“Our aim was to show Milan what hostels really are. We love traveling and we love our city, and we wanted to combine our two passions. We wanted our hostel to be an open place for locals and travelers alike”.
Carlo Dalla Chiesa, CEO OB
It was September 2009 when a group of friends, initially gathered in a cultural association organizing projects in Milan, decided to change direction and give voice to their passion for traveling and sharing. This passion had long been a common dream for many: to found a hostel. A place that could be “a flower in the middle of the city”.
Founding a company was the first step towards the creation of Ostello Bello in 2010. Carlo, Pietro and Ceri, the three founding members, were the first to join it enthusiastically. Soon followed the rest of the group: Luca, Alice, Pietro, Dora, Emanuele, Giovanni, Barbara, Roberto e Monica. The group is now complete, ready to start working.
None of them had any previous experience in the hospitality field – but they had visited more than 200 hostels. So the members imagined what would later become Ostello Bello by mixing what they had loved most during their travels around the world.
After finding the perfect location in via Medici 4, all of them contributed to the renovation work. Using colored chalk, love and fantasy they built the foundation of Ostello Bello, which opened to the public on August 13th, 2011.
Travelers and locals soon fell in love with the project and after a while, national and international awards started to flood in. Positive feedback and the desire to export their product stimulated Ostello Bello to find its own place with new partners in Myanmar in 2014.
The attention received and the desire to export its product proved to be excellent ingredients for Ostello Bello to find its place in Myanmar in 2014, with the help of new partners.
In 2015, during the Expo, the Ostello Bello concept was replicated in Milan near the central station to accommodate the numerous tourists expected in the city. At the same time, in Myanmar, after the opening in Bagan, new locations followed in Mandalay and Inle Lake.
In Italy, in 2017 and 2018, Ostello Bello opened a location on Lake Como and another in Bevagna, situated in a magical medieval village immersed in the Umbrian countryside, just a few kilometres from Assisi.
Even in 2020 and 2021, new openings were not lacking: Ostello Bello reached three more major Italian cities by opening Ostello Bello Genova, Ostello Bello Firenze, and Ostello Bello Roma.
The year 2022 marked the opening of Ostello Bello Napoli, which the following year won the international award for the best new hostel in the world, granted by Hostelworld.
Ostello Bello’s growth does not stop, and in 2024, new locations are added to the map in Finale Ligure and Palermo.
In 2025, Ostello Bello completed the expansion of Ostello Bello Milano Duomo, located in via Medici 3, right next to the very first hostel at number 4. The same year, in June 2025, the group proudly opened Ostello Bello Bologna, further enriching its network of welcoming homes for travelers across Italy.
