The Carlton Milan Reopens After a €60 Million Renovation Ahead of the 2026 Olympics

The Carlton reopened in Milan's Fashion District in November 2025, five years after Rocco Forte took over the historic property and poured €60 million into a top-to-bottom renovation. The 71-room hotel's creative direction fell to Olga Polizzi, the group's Deputy Chair and Director of Design, working with architects Philip Vergeylen and Paolo Moschino to lean into the building's midcentury roots, drawing on references to Gio Ponti alongside the 1930s rationalist architecture that shapes so much of Milan's built environment.

The Carlton Bar, shaped by legendary mixologist Salvatore Calabrese, celebrates Italy's aperitivo tradition with cocktails inspired by Milan's creative energy from the 1960s through the 1980s, while the Irene Forte Spa gives the hotel a genuinely serious wellness offering across 280 square meters, including a Thermal and Relaxation Suite with a sauna, steam room, sensory showers, and sound beds. A garden is set to join the property's collection of spaces in spring 2026.

The timing is no accident. The Carlton opened its doors in time to take reservations for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, giving Rocco Forte a genuinely fresh flagship in a city about to host the world's attention. For a hotel that spent five years under renovation before reopening, the debut window could hardly have been better chosen.

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