The best hotels in Rome, from luxury palazzos to affordable boutiques
Spending a few days in the Italian capital in one of the best hotels in Rome is right up there on most people’s wishlist: this extraordinary living museum that invites us to reimagine ancient civilisation as much as wander off grid – spying private spaces with wisteria and ivy-draped courtyards – to that quiet piazza or less-visited basilica, doors open to the cool, candle-lit interior, moments so beguiling in the mix with pinch-yourself places from the Raphael Rooms at the Vatican to the Roman Forum.
The hotel choice can be overwhelming and this selection offers options both set back from the fray and slap-bang in the heart of things, from new luxury openings in centuries-old Renaissance palazzi and a Fascist-era security HQ to a townhouse secreted down a cobblestone side street. Some stand out with a garden or hidden courtyard where you can catch your breath, or a fabulous rooftop where romantic church cupolas rise above the sea of terracotta tiles. All have knowing staff keen to tell you about that lively little bar, a great family-run trattoria serving best-in-class burrata ravioli cacio e pepe, or their favourite gelateria, priceless keys to unlocking the Eternal City.
The best hotels in Rome
John Athimaritis1/11Six Senses Rome, Via del Corso
Perched between the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, Six Senses Rome stands grandly in the 18th-century Unesco-listed Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini. While the location couldn't be more central, inside everything sways to relaxation. This can best be seen at the cocooning wellness space, designed as a contemporary take on the Roman baths. Here in the cavernous space, find a set of stone-carved pools at different temperatures as well as a sauna, a steam chamber and multi-sensory showers. An ideal, family-friendly place to recuperate after a day of sightseeing and meandering.
2/11Orient Express La Minerva
Set inside a 17th-century noble residence originally built for the Portuguese Fonseca family, La Minerva has been one of Rome's most luxurious grand dame hotels for hundreds of years, drawing in notable artists, writers and aristocrats; from Picasso to Moby Dick-author Herman Melville and a popular spot for those going on the Grand Tour. Now, acquired by Orient Express as their first ever hotel - it's been sensitively restored and reinvented by one of Paris' most exciting young designers, Hugo Toro.
Hugo brings his stylish eccentricity to the fore with an ode to Orient Express' legendary carriages woven throughout Orient Express La Minerva. This is first seen as you step through the hotel's grand marble-decked, glass-domed lobby where a statue of the hotel’s namesake goddess (Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, war and crafts) stands guard over the cocktail bar. “Just don't stare at her in the eyes if you want a good relationship,” the concierge warns me.
The rest of the hotel is an equal feast for the eyes, from the art deco concierge rooms to the bright all-day rooftop restaurant, Gigi's, which comes with 360 views of Rome's domed rooftops and landmarks and what's set to be a glorious subterranean Turkish hammam and spa modelled on Roman baths which is still under construction. There’s also a Japanese restaurant inspired by 1920s Osaka in the works as well as a speakeasy, wine bar, and patisserie.
– Tal Dekel Daks
Piazza della Minerva, 69 , Rome, 00186, Italy
+39 06 84 42 90
Dean Hearne3/11Hotel Locarno
Once a holiday palazzo belonging to Venetian nobles, this singular and storied boutique hotel and rumoured Wes Anderson favourite has been a hub for filmmakers and creatives for decades.
There is nothing homogenous here: 49 elegant, art nouveau rooms and suites with high ceilings and original mouldings, frescoed walls, original glass vetrate a piombo doors, antique Italian furniture, marble bathrooms (from deep green Italian Alpi to a rare pale Sienna yellow) and freestanding porcelain tubs, restored parquet and terrazzo marble floors, silk wallpapers and serious curtains to pull across huge windows. This is a place with real iron keys and a proper fireplace (beloved by Federico Fellini), the logs lit winter-long. There’s a great bar (one of the best in town), a little courtyard garden and a roof terrace with views to the twin cupolas of Piazza del Popolo and canopies of the parasol pine trees at Villa Borghese beyond.
Via della Penna, 22
4/11Soho House
The hotel, members club and co-working space is spread over 10 floors of a beautiful Brutalist building wrapping around a corner of a wide leafy street in San Lorenzo, an arty neighbourhood near La Sapienza University with a slight edge and youthful energy in spades.
Fittingly, the finger-on-the-pulse GM has created a fun party vibe in the evenings where a cool crowd gather for live music and events, winding their way upstairs through a warm palette of peaches and pinks, the walls hung with artwork on a theme of saints and sinners by up-and-coming Lazio artists.
On the ninth and tenth floors are the expansive spa, a small rooftop pool with parasols and excellent views, and an indoor-outdoor Cecconi’s restaurant and bar for cocktails beneath lemon and olive trees. The club and restaurant service can be patchy, but the front-desk team are full of great suggestions to get beneath the skin of their beloved city.
Via Cesare de Lollis, 14
5/11Bulgari
One of last year’s two ultra-high-end hotel openings (the other being the Six Senses, featured below), the Bulgari is a temple to travertine marble and timeless splendour, softened by Murano glass lamps, Rubelli fabrics and Gio Ponti furniture. Situated in an imposing 1930s building commissioned by Benito Mussolini, it overlooks the circular tomb of Emperor Augustus and Richard Meier-designed Ara Pacis museum – ancient Rome on your doorstep in an uncrowded piazza, yet just footsteps away from Via del Corso and the Spanish Steps.
It is worth singling out the 1,500 sqm spa, with a Roman bath-style Bisazza mosaic indoor pool fed by two bronze fountains and eight vast fluted marble columns rising in its midst, and the wraparound rooftop terrace, a green oasis open only to hotel guests during the day.
There may be pillow menus and six places to eat (helmed by three-Michelin star Abruzzo chef Niko Romito) but this is an impressive and very carefully considered calling card from Rome’s most historic jeweller.
Piazza Augusto Imperatore, 10
6/11Six Senses
A Six Senses in the heart of Rome? It won’t work, everyone thought, for how could a brand best known for its brilliant beach resorts in exotic locales find a footing in a hustling city centre.
And yet, opening last March in the 18th-century Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini at the southern end of Via del Corso, the Six Senses has become a popular and very beautiful addition to Rome’s luxury hotel scene. Classical lines – the sweeping marble staircase and restored fluted columns – meet contemporary and very calming design by Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola. The serene marble spa has its own take on Roman baths and a reputation for its advanced wellness focus, whilst the Notos rooftop bar and terrace has views of the baroque Chiesa di San Marcello next door (the recent restoration of its facade – alongside the painstaking restoration of the palazzo’s own UNESCO-protected facade – was funded by Six Senses), the quadriga and winged Victorys of Capitoline Hill visible on the skyline beyond.
Piazza di San Marcello
7/11Hotel De Russie
The Rocco Forte forever-glam grand dame: iconic and immaculate. The expansive terraced gardens, a magical Mediterranean sanctuary of mature pines, flowering citrus trees and fountains slap-bang in the centre of Rome, are among the best places to enjoy – well anything, from caffè and cannoli to sundown aperitivi.
The Picasso suite is named for just one of the hotel’s storied guests, the 120 Olga Polizzi-designed rooms radiating elegance and calm, whilst the small spa offers treatments with Irene Forte products. The Forte family’s connections inevitably open doors for guests, including a dawn visit to the Vatican with the clavigero, or keeper of the keys.
Rocco Forte unveiled sister Hotel de la Ville in 2019 at the top of the Spanish Steps, a little less expensive and with a roof terrace, teeny vermouth bar and amazing spa, followed swiftly by Rocco Forte House, a five-apartment property in an 18th-century palazzo on Piazza di Spagna. But de Russie remains one of the Eternal City’s most romantic and revered hotels – a familiar go-to for some, a rare and ultra-special treat for others.
Via del Babuino, 9
8/11The Hoxton, Rome
In a city spoilt for five-star hotels, the first Italian outpost of this British brand (opened in 2021) is an excellent four-star alternative. Just north of Villa Borghese in quieter Parioli – Rome's most upmarket pocket of greenery and grand villas – the Hoxton trades on its un-hectic locale a park-stroll away from all the sites.
A global mix of guests come for the hallmark modern design, great unstuffy service and casual, fun vibe in the communal spaces – the lobby coffee shop, the cocktail bar and outdoor terrace – a hotspot for locals, ensuring an appealing share of Italian voices in the comingling. The Hoxton has partnered with rising star of Rome culinary scene Sarah Cicolini for its restaurant Elio, and a DJ at weekends ensures its Cugino bar overflows with conviviality.
Largo Benedetto Marcello, 220
Andrea Getuli9/11Hotel De' Ricci
Offering just eight suites, one with a serious terrace, this intimate albergo is akin to a private home tucked away on an unassuming cobblestone street in Regola, a mostly residential neighbourhood running alongside the River Tiber. It feels removed from the hustle and bustle, and yet the Pantheon is a 15-minute walk away.
There is no restaurant (but there is 24-hour, very good room service in its place); rather, Italian wine is the focus here, with eight varieties offered in each suite and many more (up to 1,500) in the cellar. The bar also makes knockout aperitivi – house negronis and other cocktails crafted at a trolley beside your table before dinner among the winding, ivy-clad streets of Trastevere just across the water.
Design is by photographer Daria Reina and fashion illustrator Andrea Ferolla of Chez Dédé, the ultra-cool concept store almost next door (clothes, accessories, books, gifts), with no two rooms alike, each a meld of vintage and midcentury-inspired furniture and hand-painted trompe l’oeil murals.
Via della Barchetta, 14
10/11JK Roma
With only 27 rooms, JK Roma is a boutique bolthole with a townhouse feel, tucked away on Via di Monte d'Oro in the former 17th-century Palazzo Borghese. There’s no great fanfare: it is just quietly, chicly there, in a discreet location yet moments from the clamour of Via del Corso.
The third to open, this JK Place offers what we’ve come to expect from Ori Kafri’s small portfolio (of four, the J standing for his father Jonathan): ultra stylish, serene Michele Bönan design – in greys and golds with the flashes of emerald or citrine – that serves as a balm to days (and nights) in the Eternal City. Comfort is key: the kind of hotel where you check in from the sofa in the sitting room – surrounded by statuary – as you flick through a coffee-table book, JK sour or Roman spritz in hand. There is no outdoor space, unless you have a suite with a balcony.
Via di Monte d’Oro, 30
11/11Hotel Chapter Roma
Found down the tiny Via di Santa Maria de Calderari (Saint Mary of the Blacksmiths), this irreverent 42-room hotel at the nexus of Regola and Sant’Angelo is a confluence of the area’s industrial past and cool, contemporary design. Brass and steel fittings, wooden floors and exposed brick walls are warmed by scalloped velvet headboards, custom furniture from local artisans and stylish pieces by Tom Dixon, Seletti and Moroso.
On the ground floor, vaulted ceilings and stone archways are met by street art and graffiti, where the lobby coffee shop, food counter and bar (known for its negronis) are very popular with locals. There’s a summer-season rooftop bar (curiously, Mexican themed) and the small Campocori restaurant is a sexy jewel-box of mirrors and dusky lighting.
Sant’Angelo, Rome’s Jewish Quarter, feels delightfully removed from the hubbub, yet Trastevere is a stone’s throw across the Tiber and all the major draws in the city’s centro storico are still within walking distance.
Via di Santa Maria de Calderari, 47
