Hotel de Russie

Jean Cocteau wrote home from the Hotel de Russie in the spring of 1917 that he had found paradise on earth. He was in Rome with Picasso, Stravinsky and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, preparing the ballet Parade, and the company lodged on Via del Babuino at a hotel that had been receiving Russian nobility and European artists for most of the nineteenth century. The Hotel de Russie, Rome, stands on the same spot, a few steps from Piazza del Popolo.

History

The building belongs to the early nineteenth century, when the architect Giuseppe Valadier was reshaping Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio above it; the terraced garden behind the hotel, climbing the hill in a sequence of balustrades and citrus trees, is attributed to him. The hotel took its name from the Russian grand dukes who wintered there. After the Second World War the building passed to RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, and spent decades as offices. Rocco Forte bought it in the late 1990s, restored it with his sister Olga Polizzi as designer, and reopened it in 2000 as one of the first hotels of his company. It has been among the most sought-after addresses in the city since.

Architecture and design

The facade is Roman neoclassical, plain and ochre. Inside, Olga Polizzi set contemporary furniture against the proportions of the old rooms, with marble floors, pale walls and colour kept for fabrics and art. The garden is the hotel's great asset: a series of terraces rising from the courtyard towards the Pincio, planted with orange trees, palms and roses, with fountains, stone benches and butterflies in summer. The Stravinskij Bar opens onto the lowest terrace, and most guests spend more time there than in their rooms.

Rooms and suites

There are around 120 rooms and suites, with the largest on the upper floors looking over the garden or towards the dome of St Peter's. Suites named for Nijinsky and Picasso recall the 1917 season. Bathrooms are in marble and mosaic; furniture is light and modern, with a few antiques.

Dining

Le Jardin de Russie serves Italian cooking in the garden and in a dining room opening onto it, under the direction of Fulvio Pierangelini, the Tuscan chef who oversees food across Rocco Forte's hotels. The Stravinskij Bar is a Roman institution in its own right, open to the city and busy from aperitivo onwards; its courtyard tables are among the hardest to secure in the centre.

Wellness

The Irene Forte Spa, named after Rocco Forte's daughter and using her skincare line, occupies the lower level with a small pool, a hammam, treatment rooms and a gym. It is one of the few hotel spas in central Rome with a pool.

Weddings and events

The garden and its terraces host receptions and dinners from spring to autumn, with the courtyard as the main space for a wedding or a gala. Inside, a set of meeting and banqueting rooms serves conferences and private dinners through the year. Capacities vary with the configuration and are confirmed by the hotel.

Location

Via del Babuino runs between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, and the hotel is nearer the former, a few minutes' walk from the Flaminio metro station and the gardens of Villa Borghese above. Fiumicino airport is about forty minutes by car and Termini station fifteen. A luxury hotel in Rome with a garden of this size, in this position, has no real equivalent in the historic centre.