The Westin Excelsior - five-star luxury hotel in the centre of Rome
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The Westin Excelsior is a grand old Rome hotel combining the best of history, glamour and modern facilities.
It’s the biggest, most glamorous hotel room in Europe… and also one of the most expensive. The Villa La Cupola is the première hotel suite at the Westin Excelsior Hotel in Rome costing a cool £10,000 a night.
La Cupola covers a massive 12,000 square feet of the fifth and sixth floors overlooking the fashionable Via Veneto. Its 12-meter high domed living room has a renaissance-style frescoed ceiling and there’s also a private cinema, roof-terrace garden, Jacuzzi pool and a private wine cabinet with 200 of the world’s finest wines.
For the rest of us mere mortals, the rest of this five-star hotel isn’t bad either. Behind the ornate sculpted façade is one of Europe’s nobbiest places to stay. With its chandeliers, marble floors and gilded furniture, it’s self-consciously, deliberately, in-your-face posh. If you didn’t know about La Cupola ordinary little people like us would think we were getting the best treatment in Rome…
The Excelsior is one of Europe’s grand old city hotels with £20m spent recently to bring its Edwardian style up-to-date. It now includes a heated indoor pool and sauna, wi-fi hot-spots, private garage, and palatial décor.
Forget the facilities though. For many, The Excelsior is for showing off how rich you are. It’s the sort of place where the “paparazzi” often stand outside. Guests have included Orson Wells, Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Prince Ranieri and Princess Grace of Monaco, the Kennedys, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Joan Collins, Liza Minelli, Sylvester Stallone, the Rolling Stones, Whitney Houston and Diana Ross.
When I was there my room had such gorgeous fabrics and furniture I got paranoid about spilling my coffee. I thought the bill for damage could bankrupt me. The basics are good though: the bed was supremely comfortable, the marble-encrusted bathroom all shiny and luxurious. Downstairs, the restaurant and ‘café’ are also grand and expensive.
No-one could possibly feel ‘at home’ in a hotel like this - but it’s fun in a dressing-up-and-pretending sort of way. Unfortunately The Excelsior is now part of the slick corporate American Starwood’s group - so expect all personality to be eventually sanitized away after a series of cost-cutting purges lead by a team of accountants from head office. In fact, go and stay now before they turn the Cupola into a well-equipped conference centre.
Book before January 6, 2010 to enjoy the Angels and Demons Experience
Via Vittorio Veneto 125, Rome, Italy
Cost standard double room: £200+ per night
Services spa, swimming pool, fitness equipment, hotel restaurant, hotel bar, room service, business services, internet access
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