich and the recent renovation of Belmond Maroma, and Bernerd has described the hotel as a house-villa built with sartorial care. In practice that means Arabescato marble, antique brass, hand-made smoked glass, textured plaster ceilings and mosaic borders, a palette that takes its cue from the old Milanese palazzi of the neighbourhood rather than the glass towers of Porta Nuova. Everything is arranged around an internal courtyard, which will be the hotel's social heart and which, in a city where most of the best gardens are hidden behind closed gates, will be one of its biggest attractions.
There are 69 rooms, including 16 suites. Two suites have plunge pools, and one has a terrace with a pool of its own more than twelve metres long, built for private parties during design week. That one will be booked years ahead.
The spa
Six Senses built its reputation on its spas, and the one here looks set to be the best in central Milan. There is a 15-metre indoor pool, two saunas, a steam room and a cold plunge, together with the group's mix of hands-on therapies and high-tech recovery treatments. On the roof there is a sky pool and a bar looking out over the city, and downstairs a seasonal restaurant and a deli.
I do have one reservation. The Six Senses style, with its herbal teas, sleep programmes and talk of longevity, sits a little oddly with a city that runs on espresso at the counter and Campari at six. I suspect the hotel will be at its best when it leans into Brera rather than away from it, and I would like to see a bar that local gallerists actually want to drink in.
When to go
Six Senses has said the hotel will open in late 2026, after slipping from an original 2025 date, but at the time of writing no exact date has been announced and some trade listings now show 2027, so check before planning a trip around it. Rates are expected to start at around £1,000 a night. If you can, avoid the fashion weeks and the Salone, when the whole city doubles its prices, and go in late spring, when the courtyard and the roof will come into their own.
The details
Six Senses Milan, Via Brera 19, Milan. Opening expected in late 2026. 69 rooms, including 16 suites; Six Senses Spa; rooftop sky pool and bar; restaurant and deli. Malpensa is about 50 minutes by car; Milano Centrale is a short taxi ride away. sixsenses.com