Milan's Town House Galleria is the world's first official seven-star hotel.
Italian hotelier Alessandro Rosso wanted to create a hotel so good, it needed a whole new rating system. That's how the world's first seven-star hotel was born.
The Town House Galleria is not an experience that everyone can enjoy. For one thing, room rates start at EUR1000 ($2035) a night, rising to EUR3900.
Each room is individually furnished, there is a luxury chauffeur service and butler service available 24 hours a day.
The hotel's interiors are stunning. As the building is a historic monument, each room has been designed to fit into its existing layout.
Individual layouts, four-metre-high ceilings and windows, and original features that, depending on the room, may include frescoed ceiling borders or stone angels watching over you.
Add brilliantly coloured velvet furniture, sweeping satin curtains and a vast bathroom and you've got a room made for cocooning.
The Town House Galleria is small, exclusive and intimate - a home-away-from-home for those for whom money is no object.
Town House Galleria is located inside the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II - a magnificent Belle Epoque construction that is part palazzo, part thoroughfare and part upmarket shopping arcade.
Any hotel can apply for the SGS seven-star hotel specification, so Town House Galleria may not retain its exclusive hold on the rating. Until it does, however, this hotel is definitely a cut above the rest.
