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Posts tagged hotels in rome
Il Palazzetto, Rome:Review
Sep 27th
We’re in the heart of Rome, standing with our backs to the Piazza di Spagna, searching for our luxury hotel, which should be exactly here,and we find – a metro station. Some mistake, surely? But no. Rome is an ancient place, specialising in the unexpected. To our right, an arched stone doorway appears, only a few steps from a hole-in-the wall pizza place and the metro entrance – and so does Roman paradise.
Glassed off from the street bustle, the tiny reception of Il Palazzetto (the building that houses the Wine Academy) leads to a remarkable wrought-iron and marble staircase (as featured in Bertolucci’s 1998 film Besieged). The stairs wend upward to the garden restaurant, library and salon/wine bar, and further to rooms and a rooftop terrace. (A petite lift, complete with floor mosaic, is available for those who can’t or won’t do stairs.) As there are only four guest rooms, the place feels as if it is ours: all ours. With no signs of other occupants, it is as if we have walked into our own Roman villa. Cool.
Getting us more aquiver is Il Palazzetto’s location. This island of serenity and elegance lies in the heart of the Roman tourist More >
Hotel de Russie, Rome
Sep 9th
A great hotel will make all who stay there feel utterly spoilt. A really, really great hotel will go the extra mile by indulging whims you didn’t even know you had. (Before you were first offered a pillow menu, can you honestly say you had strong feelings on the matter of duck feathers versus goose?) As a case in point, allow me to relate an incident that took place at dinner on our first night at Hotel de Russie that made it clear this place was a class act.
Mr Smith ordered dessert. Torn between the delectable pudding menu and the knowledge that I had already consumed, over the course of lunch and dinner in Italy, my bodyweight in pasta and risotto, not to mention a fortifying ice cream in between, I regretfully declined. Five minutes later, the waiter returned, bearing not just (as I had hoped) one Tiramisu and two spoons, but two whole Tiramisu. ‘This one’s on us,’ he explained as he presented me with my plate. ‘We really think you should try it.’ Oh, if you insist…
Hotel de Russie is a hotel in the elegant, grand, metropolitan tradition. The handsome building is impressively located on the Piazza del More >
The St. Regis Grand Hotel – Rome, Italy
Aug 11th
The St. Regis Grand Hotel in Rome epitomizes the city it graces. Rome’s timeless elegance comes not simply from its ancient glory. Historic preservation and modern innovation are both embraced by this city of contrasting charms. No hotel better exemplifies this duality than the St. Regis Grand Hotel.
The magnificent lobby with its lovingly restored opulence takes you back to the glories of the golden era of grand hotels. At the same time, in a masterstroke of design perfectly achieved, the hotel is vitalized by the incorporation of some of the best work of contemporary Roman artists. The artwork is incorporated throughout the hotel, used as a motif for designating rooms and suites and stimulating the imagination at every turn. The result is a palpable sense of living in the grace of culture moving through time.
The St. Regis Grand has always been at the leading edge of style. When the hotel first opened in 1894, the great Cesar Ritz almost single-handedly transformed Rome into a cosmopolitan city. Until that point, upper class social gatherings were in private palazzos only. Uprisings by Vatican supporters against the House of Savoy, malaria, and a population of less than half a million limited the entertainment More >