When in Rome ....
By Julia Smith
When in Rome... try to avoid having the same experience as everyone else. I’d returned a second time around to get an insider’s guide to the city and to experience guaranteed luxury.
First stop - the five star Regina Hotel Baglioni, located on the famous Via Veneto, once famous for the Dolce Vita, caf life, and where movie and music stars cogregate.
At the height of a global economic crisis, it may not have seemed like the best idea to splash out on a luxury five star hotel stay especially as this hotel caters most famously for glitterati including George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Natalia Imbruglia.
However, luckily the Regina Hotel Baglioni caters just as happily for non-famous budget conscious visitors like me by providing luxury with an Italian touch, albeit on a smaller scale. A standard double room will set you back just 125 per person, per night.
Those with serious cash to splash (we're talking around 1,600) can reserve the Panoramic suite which contains all the luxury extras including a lot of Italian marble, huge terrace, jacuzzi and bar area, perfect to keep any pop star happy.
The Regina Hotel Baglioni should be on the list of Rome’s essential sights. In fact it lies across the road from the former Queen's Residence. The grandeur here is immense. And as the suited-and-booted doorman holds open the front door, you’re immediately made you feel right at home not just by him, but the friendly reception staff. Refreshingly, there is no snootiness or stuffiness here. The treatment here would be the same for Madonna as it was for me.
The hotel is the perfect blend of modern and historic with attention to detail in every corner. Even silk tapestry is used, rather than wallpaper, as well as antique and art dec furniture. Decorated throughout with impressive statues and paintings, the lounge area resembles a typical Italian art gallery, while the restaurant and bar area oozes with modern day style and finesse.
The hotel has also started a programme of organised tours, including fresco painting classes and private visits to the famous Sistine Chapel. However, if you have time to plan, then pick up the most recently published guidebooks by the Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com). The Rome City Guide provides in-depth information for everything worth seeing, while the miniature Rome Encounter is small enough to keep in your pocket, and contains essential sights, with added comments and opinions given by locals.
While the guides are great on their own, time was short so I enlisted the help of a local travel guide to show me around.
Find all the city’s best tour guides in one place on www.ourexplorer.com. Tour Guides booked via this website ensure a more unique and authentic travel experience and supplement any guidebook. As well as bringing the history of Rome alive, they save time and money with their local insight and wisdom.
I booked the most experienced guide in Rome, Paolo Coresi to visit sights “off-the-beaten track”. And our first stop was the Santa Maria della Concezione church, whose crypt is possibly the city’s most macabre sight.
Adorned with the bones of some 4000 monks - from light fittings to picture frames, this was the only way monks from the 16th to the 19th century could honour the dead (plus land for burial was sparse). The inscription prolifically states, “you are what you were. You are what we will be.”
Paolo pointed out some real hidden gems in the city including the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church, which is home to one of Michelangleo’s statues. Unlike seeing his “David” statue in Florence, there are no queues here. Notice too that clergy protect his modesty by covering up his private bits with a loin cloth.
Further on, Paolo pointed out various Roman street-side statues and relics. The Largo di Torre Argentina the site of the impressive remains of four temples from around 2BC.
The icing on the cake however, climbing the Avento Hill to the wonderfully scented and shady Savello Park which offers respite from the heat, and amazing views of the city.
In the Piazza de Cavalieri di Malta take a peep through the keyhole of the priory, to see the dome of St Peter’s basilica perfectly aligned through the aligned cypress trees - truly one the most magnificent and little known examples of architectural genius.
For the remaining days, we had another look at the most popular sights including the Vatican and the Colleseum. Yes, they remained impressive, but we were happy in the knowledge that we’d seen other parts of Rome that are largely unvisited by the millions of tourists.
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Weather for Derry
Friday 10 February 2012
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