The St. Regis Rome – the palazzo that switched Rome's lights on

The St. Regis Rome occupies a palazzo that has stood just off Piazza della Repubblica since January 1894, when César Ritz marked its opening with a sixteen-course dinner for a hundred guests, cooked by a young Auguste Escoffier. It was Ritz's only Italian project, commissioned after Italy's prime minister cornered him in the lobby of London's Savoy, and the gala opening drew the Pope, the German Kaiser and the King of Italy. More than a century on – the hotel marked its 130th anniversary in 2024 – it remains among Rome's grandest hotels, a palazzo of 161 rooms and suites behind a colonnaded façade close to Termini station. The MICHELIN Guide awards it Two Keys, its mark for an exceptional stay. Behind the stone front, Belle Époque details persist everywhere: frescoed ceilings, a historic lift still in daily service, and a lobby that doubles as an indoor piazza for Rome's contemporary art scene.

01The house

Ritz's hotel arrived as the only Italian venture of London's Savoy Group, and he brought Savoy habits with it: his first chef was Auguste Escoffier, poached from the kitchens the two men had run together since the 1870s. Workers digging the foundations struck something older still – the western wall of the Baths of Diocletian, Rome's largest ancient bathing complex. Every room opened in 1894 with electric light, hot water and a private bathroom, a standard almost unheard of in Italy at the time, and the hotel installed what is recorded as the thirteenth modern lift in the city, a shaft it still operates today.

Rome's first public ballroom, the Ritz Ballroom, opened the same year, designed by the architect Giulio Podesti and frescoed by Mario Spinetti; the frescoes are now protected under Italian heritage law and were returned to their original state during a six-month restoration. Giovanni Agnelli kept a year-round apartment at the hotel, the King of Spain spent his final years in one of its suites, and later guests have included George Clooney, Madonna and Brad Pitt. A forty-million-euro renovation led by the designer Pierre-Yves Rochon was unveiled in November 2018, and in 2023 the hotel was named Best Luxury Hotel in Rome by both Questex's Luxury Travel Advisor and Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards.

02Rooms and suites

The 161 rooms and suites carry high ceilings, pastel palettes and Rubelli fabrics, with a sixteen-foot hand-blown glass chandelier lighting the foyer rather than anonymous five-star polish. The Suite Collection runs from the Eternal Suite through to the Royal Suite – long the preferred address of monarchs and heads of state – alongside the fashion-themed Bottega Veneta Suite. Guests on the suite floors still ride the original 1894 lift and pass beneath the stucco-adorned staircase on the way up, with the restored Ritz Ballroom and its Murano chandeliers just beyond the lobby.

Insider tip

Fifteen minutes on foot from the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and Via Condotti.

03Where to eat

All dining runs through Lumen, the hotel's all-day Italian restaurant, serving breakfast from seven each morning through to dinner at eleven at night; its name, the scientific unit for luminous flux, was chosen less for physics than for a butterfly. Lumen Garden, a seasonal outdoor restaurant and cocktail bar, operates from May to September for private events. A new restaurant from the chef Akira Back is opening inside the hotel, bringing modern Japanese cooking to the heart of Rome, with the hotel's executive chef, Francesco Donatelli, overseeing the kitchens for everyday dining and private events alike.

04The bar

At seven each evening Lumen stages the St. Regis sabering ritual, the ceremonial opening of a Champagne bottle with a blade. The house cocktail is a Roman take on the brand's own invention, the Bloody Mary, recast here as the Red Admiral with all-Italian spices. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings the bar becomes the Lumen Society, pairing a local DJ with cocktails served from a Signature Glass Collection designed with the Italian art collective Le Dictateur. Afternoon tea runs daily from three until six, with fine teas and, for a supplement, a glass of Ruinart Champagne.

05Spa and wellbeing

The St. Regis Rome Spa works with Sisley Paris, drawing on the French house's savoir-faire and use of essential oils and plant extracts to create highly effective treatments. A Technogym fitness studio is open around the clock to guests carrying a room key, with a separate massage room and sauna available by appointment. There is no pool; wellness here stays spa-led rather than resort-scale.

06The neighbourhood

The hotel sits in the Stazione Termini quarter, a few steps from Piazza della Repubblica and a short walk from Via Veneto. The Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the designer shopfronts of Via Condotti are around fifteen minutes on foot. The Baths of Diocletian, whose foundation wall the builders struck while digging in the 1890s, stand within sight of the hotel's columned entrance, and the sixteenth-century Moses Fountain, whose hydraulic system once helped power the original lift, sits directly outside.

07Making the most of a stay

Since 2018 a branch of Galleria Continua, the contemporary art gallery founded in San Gimignano in 1990, has run a permanent space inside the hotel, with rotating exhibitions moving through the lobby, corridors and a dedicated meeting room named after the gallery. A 2026 programme, Un'amicizia Continua, added artist talks, workshops and a project called Suite Portrait, which builds entire guest rooms around a single commissioned work. Butlers are assigned throughout the hotel, from unpacking luggage to drawing the morning curtains – a St. Regis tradition the house has carried in one form or another since Ritz's day.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.