Regina Hotel Baglioni

Hotel description

Just a hundred years old, the Regina Hotel Baglioni has to count as barely middle-aged as Roman hotels go. That said, it does old-world Italian pomp and circumstance as well as any of the palace hotels; we’re talking chandeliers, marble staircases, and loads of gilt and shiny fabrics. What saves it all from edging up on self-parody is a location that’s genuinely regal, on the Via Veneto just across from the Palazzo Margherita, and somewhere in the design team someone with a keen decorating eye and a knack for selecting materials that are less gaudy than just plain rich.

Along with the atmosphere of excess in a hotel of this kind must come a sense of authentic luxury: the Regina earns its stars with rooms that are just as elegant as the public spaces, if a little less modern than the current luxury-hotel standard — internet service, for example, is not quite universal. Service, too, is key when you’re out to make guests feel like royalty — here you’ll find the utmost in upright professionalism, in contrast with the smiling yet often hapless part-time model/actresses who have become the norm in the boutique hotels of the world.