STAY IN YOUR OWN PRIVATE GARDENS IN THE HEART OF ROME

by YouShouldGoHere
November 5, 2012
in Stay Here
1

[ROME] — Rome is known for having small, cramped hotel rooms, but the Hotel de Russie doesn’t suffer from that. The gardens alone are worth the expense, although the elegant rooms and excellent spa round it off. It’s a Rocco Forte hotel, so the service is something you can depend on. The rooms are modern, elegant, with awesome bathrooms. Ask to have one facing the courtyard, otherwise you’re missing out. The service in the garden cafe is top notch, and the people watching worth every penny. The location is right off the Piazza del Popolo and just up the street from the Spanish Steps, along Rome’s most expensive shopping streets. Splurge on yourself, you’ll want to come back from your explorations and have a cocktail and say ahhhhhh.

If you’re willing to ratchet it up a few notches, another favorite set of sheets in Rome is the Hotel de Russie. Walking by the skinny crowded sidewalks and fancy shopping around Piazza del Popolo, you’d never know this magical garden hides behind the demure entrance. A private Eden all to itself, 3,000 square metres of palm tree gardens climb up the steep hillside. (The same hill that leads up to Villa Borghese in my previous posts.) If it’s too expensive for your taste, you always stop in for a martini or long lunch. The building is classic design, but as a Rocco Forte Hotel, the rooms are understatedly modern and elegant, tricked out with everything you need. If you’re up for it, it is worth every penny to splash out on one of the interior rooms that look out on the gardens like this. And drool… thp-thp-thp…. otherwise, you’ll just face the street.

I like this.

‘m just going to come out and say it: The French are the best in the world at pool design, just barely nudging out the Italians. Greeks get bonus points, you know, because of the whole Santorini situation. But nobody does Umbrellas like Italians… no matter where you go, every courtyard or piazza, big town or small, they got it down. I mean, look at these beauties, you can put a stringline across them and I bet they don’t vary by more than a mm or two. And to me, umbrellas should always be white. Red, maroon, green? Bleecccch. There, I said it. Discuss. (Don’t even get me going about pea gravel. That’s a whole ‘nother discussion… )

Some of the rooms have terraces or balconies at Hotel de Russie. So you can play out you’re own Romeo and Juliet scene. Or, the more likely modern day scenario, where you whisper-up: “Hey Julie, throw me down the room key!”