Have you ever met an elevator you'd be willing to live in? Not really live in just ride up and down again and again, because the journey itself is an experience. Such is the elevator at the R48 Hotel, located in the heart of Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv. The hotel is housed in a preserved Bauhaus-style building an architectural movement born in Germany in 1919, which shaped the face of Tel Aviv in the 1930s and gave it its nickname, "the White City." In 2003, UNESCO declared the district a World Heritage Site.

But now, to the heart of it.

From the moment I entered the hotel, time stood still. I felt as if I'd been drawn into a time capsule far from the Tel Aviv bustle, far from the news, far from the war. The clean, meticulous design aired out something inside me, and within a few minutes the troubles of the day were replaced by a deep breath and a smile.

The walls weren't left bare they tell a story. Contemporary Israeli art was carefully selected to adorn the spaces: photographs alongside paintings in mixed techniques, works by artists such as Ori Gersht and Tal Shochat. But what stopped me in my tracks was the work of Anisa Ashkar a multidisciplinary Israeli-Arab artist, born in Acre. The portrait hanging there depicts a woman whose face is adorned with Arabic calligraphic script, a tribute to identity, to language, to the body. An element that invites you to pause, to observe, and to feel.

And now to the elevator.

Its walls are glass, and it sits at the heart of the building's original stairwell. From every direction, exposed bricks from the previous century peer out, creating an atmosphere of a past that is alive and breathing. But contrary to expectation, the elevator is spacious, air-conditioned, and inviting. The moment you step into it, the sticky summer air is replaced by a sense of calm.

And then, a surprise. They furnished it. A leather bench, an inviting armchair, and on triangular wooden legs awaits an oversized art book by the photographer Annie Leibovitz. I turned one page, then another, and each image was more beautiful than the last. I was sorry for every floor that passed, because the building wasn't tall enough.

A small anecdote to close: the owners, Ruti and Mati Brodo, opened the hotel in February 2023, just a few weeks before everything changed. Places like these remind us that there is also beauty.