5 Stops in Milano (3-4)

Buccellati is another well known jeweler in Italy. They create some of the most extravagant pieces worthing of any king or queen. Many of their works are collector or private monumental pieces. Also, their techniques of engraving and carving are quite specialized, used only here at Buccellati. They would hire and train young goldsmith for a rough 15 years or so, after which they could work independently in coordination with the company in their own houses.
In the second photos you will see some old molds that they used before digitalization to record they styles and  design of their pieces.

This is a piece at work. In the center are diamonds of various muted colors, and you could tell that each pendant frame has been customized to match the exact shape of those diamonds. In their Buccelllati books, I found necklaces with raw diamonds the most attractive.

Father and son working for Buccellati.

This is just a nice angle I saw while visiting the malls next to the duomo. This is a display by Zara.

The Straf Hotel on Via San Raffaele is a wonderful example of a modern hotel incorporated with modern and contemporary art. The VIP dinning room is surrounds by uncovered cement walls with a color screen at one end. Unfortunately, despite how much I loved their rooms and designs, the food was less pleasing. One of us described it as cat food.... Well, it wasn't THAT bad, but you get the idea. They have room for improvement.

The rooms, basically the entire hotel's furnishing was designed by Vincenzo De Cotiis, with his own works on display at the entrance, on the balconies and with his great taste for vintage furniture, as those chairs you will see below. The hotel is very popular with the international crowd, so it is almost always full occupancy during international fairs and shows in Milan. The day that we were visiting, we were very lucky, they had 100% occupancy, and we had to wait till midday to confirm that lucky one of the guests has decided to check out.