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8/8-9/07 |
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Hotel Art by the
Spanish Steps |
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Via Margutta 56,
00187 Roma, Italia |
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Telephone
+39.06.328711 |
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www.hotelart.it |
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ROOMS
Much like staterooms on a Cunard line, the shipshape rooms with
their parquet hardwood floors and Florentine leather headboards make
for a cozy refuge from the hustle of the (Piazza di Spagna)
neighborhood. Everything has its place—and, in fact, there might be
moments when you wonder if there’s room for you and your
possessions. Relax, everything can and does fit—but these small
rooms are best treated as way stations to the more commodious spaces
throughout the rest of the hotel. Use the rooms for sleeping and
dressing—think of them as large dressing rooms with bed and
toilet—and you’ll be happy. And if you’re traveling with a partner,
well, you’ve probably already sacrificed privacy long ago.
PUBLIC SPACES
Reception is a pod. Literally. A large white resin egg that might
have come from the set of Woody Allen’s film Sleeper. And there’s a
second egg that serves as the front office. Two white resin eggs in
the midst of what used to be the chapel of the seminary. Now
deconsecrated, the high altar is the bar—and hundreds of bottles
fill the area where once there might have hung a crucifix. This
once-holy space is where breakfast (and a light lunch/brunch) is
served—which makes sense if one thinks about the high regard
Italians place upon food.
There’s also a lovely outdoor art-filled courtyard—with mounted
speakers playing Italian opera. If you’re a smoker, there are worse
places to light a ciggy.
BREAKFAST
The buffet is arrayed across the bar—which used to be the altar.
Even if you’re the kind of person who’s lost the faith, it’s a fine
way to pay obeisance to the bounties of a new day. And while the
chairs—low, and necessitating a kind of louche slouch—are probably
better suited to cocktails, the general hush of the room (a vestige
from its origins?) enables a leisurely and relaxing morning—before
heading into the maelstrom of Roma.
PERSONNEL
Helpful and attentive without being obsequious or fawning.
LOCATION
In the heart of it, if you’re an English-speaking visitor, or an
inveterate shopper. Everything you associate with la dolce vita is
within a ten-minute walk.
OVERVIEW
A fine boutique hotel in a town which once favored fusty, Hotel Art
does a good job at mixing the classical with the modern—so that one
never forgets where one is: in the heart of the Eternal City, but
beating with the pulse of now. |
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