The Westin Excelsior

Hotel description

Finally the Excelsior’s long-overdue refurbishment is complete. Frankly it’s a hit-or-miss proposition when one of the world’s great grand hotels goes under the renovation knife. Will it wake up renewed, refreshed, but with personality intact? Or will it find all its character bleached out, replaced by yards of beige carpet and off-the-shelf furnishings?

In this case it’s all just cleaner and brighter, but still with personality to spare. Some rooms keep to the ultra-traditional Empire style, swaddled in rich fabrics and packed with ornate woodwork and classic furnishings. Even the “modernized” rooms are pretty far from corporate-contemporary, and all stick to the same genre of white-glove luxury that’s made the Excelsior a perennial favorite for VIPs and other five-star types. And the facilities befit the Excelsior’s stature as well: a fine dining restaurant, an upscale cocktail bar, a full-service spa, and even the elusive city-center hotel pool.

All this, of course, comes at a price. Rome’s not a cheap city for a hotel stay, and an experience like this is priced accordingly. For the ultimate in excess, book the Villa La Cupola, the split-level corner suite which claims to be Europe’s largest — it’s almost not even an overstatement to call it a villa.