Living It Up In Warsaw

By Andrew Purvis and Tadeusz Kucharsk/Warsaw

Since emerging from communist rule more than a decade ago, Poland has become a draw for history-hungry tourists. Its capital, Warsaw, saw the debut last month of its first boutique hotel, the Rialto, situated in a prewar neighborhood just a few hundred yards from where Wladyslaw Szpilman, the hero of The Pianist, hid out after the 1944 uprising (the area is now a busy shopping district). The Rialto is lavishly outfitted, with black-and-white Art Deco furnishings from Warsaw's heyday in the 1920s. Its elevator is modeled on an Orient Express compartment, with red leather seating. There are only 45 rooms, and no two have the same design. --By Andrew Purvis and Tadeusz Kucharsk/Warsaw