Parliamentary Briefing

[an error occurred while processing this directive]If you're heading for Vienna, you may find the perfect antidote to all those rich pastries and rococo buildings in the clean, airy minimalism of the Levante Parliament Hotel, tel: (43-1) 228 280.

The brainchild of Turkish-born industrialist turned hotelier Fuat Mehmetoglu, the 70-room, Bauhaus-inspired bolt-hole is built around a courtyard close to Austria's legislature in tony Josefstadt. All guest rooms feature flat-screen TVs, tastefully understated decor, and bathrooms with heated stone floors and glass-enclosed rain showers. The hotel's bar-restaurant, Nemtoi, keeps things sweet and simple, too.

Dishes like gnocchi served with cilantro pesto or homemade ravioli with mint-and-potato stuffing and ginger cabbage are deliciously good and light, as is the overall experience of the Levante itself — leaving you in a better frame of mind to soak up Vienna's other culinary and architectural riches.