Rome, Italy

Elizabeth Unique Hotel

Price per night from$533.37

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR493.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Transfigured townhouse

Setting

Encircled by icons

A stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps, the Elizabeth Unique Hotel may have the bones of a centuries-old palazzo, but it's been swept into the 21st century with a decadent design scheme that teams contemporary art with sumptuous fabrics and sculpted lines. The striking artworks that deck the lobby, library and rooms were all commissioned by Fabrizio Russo, owner of nearby Gallery Russo, whose choices face off with Grand Tour-era illustrations to create a dialogue between Rome old and new. Speaking of old, the hotel's tucked down a quiet street in the heart of the centro storico, putting many of the Eternal City's most iconic sights within walking distance. Once your appetite for high culture is sated for the day, move onto the pursuit of earthly pleasures at Bar Bacharach & Bistrot, a celebration of regional produce, fine wine and service that makes it seem like you’re part of the family.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A 50cl bottle of wine from the owner's estate; members booking a Deluxe Room or above also get a one-way transfer from the airport or station

Facilities

Photos Elizabeth Unique Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Thirty-three, including eight suites.

Check–Out

12pm. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £464.69 (€542), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €10.00 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include Continental breakfast, served until 2.30pm. There are also American (€39), vegan and light options (€33), and signature Elizabeth breakfast (€49), which includes Loch Fyne smoked salmon aged in whiskey casks.

Also

Ask for a tour of the hotel’s impressive art collection, which spans a range of modern styles and showcases work by important Italian artists. If something really puts the hook in you, name a price – many of the pieces are for sale.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, laundry. In rooms: flatscreen TVs in the bedroom and bathroom; minibar; espresso machine with pods; Bose speakers; tablet with a virtual concierge system; a mobile to use during your stay; tea-making kit; Laura Tonatto bath products.

Our favourite rooms

We’d plump for one of the junior suites, which have tall arched doorways, blue velvet bedheads and tables topped with milk-white marble. Each one has a Grand Tour-esque illustration behind the bed and contemporary artwork commissioned by Fabrizio Russo, owner of the nearby Russo Art Gallery. It’s worth noting that the Mansion rooms are across the road in a separate building, so be sure to book one in the main hotel if you want to be closer to the bar and restaurant.

Packing tips

A pair of jet-black sunglasses, an accessory few Romans can do without.

Also

All the common areas are wheelchair accessible, as are two of the Initiale rooms. They’re on the first and second floor, but there’s a lift to get you there.

Children

All ages welcome. Children up to 12 can sleep on a sofabed in the suites, and the hotel can organise painting classes, pizza-making courses and other activities with nearby agencies. The sprawling Villa Borghese park makes the perfect playground, too.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel source the majority of their ingredients from local suppliers and use as little plastic as they can. They’ve also invested in technology to reduce their emissions and cut down on paper usage.

Food and Drink

Photos Elizabeth Unique Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Aim for a table on the pretty alfresco terrace.

Dress Code

Sharp threads from one of Italy’s lesser-known labels – Caruso, Lucio Vanotti of Kristina Ti, for example – will hit the mark.

Hotel restaurant

Bar Bacharach & Bistrot is a tribute to star composer Burt Bacharach, a man who’s penned hundreds of hits over his 70 year career. If Burt had his finger on the pulse of twentieth century America, then Bacharach (the restaurant, that is) is equally in tune with all that's best about Italian dining. Here, regional produce is lovingly selected, whipped into small plates and served alongside some of the country’s best wines, all of them chosen by Luca Maroni, one of the biggest names in Italian winemaking. Many of the ingredients come from the owner’s own estates, including the plump olives and creamy mozzarella. One of their specialities are the so-called ‘creative breads’, which see unusual and exotic flavours kneaded together in savoury waffles, guanciale burgers and sweet maritozzo buns.

Hotel bar

The bar is in the restaurant, but you can also take drinks through to the library, strewn with comfy chairs, cool coffee table books and palm-shaped lamps. The cocktail menu takes drinkers on a tour of Italy, with drinks making use of a particular region’s signature ingredients and spirits. If you’re more of a wine drinker, you’ll have no trouble finding something in Luca Maroni’s judicious list.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am all the way through to 12.30pm; the bistro is open all day from 12.30pm to 11pm. The bar is open all day from 7am to midnight.

Room service

Continental breakfast can be served in-room until 12.30pm, and anything from the bistro or bar menu can be ordered during restaurant hours.

Location

Photos Elizabeth Unique Hotel location
Address
Elizabeth Unique Hotel
35, Via delle Colonnette
Rome
00186
Italy

The hotel is on a tree-lined side street just a few minutes walk from the iconic Spanish Steps.

Planes

Rome Ciampino is technically the closest, but you’re more likely to be arriving at larger Fiumicino, one of Europe’s busiest hubs. There are direct flights to the latter from all over Europe and many larger US destinations. From Fiumicino, it’ll take around 50 minutes to drive to the hotel; give our Smith24 team a call if you’d like them to book your flights and transfers for you.

Trains

Rome’s main station, Termini, is 5km from the hotel. High-speed Trenitalia services arrive there from Milan, Venice, Naples and Florence. Once you’re at Termini, hop on the A line metro and ride it three stops to Spagna, a few minutes’ walk from the hotel.

Automobiles

Navigating Rome’s busy roads is a bit of a sport – sudden lane changing, speeding and liberal horn use are the norm here. Many people get by without a car, but if you do want to bring one, be aware that the hotel’s inside one of the city’s restricted zones, which you can’t drive in from 6.30am–7pm Monday to Friday, and 10am to 7pm on Saturday; do so and you can face hefty fines. The closest secure car park is 10 minutes away; a valet can park your car there for €50.

Worth getting out of bed for

With the Spanish Steps practically on the doorstep and the rest of the centro storico within easy reach, there’s a lot to entice you out the door. The hotel does, however, have a few tricks up its sleeve when it comes to a little down time. They can enlist the services of local therapists who do in-room massages, restoring limberness to anyone who’s been pounding the piazzas all day. If you want to give your feet a break altogether, hire a couple of the hotel’s e-bikes, which will streamline your sightseeing significantly. You can also arrange a private wine tasting in the library, where the sommelier will showcase vintages from small suppliers. The Keats-Shelley House, where John Keats lived out his final days, is at the foot of the Spanish Steps. It’s tiny as museums go, but full of fascinating memorabilia, manuscripts and paintings as well as a vast library of Romantic literature. If your visit has you hankering after lush meadows and shady woods, your best bet is to head to the Villa Borghese gardens, one of Rome’s largest parks. A stroll here will take you past the Borghese Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art (just across the road) and a full-size replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. If you’re in town for retail therapy, have your plastic at the ready for the fashion houses that line Via Condotti and Via Cola di Rienzo; for something a little more wallet friendly, try the Trastevere flea market, which runs every Sunday. If it’s your first time in town, it’s safe to assume that a trip to the Colosseum is on the cards. Ask the concierge to book queue-jump tickets, as the wait can be over an hour in peak season. Your ticket will give you access to Palatine Hill, too, so be sure to keep it handy.

Local restaurants

Ristorante Dilla, on Via Mario de’ Fiori, is one of of the best places to eat around the Spanish Steps. Toeing the line between rustic and industrial design, this modern taverna has a shorter menu than many of its nearby competitors, which may be why everything on it is so good. The staff are young, friendly and knowledgeable to boot, giving the place a vibrant and familial atmosphere. Book a table on the terrace for lunch at Osteria delle Coppelle, which sits in a small piazza of the same name. The long tables give the place a friendly, communal feel, and the menu celebrates all the best parts of casual Italian dining. You can’t go wrong with their cacio e pepe, a classic pasta dish made with pecorino and black pepper.

Local bars

Terrazza Borromini is a rooftop bar with 360-degree views across the skyline, but unlike many similar spots, it draws a local crowd instead of camera-toting tourists. Be sure to book ahead, especially in summer, when the competition for tables can get fierce. Owned by a former model, cocktail bar Salotto42 is often touted as the trendiest in town. There are shelves filled with art and fashion books for you to peruse over one of their crafty creations, which are prepared and served with panache.

Reviews

Photos Elizabeth Unique Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this hotel in Rome and unpacked their jet-black Persol sunglasses, a full account of their Eternal City break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Elizabeth Unique Hotel in Rome…

Minutes from Keats’ last home and the fabled Spanish Steps, the Elizabeth Unique Hotel sits in a pocket of Rome that would inspire even the most world weary soul. But while its surroundings call to mind an era when aristocratic galivants swept through the streets on their Grand Tour, the palazzo itself has been ushered into the 21st century with a design scheme designed to appeal to today’s movers and shakers. Creaking floorboards and chintzy curtains have been usurped by a gallery’s worth of modern art and a design scheme that uses marble and velvet to nod to the city’s decadent past, but keeps things current with sculptural brass light fittings, geometric patterns and modernist furniture. Hotel restaurant Bistro Bacharach is equally in tune with the times, serving delectable small plates that showcase the small suppliers of southern Italy (including produce from the owner’s own estates) in a stylish dining room with a laid-back atmosphere. Perhaps most modern of all is that you can rock up to breakfast anytime until 2.30pm, ensuring no-one’s punished for any ‘when in Rome’ attitudes brought on by a round of negronis the night before.

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Price per night from $533.37