Fodor's Expert Review Cravat

This hotel has been in the Cravat family for over a century, battling modernity every step of the way—the phrase “grande dame” was coined for places like this. Now run by fourth-generation Carlo, he has endeavored to keep it exactly as it was in his grandfather’s day. It would have been so easy to replace everything; instead, decades-old chairs are carefully reupholstered in the same style, wooden elevators from the 1940s are lovingly maintained, and lock-and-key rooms (there’s no electronic cards here) ooze old-fashioned allure. Such attention to detail is to be admired. The only anachronism is the cheerful German café now operating where the old hotel restaurant used to be.