Rome
A city best seen early, before the crowds, and on foot inside the historic centre. The hotels that matter stand near the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and the Via Veneto, and the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum and many palazzi open before or after public hours for anyone who arranges it.
30 recommendations in six sections.
Stay
The room, not the hotel: in each hotel that matters, the suite to ask for.
The EDITION Penthouse Suite at The Rome EDITION
A 209 sqm penthouse with a furnished private terrace facing the church of San Nicola da Tolentino, the larger of two at Ian Schrager's Rome EDITION near Via Veneto.
The Hassler Penthouse
A 330 sqm suite on the eighth floor of the Hassler, at the top of the Spanish Steps, with its own lift, two terraces and a butler.
The Penthouse Suite at Rome Cavalieri
A 200 sqm suite at the top of Rome Cavalieri, with a 215 sqm roof garden and a hot tub facing St Peter's Basilica.
The Royal Suite at The St. Regis Rome
A 300 m² corner suite on the first floor of the hotel César Ritz opened in 1894 on Piazza della Repubblica, with a grand piano, a dining room for 12 and a diplomatic entrance from the street.
The Vilòn Suite at Hotel Vilòn
An 87 sqm first-floor suite with its own marble Turkish bath, in the 16th-century house annexed to Palazzo Borghese.
Dine
The table and the room: private rooms, chef's counters, and whom to ask.
The Carriage Room at Il Convivio Troiani
The Carriage Room at the Troiani family's Michelin-starred Il Convivio, behind Piazza Navona: one long table for up to 14, where the chef cooks an eight-course menu in front of the guests.
The Parallels room at Il Pagliaccio
Parallels, the private dining room at Anthony Genovese's two-Michelin-star Il Pagliaccio: one table for up to six, with its own staff and a 10-course menu.
Acquolina
Daniele Lippi's two-Michelin-star restaurant on the ground floor of The First Arte, a 26-room hotel near Piazza del Popolo, serving two Mediterranean tasting menus five evenings a week.
Enoteca La Torre
Domenico Stile's two-star restaurant in Villa Laetitia, the 1911 Armando Brasini villa of the Fendi Venturini family on the right bank of the Tiber.
La Pergola
Heinz Beck's restaurant at the Rome Cavalieri, with a view over the city, and the only restaurant in Rome with three Michelin stars.
Arrive
Arriving in Rome by private jet or commercial flight
Getting in and out without a queue: by private jet, on a commercial flight, by car or by train.
Signature Rome at Ciampino
The private jet handler in the General Aviation Terminal at Ciampino, 12 km south-southeast of central Rome, with customs and immigration in the building.
The AW109S from Roma Urbe with Esperia Aviation
A twin-engine AgustaWestland AW109S for up to six passengers, always flown by two pilots, from Esperia Aviation's own base at Roma Urbe airport on Via Salaria.
The Club Salotto on Italo from Roma Termini
A closed compartment for up to four in Club Executive, the first class of the Italo high-speed train out of Roma Termini, with the Italo Club Lounge and Fast Track at the station.
The Executive coach on the Frecciarossa from Roma Termini
Ten leather armchairs in two rows on the Frecciarossa high-speed train out of Roma Termini, with Fast Track to the platform and the FrecciaLounge before departure.
The mega-yacht berth at Porto Turistico di Roma
A berth for a yacht of up to 55 metres at Rome's own marina in Ostia, just south of the mouth of the Tiber and ten minutes by car from Fiumicino airport.
Access
What is not on the public calendar: before opening, after closing, by appointment.
The Caravaggio ceiling at Casino dell'Aurora
A private guided visit to the Boncompagni Ludovisi family's walled villa in the Ludovisi quarter, where Caravaggio's only mural covers the ceiling of a small first-floor room.
The Carracci Gallery at Palazzo Farnese
A one-hour guided visit, on a named ticket, through the French Embassy in Palazzo Farnese to the gallery whose 20-metre vault Annibale and Agostino Carracci frescoed between 1597 and 1608.
The private tour of Galleria Doria Pamphilj
A private tour, quoted on request, of the Doria Pamphilj gallery on Via del Corso: the Hall of Mirrors, Velázquez's Innocent X beside Bernini's bust, and three Caravaggios, in a palace the family still lives in.
The private visit to Palazzo Colonna
A private visit, at an hour you choose, to the palace the Colonna family has lived in for eight centuries: the 76-metre Baroque gallery, the family's paintings and Princess Isabelle's apartment, on the days it is closed to the public.
The Scavi tour to the Tomb of St Peter
A one-hour descent, in a group of about 12 with a guide of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, into the Roman necropolis under the nave of St Peter's Basilica, along the old path to the Tomb of Saint Peter.
Care
Private doctors and discreet services in Rome
Discreet services on short notice.
A bespoke suit from Gaetano Aloisio
A suit cut and sewn entirely by hand at Gaetano Aloisio's atelier on Via di Porta Pinciana, with fittings in Rome or in the client's own city.
A bespoke wardrobe from Battistoni
Shirts and suits made by hand to a personal pattern in Battistoni's atelier, in the courtyard at Via Condotti 61A where Guglielmo Battistoni began as a shirtmaker in 1946.
A suite at Paideia International Hospital
A suite with its own lounge at a fully private hospital in the north of Rome, where a doctor is on call and the laboratory, radiology and operating theatres answer at any hour.
Bespoke shoes from Calzoleria Petrocchi
A pair of shoes made entirely by hand on a wooden last shaped to your own feet, with the leather and the welt of your choosing, in the Rome workshop the Petrocchi family has run since 1946.
The hotel doctor from Doctors in Italy
An English-speaking doctor who comes to your hotel room in Rome, requested online at any hour and backed by the service's own clinic on Via Frattina, three minutes from the Spanish Steps.
Around
A day outside the city: the villas of Tivoli, the hills, the coast.
Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli
The residence the emperor Hadrian built below Tivoli between AD 118 and 138, about 40 hectares of baths, pools, pavilions and gardens open to walk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.
The excavations of Ostia Antica
The streets, baths, granaries, guild halls and apartment blocks of ancient Rome's port at the mouth of the Tiber, with the Museo Ostiense inside the site.
The gardens of Villa d'Este at Tivoli
The terraced Renaissance garden of fountains, grottoes and water games that Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este built down the hillside at Tivoli after 1560, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.
The Giardino di Ninfa
A garden of more than eight hectares and 1,300 plant species grown through the ruins of a medieval town south of Rome, open on set days from March to November by booked, guided visit only.
The Secret Garden visit at Castello Odescalchi
A private guided visit of about an hour and a half through the Orsini castle on Lake Bracciano, adding the Secret Garden over the lake and the Medici Orsini apartment, both closed on the ordinary route.
