{"id":459628,"date":"2026-03-05T22:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459628\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:49:11","slug":"former-bank-of-italy-building-plays-it-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459628\/","title":{"rendered":"former Bank of Italy building plays it safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the buzz? Malta-based Corinthia Hotels is in the midst of an ambitious bid to reposition itself alongside the likes of Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons in the rarefied air of five-star hotel chains. The group\u2019s property in London\u2019s Whitehall has been the jewel in its crown for 15 years and the only one that really toes the high-luxury line. After three years of impressive salvos, in Brussels, Bucharest and New York \u2014 all of them in historic buildings \u2014 Corinthia debuted in Rome on the first of this month.<\/p>\n

Location, location, location This is half the Rome game, and the Corinthia\u2019s is solid: more or less equidistant from the Piazza Navona, the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Spanish Steps. Palazzo Montecitorio, the 17th-century headquarters of the Chamber of Deputies \u2014 the lower house of Italy\u2019s parliament \u2014 is directly across the street. A block away is the Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina, where an aperitivo at Ciampini is a rite of dolce vita passage (and the pistachio gelato is world-beating).<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Corinthia, Rome, opened on March 1, housed in a former Bank of Italy building \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney \"AOriginal frescoes in the Theodoli Heritage Suite on the second floor \"AThe reception desk on the ground floor \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney<\/p>\n

But perhaps most alluring is its proximity to Campo Marzio (its name, Italian for \u201cField of Mars\u201d, refers to its use during Imperial Roman times as a site for military training exercises). The neighbourhood, Rome\u2019s fourth-oldest rione, is home to some of the city\u2019s most interesting one-off boutiques, tailors and caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Checking in Constructed between 1913 and 1921, the building was commissioned by the Bank of Italy to give it a grand presence much closer to Rome\u2019s political heart than its headquarters at Palazzo Koch, a kilometre to the south-east. The facade is imposing rather than pretty; there\u2019s a street-level lobby but it\u2019s only after you ascend the half-dozen stairs to the first level that you get a sense of the hotel\u2019s small and very appealing scale. The public spaces \u2014 a sitting room and small library (for hotel guests only), a fine-dining restaurant (on which more later) and a bar \u2014 surround a central courtyard, called Piazzetta, that\u2019s home to the all-day, indoor-outdoor dining venue. Wrought-iron chairs and sofas with plush white cushions surround marble tables; potted citrus and gardenia trees stand between them, softening the space. <\/p>\n

\"FourChef Carlo Cracco (second from left) with his team at the hotel\u2019s fine-dining restaurant, Viride \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney \"AA table at the restaurant .\u2009.\u2009. \"A.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009and Cracco\u2019s saffron risotto with chocolate and spring onion \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney<\/p>\n

The hotel\u2019s bar, commanding its own corner of the building, gets points for d\u00e9cor \u2014 opulent, skewing masculine, with a ceiling clad in hexagonal gilt tiles and backlighting that flatters spirits bottles and visages alike. The drinks alternate adventurous homages to Rome with the standards; the negroni (always a good litmus) was impeccable, as were the mini suppli (rice and tomato croquettes) that came with it. There\u2019s a martini trolley that makes the rounds. Corinthia worked with London-based corporate art advisers Visto to amass a collection that\u2019s largely by Italian artists or artists who live in Italy; some of it is very good, and all of it brings welcome character to spaces that in their intimate aggregate feel almost more like a private club than they do a hotel.<\/p>\n

The 60 rooms and suites are less engaging design-wise \u2014 safe bordering on anodyne, as is sadly the way of so many top-tier hotels in 2026. With the exceptions of a couple of hero suites (the Theodoli Heritage Suite, formerly the bank\u2019s boardroom, retains its frescoed walls and extraordinary mosaic-tile floor), things tend towards the nondescript, with seas of cream-biscuit-beige and dark-wood furniture. I longed for more colour and texture.<\/p>\n

\"AA deluxe suite at the hotel <\/p>\n

On comforts and indulgences, however, they\u2019ve excelled: the minibar cabinet gleams with cut crystal and ornate biscuit tins from Marabissi in Tuscany (as posh and artisanal as they come). I arrived to a rose brioche baked by the hotel\u2019s p\u00e2tissier and a plate of flawless yellow solarelli plums from Lazio. Plus the requisite Frette sheets, towels and robes, huge marble bathroom, and \u2014 welcome, this \u2014 double glazing on the windows (crucial when your neighbours across the way are partial to a police escort).<\/p>\n

What to do In six years of living part-time in Italy (and 17 of editing HTSI\u2019s travel pages) I\u2019ve had a lot of privileged private \u201cexperiences\u201d, including more than one after-hours visit to Palazzo Colonna and its galleries. But until last week I\u2019d never walked through them with Don Prospero Colonna himself, as he parsed highlights of his family\u2019s gob-smackingly vast art collection. It\u2019s impressive that Corinthia, a company with zero presence in Italy until now, managed that level of access. <\/p>\n

They also arranged for an immersion into the art and science of perfumery with Laura Busatti Tonatto, one of Italy\u2019s most respected \u201cnoses\u201d (she created scent for the late Queen Elizabeth II), at her beautiful apothecary on the Via di Campo Marzio. The point: make use of the concierge desk \u2014 they seem to know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

What about the food? Fine-dining restaurant Viride \u2014 awash, as per its name, in shades of green \u2014 is mega-chef Carlo Cracco\u2019s first (and, says Corinthia, will be his only) foray in Rome. All the flourishes and flavours that have garnered him multiple hats and stars, first in Florence at Enoteca Pinchiorri then at his eponymous restaurant in Milan\u2019s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, have been revisited alla romana. His famous Russian salad is here encased in crisp guanciale (pig\u2019s cheek); the signature hosomaki stew is prepared with oxtail, that most Roman of offals. <\/p>\n

The wine list is daunting \u2014 both as an object in your hands and a collection \u2014 but includes unorthodox gems by the glass, such as Santa Maria La Nave\u2019s cult Millesulmare white blend and three of Cracco\u2019s own wines (Fiammarossa, the old-growth Trebbiano IGT he makes in Emilia-Romagna, is excellent, chalky and mineral).<\/p>\n

\"AThe hotel\u2019s Ocra bar \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney \"ElegantThe lobby, from which steps lead up to the lounge and library \u00a9 Jonathan Maloney <\/p>\n

Piazzetta is more fun and casual, with an \u00e0 la carte menu that features burgers, the requisite club sandwich and plenty of classic Roman and Italian standards. There\u2019s a commendable aubergine alla parmigiana and an outstanding vignarola (a quintessentially Roman spring vegetable stew), and every one of the antipasti with which my companion loaded our table was a winner.<\/p>\n

Other guests? Hard to call, so early in the game, as I checked in on opening day. I\u2019d say to expect a lot of the high-net-worth-individual Anglosphere among the hotel guests (that slight samey-ness of high design is what wealthy Americans in particular seem to gravitate towards) and a cross-section of politicos and Rome\u2019s great-and-the-good making use of the restaurant, courtyard and bar.<\/p>\n

And the staff? Lovely and competent to a person \u2014 probably a testament to managing director Danilo Zucchetti, who ran Villa d\u2019Este on Lake Como for 15 years and has managed to lure some real talent over from his competitors. I had to remind myself a few times that they hadn\u2019t been doing their jobs for a month or two already.<\/p>\n

The damage From \u20ac1,153 for a double room, with breakfast (crafted by Cracco; think cacio e pepe scrambled eggs) included.<\/p>\n

Elevator pitch Rooms for the (unimaginatively) well-heeled, food for the well-travelled, service that meets (if not beats) most of the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria Shollenbarger was a guest of the Corinthia, Rome (corinthia.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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