Regent Hotel Berlin, Germany

Marble walls and floors glisten with the reflection of crystal chandeliers. Underneath, guests linger, settling onto fringed ottomans, their likenesses caught in gilded mirrors. Outside, Gendarmenmarkt Square evokes another, more romantic era. Hear the vibrato of violins fill the air as tempos rise and fall in the nearby Konzerthaus concert hall, flanked by eighteenth-century German and French cathedrals, their domes stretching skyward in reverence.