TOR DI VALLE RACETRACK

IPPODROMO DI TOR DI VALLE

Via dell'Ippica/Via del Mare km 9

1958/59 Julio Lafuente (1921), Gaetano Rebecchini, Aicardo Birago and Calogero Benedetti

"While the previous Capannelle racetrack went back to the Belle Epoque period, the Tor di Valle structure is the scenario of the myths and illusions of a society stunned by the euphoria of an extraordinary economic boom. It is a sophisticated product of architectural styling, defined by a figurative world that abolishes orthogonal rigidity and, with some brutalist style, research effects with the adoption of a register set based on the oblique line and geometric expressivity of the structural system due to a Piranesi's influence" (Giorgio Muratore)

CAPANNELLE RACETRACK

IPPODROMO DI CAPANNELLE

Via Appia Nuova 1245

First racetrack 1881 expanded in 1926 by Paolo Vietti Violi and in 1981 by Dario Garcia Tomellini

The name of the location comes from some small huts (capannelle) typical of the Roman countryside no longer existing

The racecourse area currently extends to 140 hectares (346 acres)

The stables can accommodate up to 1,000 horses

The capacity of the stands is about 2,000 people

HYPOGEUM OF VIBIA

IPOGEO DI VIBIA

Via Appia Antica 101

Hypogeum also known as Ipogeo delle Monachelle (hypogeum of the little nuns), discovered in the eighteenth century by Giovanni Bottari and rediscovered in 1847 by Father Giuseppe Marchi in the Medieval CASALE DELLA TORRETTA (house of the small tower) on the left side of the Appian Way

It is part of the COMPLESSO DI VIBIA (Vibia's Complex), a small private cemetery, consisting of seven underground chambers interconnected in the late antiquity period

Vibia was the wife of Vincentius priest of the Thracian-Phrygian Sabazius god known for his orgiastic cults

ARCOSOLIO DI VIBIA (Vibia's Arched Niche)
Paintings dating back to the late third century AD: under the arch "Death of Vibia symbolized by the Rape of Proserpine", "Vibia is judged" and "Seven priests devotees, including Vincentius, during a banquet", in the lunette "Vibia enters the world of the blessed and feast of the blessed"

ARCOSOLIO DEI MISTERI (Mysteries Arched Niche)
Opposite Vibia's Arcosolium with scenes of the cult of Mithras

HYPOGEUM OF VIA LIVENZA

IPOGEO DI VIA LIVENZA

Via Livenza 4

Significant underground construction of the second half of the fourth century AD, excavated at the end of 1800s within the Salario Cemetery

Believed to be a Christian baptistery or a mysteries sanctuary, but more likely to be a monumental fountain

Plan similar to the one of a circus (hippodrome) of 21 x 7 m (69 x 23 feet)

RECTANGULAR BASIN separated from the rest of the room by a pierced marble balustrade rebuilt with original fragments. It is topped by an arched wall with fragments of mosaic representing "Figure kneeling in front of a source and another standing figure" maybe St. Peter who makes water flow from the rock to baptize the converted centurion. In the lower part of the wall fresco "Cupids fishing"

NICHE IN THE WALL offset from the axis of the building with frescoes: in the basin "Kàntharos from which water flows and on which doves rest"

On the left end side of the niche "Diana the huntress extracting an arrow from his quiver as two deers run away"

On the right end side of the niche "Nymph petting a deer"

"During the revival of classical and pagan themes, linked to the empire of Julian the Apostate (361/363), the dense pictoricial qualities, the uses of different shades of color to achieve a naturalistic rendering of the body and a sense of plasticity are the result of a clear classicist intention, also linked to the adoption of models derived from the Hellenistic tradition, as well as the taste for landscape setting" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

HYPOGEUM OF VIA DINO COMPAGNI

IPOGEO DI VIA DINO COMPAGNI

Via Dino Compagni/corner with Via Latina

Maybe four distinct phases, identified in a period between 320 and 360 AD, when it was very common to have in the same family some members converted to Christianity and others still devoted to pagan worship

Discovered by chance in 1955, it is one of the most beautiful hypogeums in the world for the richness of its paintings, an authentic art gallery of the fourth century

Maybe the tombs belong to two related families or two branches of the same family

The entrance stairway leads to a CORRIDOR and TWO CUBICLES maybe built in the first phase and decorated with "Scenes from the Old and New Testament": the fall of Adam and Eve, Noah's drunkness and Isaac's dinner

At the end of this corridor, through steps, there is an access to TWO CUBICLES maybe built in the second phase:

The first has columns in the corners and cross vaulting with "Stories of the Old Testament": a probable representation of the Flood, Samson strangling the lion, the dream of Joseph, Moses saved from the waters, Adam and Eve with Cain and Abel, the passing of the Red Sea

In a third phase ANOTHER CORRIDOR was built, starting from the middle of the first one, leading to a VESTIBULE and two cubicles:

The so called CUBICLE OF THE TELLUS where are represented "Pagan scenes": Gorgon, Tellus and zoomorphic elements

The so called CUBICLE OF SAMSON oval in shape, where there are also original "Christian scenes" such as Samson slaying the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, Barlaam stopped by the angel, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

From another vestibule TWO CORRIDORS begin, one with cells and the other with stairs leading to a well

In the fourth phase of construction an ambulatory was built toward west leading to a VESTIBULE WITH A HEXAGONAL PLAN, corner columns and vault with a central medallion on which a "Bust of a man with rotulus" is represented. In the lunette of the arcosolium (arched niche) on the right there is an exceptionally unusual painting: "Anatomy lesson with a corpse"

From this vestibule there is access to two rooms and two arcosolia

ANOTHER VESTIBULE enclosed by a fence, leads to three cubicles, where there are paintings with "Pagan scenes": Labors of Hercules, Admetus and Alcestis, Ceres, as well as paintings with "Christian scenes": soldiers gambling for the robe of Jesus with a curious device for drawing lots, Job and his wife, the giving of the Law, three Jews in the furnace, the stories of Moses, Noah's ark

While it is not possible to attribute the hypogeum to a specific household, not having epigraphic sources, it can be assumed that this funerary complex, built first by Christian people, was also used by pagan people, perhaps by the time of the revival of paganism under Julian the Apostate (361/363)

HYPOGEUM OF TREBIUS JUSTUS

IPOGEO DI TREBIO GIUSTO

Via Giuseppe Mantellini 13/ corner with Via Latina

Discovered in 1911 and reopened in 1976

It dates to the early fourth century AD

It consists of an access corridor, a vestibule and a square burial chamber covered with a vault. There are niches in the side walls and on the main wall there is an arcosolium (arched niche). The hypogeum is entirely dug in the pozzolana rock and inside the walls are lined with bricks

Important paintings are visible, still well preserved, in which are there are portraits of the owner of the tomb, Trebius Justus, with his wife, his son who was buried here, and other characters

MAIN WALL

In the upper part "Young man seated maybe his son, Justus Trebius Asellus (donkey), who died at 21 years, 7 months and 25 days with his mother at his side, maybe Honoratia Severina and a man, maybe Trebius Justus himself, who tend a cloth on which there are various items"

In the arcosolium "Trebius Justus Asellus surrounded by objects for writing", a typical set for students

"Objects functional to the exaltation of his status as are arranged in the air, without any apparent realistic relationship, but clearly linked to a symbolic concept. It was considered more important, in fact, the most immediate evidence of the rank of the character, expressed through attributes, that a faithful representation of the reality of the attributes themselves" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

Under the arcosolium "Trebius Justus among some farmers who have brought baskets full of products of the land"

SIDE WALLS

"Construction of a building": on the left a scene of a construction site, on the right Trebius Justus talking to another character, magister Generosus, probably a mason

ON THE SIDES OF THE ENTRANCE

"Transportation of building materials and agricultural products"

VAULT OF THE BURIAL CHAMBER

"Shepherd between two sheep"

From these paintings, it is possible to deduce that Trebius Justus was a builder as well as a rich landowner

A current interpretation relates the characteristics of the tomb to a heretical Christian sect, and attempts to explain everything in a symbolic way. The effigy of a woman with monstrous beard seems to support this theory seems confirming the possibility of some Gnostic rituals

It is more likely however that any symbolic intent is to be excluded, and that representations of everyday life, would not have another meaning than the purely figurative one

Even the image of the Good Shepherd on the vault is explained in this light, as a hint to religious people who, although Christian, had certainly not passed the first level of initiation

HYPOGEUM OF THE AURELII FAMILY

IPOGEO DEGLI AURELII

Viale Manzoni, Via Luzzati

One of the most important funerary complexes of the first half of the third century AD, discovered in 1919

On the floor of the main hall which is in communication with some catacomb tunnels there is a mosaic inscription mentioning four characters of the gens Aurelia, the Aurelii family

FIRST ROOM

Paintings "Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden", "Creation of Adam" and "Doctors"

SECOND ROOM

"Male and female figures draped", "Veiled woman", "Men with rods", "Decorations with birds, dolphins and sea horses", "Cupid and Psyche", "Male figure with a scroll" and "Man points to a cross"

THIRD ROOM

Enigmatic "Banquet scene with eleven characters and a woman who touches the head of one of the guests", maybe "Sermon of Jesus on the mountain with goats and sheep", "Episode from the life of Ulysses", "Cities with turreted walls" maybe the heavenly Jerusalem, and "Knight who enters triumphantly into town"

"Appearing at an early age, even in the first half of the third century, with the famous and discussed banquet in the Hypogeum of the Aurelii, the image of the banquet will have a constant fortune in the catacombs of Rome, becoming one of the key representations of the early Christian figurative language. (...) Such scenes echo, first of all, the ancient Hellenistic funerary meals, sacrificial and leisurely, besides being funerary. These meals found a solution of continuity within the Italic, Etruscan and Roman culture with various types of funerary banquet. (...) In truth, in the catacombs' depictions of banquets, one can find most of the iconographic models and symbolic meanings created by the earlier figurative culture, even if the Christian sense, in ritual and symbolic key prevails and emerges on other senses" (Fabrizio Bisconti)

ANCIENT ROMAN APARTMENT BLOCK ON PIAZZA VENEZIA

INSULA DI PIAZZA VENEZIA

Piazza Venezia

Second century AD, six or maybe even more floors: ground floor with tabernae (shops), mezzanine and three floors, with traces of a sixth which maybe was not even the last one

It was inhabited until 1929

It is estimated that originally it housed about 380 people

Augustus had established a law according to which the dwellings should not have exceeded 21 m (69 feet) and Trajan imposed a limit of 18 m (59 feet): hence numerous insulae in Rome were six or seven floors high, with exceptions such as the monstrous INSULA FELICLES of the second century AD, famous throughout the empire for its dizzying height. We do not know how high it was but we must assume it must have been pretty tall for the stupefied reactions in front of this ancient skyscraper. It was located in the area between the Pantheon and The Column of Marcus Aurelius

According to the Cataloghi Regionari (list of monuments and buildings of Rome in the fourth century) the insulae under Septimius Severus (193/211) were 46,602, a ratio of 1 to 26 with the domus

Insulae was the name given to these units by Guido Calza obtained from ancient sources, but recently it was established that the insula was a unit of property projected on the ground and it was not really a specific type of building

In the Middle Ages the church of S. BIAGIO MERCATELLO was built on the insula of which are visible the bell tower and, in an arched niche, a fresco of "Christ between the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist" of the Lazio school dating back to the early fifteenth century. It was rebuilt in 1643 as S. RITA DA CASCIA IN CAMPITELLI, by Carlo Fontana (1634/1714) and then moved in 1929 near the Marcellus Theater

IMAGE OF THE BRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD

IMMAGINE DI PONTE

Via dei Coronari 113

Great tabernacle designed in about 1523 by Antonio Cordini aka Antonio da Sangallo th Younger (1483/1546) for the Cardinals Alberto Serra and Francesco Armellini whose coats of arms have been inserted at the top

Traces of paintings "Christ crowning the Madonna" and "Sts. Sebastian and Antonio" by Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

It is the most important of all the shrines of Rome, being located on the road that pilgrims followed in the direction of the tomb of St. Peter, thus constituting the last occasion for prayer before the conclusion of the pilgrimage. The importance of the aedicula is also related of course to the great artists who have made it

Via dei Coronari is currently a beautiful street full of antique shops but it owes its name to the fact that originally there were shops selling corone (wreaths), namely rosaries for pilgrims who used to walk this road in great numbers. They were practically the equivalent of current souvenir shops

BUILDING FOR APARTMENTS ON VIA S. BASILIO

EDIFICIO PER ABITAZIONI IN VIA S. BASILIO

Via S. Basilio 53

1931/32 Adalberto Libera (1903/63)

Also known as CASA NICOLETTI (Nicoletti House)

Restructuring by the great architect from Trentino of a nineteenth-century building for homes, only a stone's throw from Piazza Barberini. It was his first project in Rome 

"Libera is certainly one of the most important figures in the scene of Roman architecture in the thirties and probably, with Mario Ridolfi, the only figure on international level that has operated in Rome in the period between the two wars. (...) He designed the new façade of this building on Via S. Basilio to which he gave a peculiar elegance through the use of moldings in travertine quite projecting and light tubular metal railings painted. Sadly very degraded, the building is today occupied by a small hotel" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

HOUSE FOR RENTAL ON LUNGOTEVERE MARZIO

CASA D'AFFITTO SU LUNGOTEVERE MARZIO

Lungotevere Marzio 9

1932 Cesare Valle (1902/2000)

Also known as CASA VIOLA (Purple House)

Built after the Development Plan for Rome of 1931 had provided for the enlargement of the roads along the Tiber River at Ponte Cavour with the demolition of some old buildings 

Six floors with twelve apartments of four rooms each 

"The building, although built at the edge of the old town, rejects any mimetic attitude and instead assumes a particular character of formal elegance that comes from a certain attention both to the rationalist vocabulary and to some experiences of the 'Novecento' (twentieth century) style" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

VALIANI HOUSE

CASA VALIANI

Via Romanello da Forlì 25 - Prenestino

1929/31 Giovanni Michelucci (1891/1990) who was later architect of the railway station of Florence S. Maria Novella 

Five apartments, one for each of the five brothers of the Valiani family, with common areas. Now the building has been engulfed by illegally built structures and it is no longer recognizable 

The architect from Pistoia partially reused an existing farmhouse known as Villa Ciocca 

"Perhaps it is the number of common areas to be the most interesting part of the building - which is also known for non-traditional volumetric articulation - including the entrance stairway that projects in the façade very light glass windows which seem to anticipate, in some ways, one of the themes of the Station of Florence" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AND St. PHILIP ON VIA AURELIA

CHIESA DI NOSTRA SIGNORA DI GUADALUPE E S. FILIPPO IN VIA AURELIA

Via Aurelia 675

1955/58 Gianni Mazzocca

It was built with the help of the offerings of Mexican faithful

Mexican National Church

The first stone of the church was taken from the Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City, where the Virgin Mary appeared to the Native American Juan Diego in 1531

"It shows all the contradictions typical of religious architecture in this period of transition. Structural innovations and formal uncertainties are present here in equal measure, (...) a stylistic ambiguity result of the attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity. (...) It is original the surface treatment of the façade with travertine lozenges alternately arranged either in simple rows or diagonally. (...) Inside the yellowish light diffused from the alabaster windows dilutes the mixing of classical elements and the use of reinforced concrete" (Massimo Alemanno)

SIDE NAVES

Mosaics in the lunettes "Images of the Patrons of the Americas"

APSE

Huge mosaic with "Our Lady of Guadalupe" anointed and crowned in 1962 by Pope John XXIII Roncalli (1958/63) together with the Latin American bishops in Rome at the time for the Second Vatican Council

HOTEL TIZIANO

HOTEL TIZIANO

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 110

1886/88 Gaetano Koch (1849/1910) for the Marquis Francesco Saverio Lavaggi. Formerly known as Palazzo Lavaggi Pacelli belonging to the family of Pius XII Pacelli (1939/58)

It was converted into a hotel in 1956

The linear façade clearly inspired by the architecture of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger contrasts with the contemporary façade of the nearby Palazzo Vidoni by Francesco Settimj (active 1875/88) which is much more densely built. Both were built at the time of the opening of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

SINGLE FAMILY HOME ON VIA CARINI

CASA UNIFAMILIARE DI VIA CARINI

Via Giacinto Carini 28 - Porta S. Pancrazio

1926 Gaetano Minnucci (1896/1980)

One of the first residential buildings to be designed according to the indications of the emerging rationalist movement

"Given the date of the project, this building is substantially interesting both for its volumetric composition and for the particular simplicity of its formal solutions. Equally significant is the interior which plays a dominant role in the scale that determines a double-height space, made very bright by the two large windows in the front" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

"With the book 'The modern popular dwellings in contemporary Holland' (Rome 1926) (...) Minnucci stated the themes of his research on the paradigms of modernity, which he directly applied in the design of the single-family house on Via Carini (...), in which the matrix is distinctly Dutch. This house was one of the few contemporary works that were published in the Manifesto of the Group 7 to be effectively built. (...) The Group 7 (...) dictated new standards for architecture with a series of articles in the journal 'Rassegna Italiana' (Italian Review), that in December 1926 also published the manifesto of Italian Rationalism, which argued the rejection of Eclecticism in favor of the principle of construction in series. This document was prior to the establishment of the Movimento Italiano per l'Architettura Razionale (MIAR) (Italian Movement for Rational Architecture), which included fifty architects divided into regional areas, with Minnucci secretary of the Roman area since the foundation" (Alessandra Capanna - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

HOTEL St. REGIS

HOTEL ST. REGIS

Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando 3

1894 Giulio Podesti (1857/1909)

Until 2000 it was called the Grand Hotel

There are 138 rooms and 23 suites

Built on the area of the Temple of gentis Flaviae, temple of the Flavian family celebrating the emperors Vespasian (69/79), Titus (79/81) and Domitian (81/96)

In the courtyard there is a vine that matures enough grapes for about 100 bottles of Adornetto wine exclusively for hotel guests

Among the distinguished guests: Émile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, Benito Mussolini in 1922, Ferruccio Parri with the Italian Committee of Liberation and Marshal Badoglio

In the front garden there is COLUMN OF TWINNING with bronze caravel erect in 1961 to symbolize the partnership and friendship between Rome and Paris

HOTEL SHERATON ROMA

HOTEL SHERATON ROMA

Viale del Pattinaggio 100 - EUR

1975/78 Lucio Passarelli (1922) with his brothers Vincenzo (1904/85) and Fausto (1910/98) and with Michele Valori

"The basic idea has been to redeem the cross-shaped morphology, which was required by the client, through the differentiation of the length of the arms and the number of floors, emphasizing effective visual reduction in the number of floors, through the thin strips of ribbon windows, alternating between the exterior ones mirror-like, and the backward ones dark and light-absorbent. The external work, divided between the swimming pool, main hall, roads and steps around a circular base, integrate the location of the complex in the large perimeter road. The hotel thus becomes, in its rotation and eccentricity, an updated introduction to the EUR district more than forty years after its creation" (Website Studio Passarelli)

HOTEL REGINA BAGLIONI

HOTEL REGINA BAGLIONI

Via Vittorio Veneto 72

1892/94 Giulio Podesti (1857/1909)

Formerly known as HOTEL REGINA CARLTON

Restoration in 2009 with a reduction in the number of rooms

In the lobby "Portrait of Queen Margaret" by Michele Gordigiani

The hotel was chosen by Queen Margherita of Savoy as her home while she awaited the completion of her noble residence, “Villa Margherita”, which presently hosts the American Embassy. The excellent service, hospitality and kindness shown to the Savoy royalty were such that, in 1911, the hotel’s owner was granted permission to give the hotel the name Regina (Queen) and to decorate the emblem with the Royal coat of arms

The poet Gabriele D'Annunzio was a regular customer of the hotel and, in more recent times, Liza Minelli, Dan Brown and the Oasis

HOTEL PLAZA

HOTEL PLAZA 

Via del Corso 126-128

1834 Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for the banker Antonio Lozza of whom it was the private palace

In 1860 it became Albergo Roma

In 1907 it changed name to Bertolini's Splendid and in 1930 to Hotel Plaza with a hall refurbished by Armando Brasini (1879/1965)

The composer Pietro Mascagni spent the last years of his life and died here in 1945

HOTEL PALACE BOSCOLO

HOTEL PALACE BOSCOLO 

Via Vittorio Veneto 70

1924/27 Marcello Piacentini (1881/1960) with Giuseppe Vaccaro (1896/1970), from a project of the Swiss Emilio Vogt. Piacentini here was inspired by the French Art Nouveau. The original name was Albergo degli Ambasciatori

It reopened in 1995. Restoration in 2010 by Italo Rota (1953), who also, with Gae Aulenti, designed the display of the Museé d'Orsay and the Pompidou Centre in Paris

Frescoes in five large panels "Party with celebrities of the 1920s" 1926 by Guido Cadorin (1892/1976) friend of Gabriele D'Annunzio, for whom he also painted in the Vittoriale, D'Annunzio's home on Lake Garda

HOTEL PACE HELVEZIA

HOTEL PACE HELVEZIA

Via IV Novembre 104

1873/74 Gaetano Koch (1849/1910)

"After 1972, when Koch received his title of architect and engineer, he began a feverish and untiring designer's work, carried out without interruption for three decades, as a 'smooth professionalism with no concerns' (Miano), based on a rigorous compositional use of sixteenth-century repertoire combined with the continued development of the typical features and distribution of buildings, with well thought solutions in the arrangement of courtyards and vertical connections" (F. Di Marco - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

HOTEL NH VITTORIO VENETO

HOTEL NH VITTORIO VENETO

Corso d'Italia 1

1968/71 Amedeo Luccichenti (1907/63), Vincenzo Monaco (1911/69) and Edoardo Monaco, Vincenzo's son

"In the feverish atmosphere of reconstruction after World War II, Luccichenti and Monaco were among the professionals who were able to conduct a personal research, realizing the value of buildings and defining the true role models for the building type. Their architectures are generally characterized by façades designed by long horizontal ribbon windows with grids marked by structural regularity of form, with particular attention paid to internal distribution" (Gianluca Ficorilli - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

HOTEL MINERVA

HOTEL MINERVA

Piazza della Minerva 38

Original structure built in the seventeenth century for the Fonseca family of Portuguese origin. With their extinction at the beginning of 1800s it passed to the Conti family that decided to use it as a hotel and inaugurated it in 1832

Raised in late 1800s and renovated in 1924 with a CANTILEVER ROOF by Pier Luigi Nervi (1891/1979)

It was closed in 1978

It was restored in the years 1986/90 by Paolo Portoghesi (1931) and reopened in 1990 under the name Grand Hotel de la Minerve

HOTEL MERCURE DELTA COLOSSEO

HOTEL MERCURE DELTA COLOSSEO

Via Labicana 144

1972/75 Giuseppe Perugini (1914) architect born in Buenos Aires in who moved to Italy in the early 1930s. It was designed together with Alberto Tonelli (1923)

"The architecture of Giuseppe Perugini was characterized by the respect to the formal rigor of classical nature and size combined with a rationalist matrix, which are constantly repeated throughout his production. He introduced innovations in the design of steel structures housing. As further demonstration of his desire to experiment, he was among the first scholars to propose, in the 1960s, the use of computers as organizing tools of modular elements" (Maria Letizia Mancuso)

HOTEL MEDITERRANEO

HOTEL MEDITERRANEO

Via Cavour 15

1936/40 Mario Loreti

Higher than 50 m (164 feet) with ten floors and 251 rooms

It is one of the tallest buildings in the historical center of Rome

It is considered a fine example of Roman Art Deco which, among mosaics and busts of Roman emperors, creates a retro and decadent yet fascinating ambience

HOTEL MAJESTIC

HOTEL MAJESTIC

Via Vittorio Veneto 54

1889/96 Gaetano Koch (1849/1910)

It was the first hotel to be built on Via Veneto with the name of HOTEL DES SUISSE

It was the headquarters of the Canadian Armed Forces after the World War Two

In the vault of the main hall and on the first floor frescoes painted in distemper "Allegory of the glorification of Rome and the House of Savoy" 1900 by Domenico Bruschi (1840/1910)

Among the distinguished guests: Frank Sinatra (he wanted 5,000 basil plants on the terrace because he used to get up at three in the morning with the desire for fresh pesto), Take That, Duran Duran, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Tina Turner

HOTEL HASSLER - VILLA MEDICI

HOTEL HASSLER - VILLA MEDICI

Piazza Trinità dei Monti 6

1892/93 remodeling of preexisting buildings for the Swiss Albert Hassler

It was a second category hotel until the restructuring of 1939 for the new owner, the Swiss Oscar Wirth, father of the present owner Roberto Wirth

Since 1944 the U.S. Air Transport Command had its headquarters here for three years

It was reopened in 1947. Since then it has assumed an elitist prestige and it is considered one of the most prestigious hotels in the world

86 rooms, 10 suites and 3 presidential suites

Among the distinguished guests: the Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Peron and Giscard d'Estaing, the monarchs of Sweden and Denmark, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, George Harrison and Placido Domingo

HOTEL FLORA

HOTEL FLORA

Via Vittorio Veneto 191

1905/07 Andrea Busiri Vici (1818/1911) for the wealthy German-Russian Krumngel

In the years 1943/44 it was the headquarters of the Nazi high command

Among the distinguished guests: Prince Maximilian of Bavaria, Richard Nixon, Paul Getty, Christian Barnard, Joan Crawford, Cassius Clay and Federico Fellini

HOTEL EXCELSIOR

HOTEL EXCELSIOR

Via Vittorio Veneto 125

1905/08 Otto Maraini (1863/1944), Swiss architect from Canton Ticino, brother of Emilio Maraini, industrialist from Lugano known for having introduced very successfully in Italy the production of sugar obtained from beet

The hotel includes 281 rooms and 35 suites

The Villa Cupola is the largest suite in Europe: it covers an area on two floors of about 1,100 m² (11,800 square feet) with mosaics, frescoes, private elevator, fitness area and a small cinema for a published price on the website of € 20,000 per day

HOTEL DE RUSSIE

HOTEL DE RUSSIE 

Via del Babuino 9

1818 Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) for the Torlonia family that settled an inn called "delle Russie" (Russia's)

Converted into a hotel 1872 by Raffaele Canevari (1828/1900) as "Hotel of Russia and of the British Isles", which was changed in 1892 in "Hotel de Russie"

It became the elite meeting place in Rome at the time of King Humbert I (1878/1900) and Gabriele D'Annunzio

After the Second World War it was occupied by homeless people

Restored in 1954 by the Vaselli family who had bought it

The hotel closed in 1969 and housed the headquarters of the Directorate General of RAI (the public national television company)

In 1999 it was again opened as a hotel for the company Albergo di Russia and Sir Rocco Forte & Family SPA

HOTEL DE LA VILLE

HOTEL DE LA VILLE 

Via Sistina 69/75

1924 József Vágó (1877/1947) Hungarian architect

"The façade is, therefore, the result of the refined combination of classic themes, research and testing of a new architectural rationality where the Central European stylistic components are averaged or, if necessary, clearly spelled out through styles inspired by the Roman classicism. (...) The refined architecture of the building, the meaning and value of its presence in that precise context of the city effectively frame the personality of the designer who tried, with initial enthusiasm and architectonical conviction, to impose himself in the Italian, or rather, Roman, scene, which, instead, rejected him for his 'extravagant' style" (Maria Grazia Turco)

The name of the hotel now is InterContinental De La Ville

It was built on the area of the demolished building that used to belong to the Venetian painter Antonio Zucchi and his wife Angelica Kauffmann also painter, meeting point for artists at the end of the eighteenth century

Staircase in Carrara marble and furniture were taken in part from the Palazzo Doria Pamphili

HOTEL D'INGHILTERRA

HOTEL D'INGHILTERRA

Via Bocca di Leone 14

1842 Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for the Torlonia family as a provisional residence, pending the restoration of their newly bought home nearby, in Via Condotti (Palazzo Nuñez Torlonia)

It was soon after used as a guest house to host guests of the Torlonia family, foreign artists and intellectuals

Later it became a regular hotel

HOTEL CAVALIERI HILTON

HOTEL CAVALIERI HILTON

Via Alberto Cadlolo 101

1961/63 Ugo Luccichenti (1898/1976), Emilio Pifferi (1907/?) and Alberto Ressa (1902/?), built as an exception to the municipal urban plan for the Società Generale Immobiliare (General Real Estate Company)

In the atrium spiral fountain by Franco Albini (1905/77) and Franca Helg (1920/89)

The very expensive restaurant "La Pergola" on the top floor, boasting the prestigious chef Heinz Beck, is considered one of the best restaurants in the whole of Italy

"The operation, at the center of a bitter controversy carried on by the weekly magazine L'Espresso and the National Institute of Urban Planning, started in 1954, when the company had entered into an agreement with Hilton Real Estate to build a hotel in Monte Mario in a designated area for public parks or extensive building, in which it was planned a wide panoramic square similar to the one on the Janiculum Hill. The question debated also in court concluded, however, with the construction of a huge hotel with eight floors above ground and three underground, the impact of which was 'in fact much worse than it could have been expected' (Italo Insolera)" (Gianluca Ficorilli - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

Among the over one thousand works of art kept in the hotel:

Paintings

"Ulysses discovering Achilles among the daughters of Nicomedes" by G.B. Tiepolo (1696/1770)

"Judgement of Paris" by Giuseppe Bazzani (1690/1769)

"Landscape with Hermit" by Alessandro Magnasco (1667/1749)

"Flora" by Carlo Cignani (1628/1719) a pupil of Francesco Albani

"Arrival of the Bucintoro in St. Mark's Square" by Josef Heintz the Younger (about 1600/78)

"Country landscape with bridge" by Giuseppe Zaïs (1709/84) artist from Belluno who died in poverty, exponent of the Arcadian school

"Dollar Sign" by Andy Warhol (1928/87)

Sculptures

Bronze statue "Boy with Dog" by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844)

Marble sculpture "The Kiss" by Antonio Tantardini (1829/79)

Remarkable collection of antique furniture and prestigious tapestries from Belgium and Beauvais, Art Nouveau clocks and vases