The hotel, which underwent a complete refurbishing in 2002, is housed in two neo-classical buildings, dating from the 16th century.  In ancient history, the ground underfoot was apocryphally a nymphaeum, the ancient Roman equivalent of a water-theme park, a place to take the vapors, as it were.  A convent occupied the site early on and in recognition of the buildings' bloodline, the hotel proudly displays a massive, 250-year-old Bible in the reception area.  The elegant public spaces ooze old-world glamour and elegance, awash in ormolu, deep russet and crimson brocades and damasks, and Murano-glass chandeliers.

This gracious sophistication is echoed in the hotel's 192 guest rooms, 27 of which have remarkable terraces, the smallest, some 325 square feet, the grandest, over 850 square feet!  Another 79 rooms have quaint, flower-laden balconies, many of which overlook the charming La Piazzetta restaurant in the internal courtyards, the ideal spot for the splendid daily buffet breakfast.  Sean Connery considers this his home in Rome; Leonard Bernstein luxuriated in Penthouse 840, where a lacquer-white baby grand piano dominates.

The bucolic Villa Borghese is behind the hotel, the fashionable Via dei Condotti in front, but for the ultimate in sightseeing around the Eternal City, let head concierge Nicola Oddis, with 25 years' service under his belt, book a private Vespa tour (no, you don't drive).  As Ali Fuge, a New Yorker who recently took a giro, gushed, "It was amazing, the highlight of our trip."  The hotel also can arrange for countless food-y excursions-learning to make the perfect espresso, or shopping in the outdoor produce markets, followed by a cooking lesson at the hotel.  Don't want to cook?  Have Nicola book dinner at Trastevere's most illustrious Antica Pesa, where, the night we sated ourselves, we spied a bevy of Hollywood A-listers.

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