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 (EUR376.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
The design muses convened when crafting every aesthetically pleasing corner of Palazzo Velabro, an artfully restored 18th-century residence overlooking the Arch of Janus. Divine inspiration from the Roman god of entrances is at work in the hotel’s frescoed lobby, hand-painted by Italian artist, Edoardo Piermattei – complemented by rotating contemporary exhibitions curated by art expert Maria Vittoria Baravelli. The bedrooms meld marble, ceramics and wood with bespoke pieces that could quite easily belong in a gallery, and the Forum views from the suite balconies and first-floor terrace are a work of art in themselves. Throw in a cinema and creatively stocked library, and you’ll soon be connoisseuring your way around Rome’s art-laden sites.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
Free minibar throughout your stay, plus one entry to the hotel cinema, including a drink and snack
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £322.00 (€376). Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €6.00 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates exclude breakfast, but a generous Continental buffet is served in Apicio16 each morning with à la carte options (€30 a guest).
Also
The hotel has some accommodation suitable for guests with mobility issues.
At the hotel
Library, cinema, art gallery, terrace, and free WiFi. In rooms: smart TV, air-conditioning, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, and Grown Alchemist bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Each of the individually designed rooms and suites gives you a crash course in custom-made Italian furniture. ‘Made in Italy’ is the motto that carries throughout the polished, contemporary bedrooms, but it’s the Roman Forum outlook that will soon have you flinging open the balcony doors in the Garden View Prestige Suite, caffè macchiato in hand.
Spa
Gladiators-in-training can get their muscle up in the hotel’s compact fitness room, kitted out with TechnoGym machines and treadmills.
Packing tips
Raid the intellectually teasing shelves of the hotel’s library and read up on your art (from Caravaggio through to the contemporary) and Rome’s cinematographic history – culture-laden quips will soon ensue during gallery visits and Palazzo Velabro’s movie screenings.
Also
Classic flicks are screened every day (at 3pm, 6pm and 9pm) in the hotel’s six-seater cinema, complete with drinks and popcorn (€10 a ticket).
The spacious Family Suite is ideal if you’re bringing the bambini – two sofa beds can be made up on request, and there’s a fully equipped kitchen for flexible mealtimes.
Sustainability efforts
Looking to the future as much as its storied past, Palazzo Velabro has put recycling measures in place, as well as water- and electricity-saving devices throughout.
Any of the terrazza tables give you a front-row seat to the Forum, backed by soaring umbrella pines.
Dress Code
Appeal to Minerva, Roman goddess of the arts (among other things) for wardrobe inspiration – more vintage Vogue Italia than toga, though.
Hotel restaurant
Roman holidays demand Roman fuel, and that’s just what Apicio16 dishes up – the restaurant is named after Ancient Rome’s most celebrated culinary writer, Marcus Gavius Apicius, after all. Delightfully fluffy maritozzi (Italy’s answer to the cream bun) steal the colazione show, and there’s plenty of homemade pasta to see you through at lunch. You’ll soon lose count of the cacio e pepe making its way from the kitchen to the burgundy-red banquettes and marble-top tables – Rome’s signature pici always hits the mid-sightseeing spot. Dinner is a relaxed affair from antipasti to dolci, especially when taken on the terrace beneath the chequered parasols on sultry evenings. Chef Penelope Musolino’s signature risotto brings together beetroot, gorgonzola and black truffle, and the tiramisù packs an espresso punch – aiding late-night wining and dining for when the Palatine Hill becomes all aglow before your eyes.
Hotel bar
Aperitivo o’clock runs from 5pm to 8pm every day at Apicio’s bar – order any cocktail and you’ll be treated to the chef’s selection of nibbles. Lap up the last rays of sunshine from the terrace’s curving, red, lacquered counter, then retreat to the electric-blue seating indoors for more of a moodily lit setting to sink Negronis.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am, lunch from 12.30pm to 5pm, and dinner from 7.30pm to 10.30pm.
Room service
Pizza, pasta and the dessert del giorno can be delivered to your door between 11am and 10pm.
Palazzo Velabro overlooks the Roman Forum and Arch of Janus, bordering Rome’s bohemian district of Trastevere just across the River Tiber.
Planes
Rome’s Fiumicino International is around 30 minutes away by car, depending on traffic. The hotel can help with transfers, with rates on request. It’s also an option to touch down at Ciampino Airport.
Trains
The city’s main station, Termini, is a 20-minute taxi ride away – and served by Trenitalia’s the high-speed Frecciarossa. The hotel offers a pick-up and drop-off service from €20 each way.
Automobiles
When in Rome, you simply do not need a car. There’s no parking at the hotel, so it’s best to explore the Eternal City on foot.
Worth getting out of bed for
Well, besides the Roman Forum and Arch of Janus (which you can sightsee from your bedroom window), Palazzo Velabro puts you within passeggiata distance of Rome’s ancient trove – the Colosseum is 15 minutes away on foot (via the Circus Maximus), and the Pantheon is a 20-minute walk (slightly longer if you plan some gelato pit-stops along the way). The less-touristed treasures lie just across the Tiber in Trastevere’s tangle of mediaeval, cobblestone streets, apricot-hued palazzi, and lively trattorias. Wind your way down the less crowded side lanes to Piazza di Santa Cecilia, and step inside the gilded mural-lined walls of the basilica – ring the bell for a nun-led tour of Rome’s last remaining Cavallini frescoes. Raphael’s masterpieces decorate the walls of Villa Farnesina, a Renaissance residence on Via della Lungara; just across the street lies Galleria Corsini, a baroque palace housing an impressive collection of Titian and Caravaggio works. Rome’s botanical gardens (open daily from 9am to 4.30pm; €4 entrance fee) sprawl between Via della Lungara and Gianicolo Hill, where flourishing greenery connected by shaded walkways creates a cooling respite from the city’s soaring temperatures. If you’re visiting in May, don’t miss the Rose Garden in full bloom (backed by Palatine Hill views).
Local restaurants
Word is out about Da Enzo al 29, so the simple trattoria is often booked up weeks in advance (Palazzo Velabro’s owner is a regular here). Reserve one of the sidewalk tables – or prepare to stand in a rather long line – and come hungry. Start off with heaps of ricotta-smothered sourdough served with local honey, followed by deep-fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella. It’s an easy mistake to fill up on the homemade pastas, but save room for the polpette – chunky meatballs marinated in a thick tomato sauce layered with pecorino cheese. For more classic Roman cuisine, join the film-making crowd at Rocco Ristorante. The blackboard menu changes on a daily basis, but traditional offerings like cacio e pepe and herb-infused lamb chops usually make an appearance. Lesser-known labels from small producers in the surrounding Lazio region make up the thoughtfully curated wine list.
Local bars
The natural wine scene is slowly starting to bubble up in Rome, but for a dedicated by-the-bottle drinking space, Enoteca L’Antidoto (closed on Tuesdays) is the only name you need to know. Tucked down one of Trastevere’s tiny alleys, this cosy, candlelit wine bar is now a sought-after sipping-and-socialising spot – and with only three tables (and five more seats at the counter), you’ll want to book ahead.
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 made-over mansion in myth-steeped Velabro and unpacked their trinkets from nearby Trastevere and vintage furniture finds, a full account of their creatively charged city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Palazzo Velabro in Rome…
The story of Rome supposedly began in the neighbourhood where Palazzo Velabro now stands, when the basket carrying mythical twins – Romulus and Remus – ran aground. The rippling watercolour fresco in the hotel’s entrance pays homage to the city’s ancient connection to the river, and there’s a cleverly concocted flow between the historic surroundings and the decidedly contemporary interiors. A dusky palette of blush pink, sage green, and cobalt blue defines the bedrooms (ever-directing your gaze outwards to those eternally stirring views), with deeper burgundy tones, velvet furnishings, and Canaletto walnut wood-panelling setting a moodier scene in the kick-back spaces. This arts house even comes with a private screening room, showing films by Rossellini, Fellini, Sergio Leone, and other Italian cinema greats. Just remember to have a pair of designer shades on you at all times, to transition from movie-watching to the sun-soaked terrace upstairs (where more Roman masterpieces can be viewed, accompanied by an Aperol Spritz, per favore).
