A place where travel slows down, becomes experience, and returns to being culture
There are places where time does not stop. It simply changes pace.
At Hotel d’Inghilterra, Starhotels Collezione, the Grand Tour is not a memory but a living trace. You breathe it in the rooms, in the drawing rooms, in the layered stories that have passed through this palazzo in the heart of Rome. Writers, artists, travelers, and actors have all come through here: Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Hans Christian Andersen, Henry James, Ezra Pound, Italo Calvino, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Philippe Noiret, and Gore Vidal. Today, the pace changes, but not the essence.
Following a significant redesign, the hotel reopens without betraying its identity — rather, it makes that identity more legible. The project, overseen by the Group’s design team and coordinated by Elisabetta Fabri, President and CEO of Starhotels, works through restraint and respect. Restoration of the façade, recovery of original elements, and the return of the reception to its historic position. Nothing is reconstructed; everything is reactivated.
The guiding thread remains that of the cultured journey — not the fast, disposable kind, but the kind that observes, lingers, chooses, moves slowly. This is where the “La Grande Bellezza – The Dream Factory” project also comes into play, bringing the work of Italian master artisans into the hotel: Rubelli fabrics, lighting by Il Bronzetto, and gold-leaf restoration work by Manetti. Details, yes. But it is precisely the details that construct the idea of luxury.
The rooms follow this same logic: each one is different, each with its own character, as in a private residence. Not standardized, but individual. Not scenography, but layering.
Outside, Rome. But also inside.
The location — between Via Borgognona and Via Bocca di Leone, steps from Piazza di Spagna — is that of the city’s most elegant quarter, the one that has historically welcomed the world. It continues to do so today, with a concierge service that transforms a stay into an experience: private visits, off-the-beaten-path itineraries, exclusive access. Grand Tour, once again — only updated.
And then there is Café Romano, expanded and reconnected to the lobby, which becomes a true urban salon. Here, Andrea Sangiuliano’s kitchen works with Roman tradition without stiffening it: seasonality, ingredients, and territory. A narrative that is consistent with the hotel’s own, avoiding the postcard effect in favor of something more authentic.
Worth experiencing is the Café Romano Lounge Bar — elegant and intimate, very “English” in feel, with art and leather seating, where time naturally expands. Under the guidance of Bar Manager Angelo Di Giorgi, the drinks list alternates between great classics and contemporary twists, always played on the side of balance. A Martini, a well-executed cocktail, or even just a coffee: here, luxury lies in measure, in detail, in the right timing.
The day moves naturally between different spaces: from breakfast — almost domestic in feel, with the baker’s basket served at the table — through to the evening, when the new Terrazza Romana opens an intimate view over the city’s rooftops. Olive trees, lemon trees, warm light. A place that does not try to astonish, but to hold you.
In the end, this is what endures from the Grand Tour: the long hours, the attentiveness, the pleasure of inhabiting a place rather than merely passing through it. At Hotel d’Inghilterra, this still happens. And it is perhaps for this reason that it has remained, for centuries, a destination. Not merely a hotel.
Images: Brand Respectively
