Rome, Italy

Experimental Roma

Price per night from$214.07

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR192.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Experimental Roma Photos

Style

Veni, vidi, boogie

Setting

Va-va Via Ludovisi

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Some ‘night fever’ (the funky kind) is on the cards at Experimental Roma — designer Rodolphe Parente has taken the glitz and glamour of the Seventies Italo-disco era and revived it via shiny accents, throwback art and dazzling details (lurex carpets, hello). It is central Rome, so you'll find a touch of antiquity and nods to Neorealism, too, but otherwise it’s a place you’ll want to get down to, right away.

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Facilities

Photos Experimental Roma facilities

Need to know

Rooms

82, including 14 suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible for a charge, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates are room-only but you can buy Continental buffet breakfast (€30 each adult, €15 for five- to 14-year-olds, free for under-fives).

Also

Communal spaces are accessible and there are lifts to all floors. Five rooms (one Superior, four Deluxe) have specially adapted bathrooms with grab rails and a shower seat, and bathrooms in all rooms have an alarm cord.

At the hotel

Rooftop, concierge and free WiFi throughout; a charged laundry service is available on request. In rooms: TV, Sjöstrand coffee machine, tea-making kit, air-conditioning, minibar, free bottled water, small selection of books, bathrobes, slippers and L:A Bruket bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Rooms showcase Rome’s decadence and decay, with restored original stonework, beams and flooring, plus fabric-draped headboards. But they also feel ready for a sprinkling of mirror-ball sparkle, with saffron walls, burgundy stripes and walnut wood, plus vintage furnishings with chrome accents or in mid-century shapes. They largely differ by size only, but it’s worth budgeting up for a room with a balcony or a terrace.

Poolside

On the rooftop, amid lush foliage and Amalfi lemon-hued loungers and parasols, glints a seasonal pool, large enough for lounging in and privy to landmark-dotted views (open 8am to 8pm, from April to October).

Packing tips

Bring your sparkliest swimwear and sense of rhythm.

Also

The hotel’s art collection, curated from the archives of Galleria Ugo Ferranti, has some starry names in it: Sol Lewitt, Cy Twombly, Giulio Paolini and other minimalists and conceptualists from the 1970s and 1980s.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs up to 10 kilogrammes can stay for €45 a night. The hotel can provide baskets and bowls. See more pet-friendly hotels in Rome.

Children

Children are welcome to stay (charged as an adult from age 15); all except the Petite Roma Single Standard Room fits a baby cot, and the Ludovisi Junior Suite and the Grande Ludovisi Junior Suite Signature each have a single sofa-bed.

Food and Drink

Photos Experimental Roma food and drink

Top Table

Who could resist a glimpse of the Colosseum from the roof terrace? When in Rome, eh?

Dress Code

Tease up and spray that hair, layer the lamé and max out the rhinestones.

Hotel restaurant

Ludovisi e Cadore is named for the crossroads the hotel finds itself at — albeit a chic rather than concerning one. Italian-born chef Giovanni Passerini brings Parisian new-wave innovation from his time in France to Italy's quinto-quarto tradition (cooking with offal). This means a menu with signatures such as trippa alla romana (tripe in tomato sauce) and fettuccine ai regaglie (pasta in a chicken-giblet ragù); and of course, osso buco, cacio e pepe and more Roman staples. But it’s not all hipsterfied hard-scrabble fare — shelves lined with busts and bas reliefs, leather banquettes and gold accents uphold the retro glamour.

Hotel bar

The Experimental Cocktail Club group proves once again that its ideas are as free-flowing as its spirits. The bar in Experimental Roma offers a La Dolce Vita moment, with its mirrors and marbles, elegant greens and golds, draped curtains and wild-card drinks served in crystal glasses. La Terrasse (open April to October) is a sunnier proposition, with a garden feel and a pool to cool off in; from up here you can say salute to the Villa Borghese, Colosseum and other tick-off sights as you sip. 

Last orders

Breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am; lunch, noon to 2.30pm, and dinner, 6.30pm to 10.30pm. The bar pours from 6pm till 1am, Sunday to Wednesday, till 2am Thursday to Saturday, and the rooftop is open from 9am to 8pm (11pm in summer).

Room service

Have dinner delivered to your door round-the-clock. There’s a surcharge of €15 to order breakfast in bed.

Location

Photos Experimental Roma location
Address
Experimental Roma
46 Via Ludovisi
Rome
00187
Italy

Experimental Roma is housed in an elegantly converted bank on upmarket, residential Via Ludovisi, in the neighbourhood of the same name, close to the centro’s sights.

Planes

Of Rome's two international airports, Ciampino is the closer, a 45-minute drive away; Fiumicino is around an hour away by car. Hotel staff can help to arrange transfers on request.

Trains

The city’s main rail hub, Roma Termini, is a 12-minute drive away; from Fiumicino, the Leonardo Express train stops here in 30 minutes. The closest Metro stops are Barberini and Spagna, both on Line A, around a five-minute walk away.

Automobiles

Technically, you can drive in Rome, but restricted zones in the historic centre and the locals’ impassioned driving style make it an endeavour for the brave. There’s no parking at the hotel, but there are charged public spaces a couple of minutes’ walk away at Parking Ludovisi or Parcheggio Villa Borghese.

Worth getting out of bed for

Experimental Roma might have a secret garden and an Edenic rooftop bedecked with foliage, but the glorious Borghese gardens are practically your back garden here, just a couple of streets away. Much more than a park, it’s home to the Galleria Borghese with works by Old Masters (Caravaggio, Raphael…); Museo Pietro Canonica, dedicated to the 19th- and 20th-century sculptor it’s named for; follies; lavish fountains, and even a toy library. To its western edge is the Villa Medici and due north is the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, which shows 20th- and 21st-century works for when you can’t face one more alabaster nymph.

For something more out-there, the Capuchin Crypt has been decorated with the skulls and bones of former friars; but if you’re here for the classics, you needn’t go far — the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain are both a 15-minute walk away, so it’s easy to plot out a circuit of the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, The Forum, Colosseum and other antiquities. Or Via dei Condotti is the same walking distance if designer boutiques are more your (Bottega Veneta) bag. 

Local restaurants

If you’re looking for dishes as authentically Roman as Caesar (carbonara, cacio e pepe, saltimbocca — rather than his namesake salad), Il Piccolo Mondo is steps from the hotel and has served heritage eats for decades. Or get a taste of Italy’s gourmet region Emilia-Romagna at Colline Emiliane, where Fellini, Antonioni and other Italian luminaries have dined on PDO (protected designation of origin) cured meats, spinach lasagne, heirloom meatballs and veal liver with onions. And casual eatery La Zanzara has vintage photos and colourful tiles, plus cheesy pastas and deli snacks.

Local cafés

Close to the hotel, Elsa Coffee is where the locals stop for a short, sharp espresso jolt (a very reasonably priced one at that) and their morning sweet treat (namely a cornetto) — you should follow suit. Faro – Caffè Specialty has worldly coffee blends for washing down your maritozzo (cream-filled bun), and serves the sweet's more elaborate cousin, the maricordo, filled with lemon cream and topped with pine nuts.

Local bars

Before travelling to Rome, sign up to the Jerry Thomas Project’s newsletter to get the not-so-secret speakeasy’s password. Some might find the theatricality a touch OTT, but those prepared to lean into the Prohibition-era fun will find some truly magical cocktail wizardry. For a more modern feel, neon-flecked Drink Kong has decor inspired by Japanese streetwear and has drinks muddled with the likes of yuzu, sake and shiso.

Reviews

Photos Experimental Roma reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

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 disco-fabulous Italian hideaway from France’s coolest cocktail maestros in a quiet-yet-central corner of Rome and drained their glasses, a full account of their retro romp will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Experimental Roma…

When it comes to Rome, people focus on the city’s very distant past. Sure, revelatory landmarks, legendary artworks and birthing civilisation as we know it are all great, but some forget that, in the Seventies, Rome was funkier than John Travolta’s hips. Experimental Roma might have marble finishes and carved busts, but designer Rodolphe Parente has hustled up more recent history, too, installing lurex carpets, chrome, plastic and glass furnishings, chic granny prints and throwback palettes.

A cinematic bar from the Experimental Cocktail group offers its signature innovative drinks under sultry lights, a collab with Galleria Ugo Ferranti has dressed spaces with 1970s and 1980s Minimalist art, and a rooftop pool and garden offer a glam way to recover from a late night. Beams, shutters and dining inspired by the quinto-quarto tradition anchor the hotel in the days of laurelled emperors, but these days, the gold leaf is funking up the bedside tables. 

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Price per night from $214.07

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