A few steps from the Grand-Place, Hotel Amigo occupies a site with a long civic past. The name is old Brussels slang, tied to the building's earlier life as a lock-up. Today it is a Rocco Forte hotel, and the mood is calm rather than grand.

Belgian art sets the tone. Comic-strip heritage turns up in the rooms, a nod to the city that gave the world Tintin, alongside work by local painters and photographers. It reads as a portrait of Brussels told by its own artists.

Expect a restaurant, a bar that locals use too, and the old town at the door. The square, the galleries and the comic murals are all a short walk away.

For roughly three centuries, a ryokan stood on this spot in Maebashi. It closed, sat empty, and was then rebuilt by architect Sou Fujimoto as Shiroiya Hotel. The old concrete frame was kept and opened up into a tall atrium.

Light is the first thing you notice. Installations hang and glow through that open core, and artists were asked to shape whole rooms rather than hang a single piece. Leandro Erlich's suite, threaded with pipework, is the one people talk about.

Across the river, a grassy annex adds more rooms and a gentle hill to walk over. New residence-style rooms in a neighbouring building make longer stays easy. Maebashi is quiet, and that suits the place.

Between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps sits Hotel de Russie, on Via del Babuino. The street has been lined with dealers, studios and antique shops for generations. The hotel fits that company well.

Its art story is partly history. Picasso and Cocteau stayed here in 1917 while working with the Ballets Russes, and the hotel still carries that connection in its bar and its name. Inside, modern art and design sit against classical Roman rooms.

Behind the building, terraced gardens climb toward the Pincian Hill. It is the quiet heart of the property. A spa, a courtyard restaurant and the Stravinskij Bar complete the picture.