Italy - 2
This is the hotel that Danilo Zucchetti has made. He's put his stamp on it since he arrived two years ago. Corinthia Rome was bound for success, of course. First of all, ownership of the Reuben Brothers and to a considerable extent, its location. It's on the Parliament Square, Piazza del Parlamento, looking across at the Parliament building, Palazzo Montecitorio, home of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament. See above. It was commissioned in 1653. by Pope Innocent X, who brought in architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But after the Pope died in 1655, guess what? Another architect was brought in, Carlo Fontana, and he finished it off before the end of that century.
It's literally a three-minute walk across the square from the parliament building to the hotel, which was built between 1913 and 1921 for the Central Bank of Italy. The exterior hasn’t changed that much (though did the guardians of the nation’s wealth also pass between a pair of 1.5m-high potted trees to enter the hotel by going up seven stone steps from the square into the lower lobby?). They like steps here. Girlahead preferred reaching her second-floor suite by the elegant staircase - 51 steps, that’s all.
At all times, today's architects and designers, led by GA International, have been minutely bound by such regulations as the inability to change wiring on some floors. This means that in many historic hotels in Italy, bathrooms have to be raised a few centimetres to enable the wires and pipes to be put through. It does mean that you have to be very careful where you walk.
It’s already been mentioned that although most of the areas, including the lower and upper lobby, are pretty restrained with an oatmeal hue predominating, there are some wow factors. One’s the mustard marble bathtub in the Theodoli Heritage Suite (see below). Another’s the burgundy cocktail bar, Ocra, leading off The Gallery Lounge & Bar on the upper lobby. Ocra’s a lovely colourful venue and it has some suitably colourful drinks, including a savoury Smokey Tomato, which would go rather well with the bar’s colour scheme.
Final thoughts about this very agreeable and relaxing hotel. Corinthia Rome makes you feel at home. You wander from the courtyard bar to the restaurant, through the kitchen part, and the cooks wave and smile. On departure, Girlahead needed an Uber, and somebody on front desk pushed all the buttons for her and got the vehicle very quickly. As the driver pulled away, there were waves and smiles all round, until one of the growing number of rent-a-scooter weapons-on-wheels whizzed by. How on earth he missed the Uber, we'll never know, but thank goodness he did.
