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This article is part of a guide to Rome from FT Globetrotter
On my first night out in Rome in far too long, I did what visitors to the city have been doing for more than 250 years and went for a post-dinner stroll to take one last reverential glance at the Trevi Fountain. Even at close to midnight, the square was packed. As everyone fanned out across the city to their quarters, I slipped down a side street and through an unobtrusive door barely 50 paces from the fountain into my palatial lodgings at the Maalot Roma.
This delightful boutique hotel is the former residence of the 19th-century composer Gaetano Donizetti, still feted for his 70 or so operas. I like to think he would appreciate the treatment of his old home. There is something operatic about the decor: a blend of traditional elegance with zany contemporary touches. The walls of the reception area are covered in an eclectic array of arch portraits and images, many of which are quirky pastiches of 17th- and 18th-century classics — including, for example, a portrait of a glamorous lady in a ball gown, with an orange lobster on her head. The furniture is all bold vermilions, purples and reds. It’s as if the designer, Roberto Antobenedetto of Rome-based studio RPM Proget, decreed that in a city of so much classical and Renaissance grandeur, the one thing this hotel cannot be is “stately” — and thank goodness for that.
Maalot, which opened in October 2021, is one of four luxury hotels run by the Shedir Collection in the heart of Rome. A fifth is due to open in the splendour of a reimagined old palace this year. Claudio Ceccherelli, the chief executive and a veteran Italian hotelier, has given them all a shorthand identity. Maalot, he says simply, is “fun”, describing it as “a Roman bistro in a crazy atmosphere”. He is right: there is something impish, artistic and even theatrical about it. How fitting then that the restaurant, which encompasses the front garden and the reception area, is named Don Pasquale after Donizetti’s comic masterpiece, which is widely seen as the high point of opera buffa.
Arguably even more striking than the decor, however, is the hotel’s remarkable tranquillity given its jazzy address. Its entrance is off one of Rome’s most crowded streets. Its neighbour is the legendary — and hugely popular — gelateria Lucciano’s. And yet, magically, as soon as you are through the door the tumult vanishes and it is as if you are in a very special private club.
At a glance
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Good for: A sparky escape right in the heart of Rome; a stunning and fun location if you want to delight Roman friends or colleagues by inviting them here for a drink
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Not so good for: A Roman spa experience, though the concierge can arrange a spa visit elsewhere if desired
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FYI: Each room is decorated differently for a whimsical townhouse feel
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Rooms and suites: 30
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Spa: No
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Gym: Yes
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Double: From €650
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Address: Via delle Muratte 78, 00187 Rome
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Website; Directions
Hotel Vilòn
If you are looking for the ideal complementary stay after a few days of zany Maalot fun, you should stroll five minutes or so in the direction of the Spanish Steps and check into its aristocratic sibling, the Hotel Vilòn. For a taste of the life of the grand Italian families of centuries past there can be few better places to stay. You enter through a nondescript door off a quiet, narrow pastel-painted street festooned with fruit trees. You find yourself thrust into the understated elegance and beauty of a former Borghese palace.
I arrived on a hot spring day and promptly repaired to the cool of the central courtyard dining room for lunch. I imagine I would retreat there for most of the day in the summer. The rooms are lighter and more conventionally stylish than at the Maalot. I particularly liked lingering in the corridors and looking out over the neighbouring garden, a repository of stunning sculptures and statues. I felt as if I had stumbled on an archaeological secret.
The hotel’s owners have deemed the Vilòn watchword to be “intimate”. After dining out in the nearby Piazza Navona, I sat at the bar and, over a couple of glasses of their recommended dessert wine, I watched my fellow guests quietly revel in the life of the Borgheses. And what a life they must have had! Double, from €950. Website; Directions
Alec Russell was a guest of Maalot Roma and Hotel Vilòn
Where do you like to stay in Rome? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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