Art Hotels

Círculo Mexicano occupies a nineteenth-century house behind the Metropolitan Cathedral in the historic centre of Mexico City. The interior was stripped back to brick, stone and dark wood, and rooms are furnished sparely with pieces in a Shaker manner. A courtyard, a ground-floor restaurant and a roof terrace facing the cathedral towers are open to guests.

The house stands on República de Guatemala, a narrow street immediately north of the cathedral and a few minutes from the Zócalo. The Templo Mayor excavation is around the corner, and the surrounding lanes are dense with shops, printers and market stalls. Traffic is kept out of several of them, and the walk to the main square takes only a few minutes.

The historic centre is loud at weekends, and rooms differ in how much of the street reaches them. The roof terrace and the restaurant keep their own hours and admit visitors from outside. Altitude affects some arrivals, and nearby streets close to cars at times.

The Dolli at Acropolis fills a neoclassical building on Dionysiou Areopagitou, at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. The house was restored and opened as a hotel by a Greek group that runs other addresses in the city. A restaurant, a roof pool and a terrace turned towards the rock make up the public parts.

The building faces the pedestrian street that runs below the Acropolis, between Plaka and the Acropolis Museum. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Areopagus and Filopappou hill lie within a short walk, and Syntagma is a longer one to the east. Trolleybuses and a metro station serve the corner at the end of the street.

The terrace and the restaurant are in demand and are usually reserved well ahead. The street below carries no traffic, so arrivals by car need directions from the house. Summer heat shapes the hours people use the roof, and the museum nearby keeps its own closing days.

Vander Urbani Resort was made by joining old town houses on Krojaška ulica in Ljubljana into a single hotel. Slovenian designers reworked the interiors, and the plan keeps the irregular rooms and shifting levels of the original buildings. There is a restaurant on the ground floor, a small pool on the roof and a lounge that runs between two of the houses.

The hotel stands in the old town on the left bank of the Ljubljanica, a few steps from the Cobblers' Bridge and the riverside market. The castle hill rises behind it, and the lanes around are closed to traffic and lined with cafés along the water.

Rooms vary in size and shape because the buildings differ, so ask what you are getting. The old town is largely free of cars, and reaching the door with luggage needs arranging. The roof and the restaurant keep separate hours, and the riverside is busy on summer evenings.

Nolinski Venezia occupies a former administrative building a short walk from Piazza San Marco, opened by the French group behind the Nolinski houses in Paris. The building once held offices and was reworked inside while keeping its scale and its stone. A restaurant, a bar, a spa and an indoor pool are part of the house, and the courtyard entrance keeps the building turned away from the street.

The house stands between Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal, on one of the wider streets of the San Marco district. The Fenice theatre is a few minutes away on foot, and the Accademia bridge lies to the south-west across the quieter lanes. The nearest water stops are on the Grand Canal, a short walk in either direction.

Arrival is on foot or by water, and the house explains the route to take with luggage. The area around San Marco is at its busiest in the middle of the day. High water affects some ground-level routes in autumn and winter, and the restaurant keeps its own hours.

Hotel Palacio de Villapanés fills an eighteenth-century palace in the San Bartolomé quarter of Seville, converted into a hotel while its plan was kept. A marble courtyard with columns sits at the centre, with galleried floors around it. There is a restaurant, a small spa under the vaults and a roof terrace with a pool.

The palace stands on Calle Santiago, in the eastern part of the old city and away from the main routes through Santa Cruz. The Casa de Pilatos is close by, the cathedral and the Alcázar are a walk to the south-west, and the surrounding lanes are residential.

The streets here are narrow, and cars reach the door with difficulty. Rooms differ between the historic floors and the newer part of the house. Seville is hot in high summer, which changes how the courtyard and the roof are used, and the spa keeps limited hours.

Casa Fantini Lake Time stands on the shore of Lake Orta in the village of Pella, in a house belonging to the family behind a local tap manufacturer. The ground floor is left largely open, glazed towards the water, with a bar and a dining room inside. Rooms are plain, and most of them look across the lake.

Pella lies on the western shore of Lake Orta in Piedmont, opposite the island of San Giulio and the village of Orta San Giulio, with a boat crossing between them. Behind the houses the ground rises quickly into wooded hills, and the lake road is narrow.

The house is small and closes for part of the year, so check the season before planning. Boats across the lake follow a timetable that thins outside summer. Parking in the village is limited, and the dining room admits visitors from outside at set hours.