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Ask HotelChatter: Where Should a Four Seasons Lover Stay in Venice and Rome?

The other day, a HotelChatter Twitter follower asked us for some upscale hotel recommendations in Venice and Rome. More specifically, Jcjteeth wants hotels of the same caliber as Four Seasons:

@HotelChatter Any recs on 5Star/upscale hotels in Venice and Rome? Usually stay at @FourSeasons but alas no FS properties in those cities.

That's pretty weird now that we think about it. No Four Seasons in Rome or Venice? They should really get on that!

But onto our hotel picks.

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Hotel Fees / Rome Hotels / Italy Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

When In Rome, Expect to Pay a Little More At Hotels

Hotel Excelsior, now an extra €3 per person per night.

We've railed on hotel fees before and aside from resort fees and WiFi charges, we especially dislike those extra tourism fees mandated by local governments, in addition to taxes.

But now when you're in Rome, you better get ready to pay a little more for your hotel stay.

That's because Rome has added a new hotel tax for visitors staying in hotels. Expect to pay an extra €2 per person per night in a hotel up to a three-star rating and an extra €3 per person per night when staying in four or five-star hotels.

But here's the rub--the tax must be settled at check-out and guests must pay in cash. No debit cards, credit cards or American Express Traveler's Checques allowed. So don't throw your Euros in the Trevi fountain until after you've checked-out.

[Photo: Tom Barnes/HotelChatter Flickr Pool]

Hotel Cocktails / Hotel Art / Rome Hotels / Waldorf-Astoria Collection / For the Sake of Hotel Art / → All Tags

Art Meets Booze On Rome Cavalieri Hotel's New Cocktail List

Where: Via Alberto Cadlolo 101, Rome, Italy, 00136

The Andy, inspired by Andy Warhol's Dollar Sign.

We'd barely finished deciding which of the Argentine art-inspired cocktails we wanted from the El Casco Art Hotel (should we find ourselves in Bariloche), when along comes yet another art cocktail collection, this time at the Rome Cavalieri.

Hey, who are we to argue with the greats of the art world. Let's see what they want us to drink over in Rome ...

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Hotel Hell / Rome Hotels / Royal Demeure Hotels / → All Tags

The Hotel d'Inghilterra in Rome Has Let Itself Go

Where: Via Bocca di Leone 14, Rome, Italy, 00187

It’s never nice to hear about a good hotel going downhill, but when it’s one you’ve loved and recommended, it’s even worse. So we’re feeling pretty sad right now about the Hotel d’Inghilterra in Rome.

We stayed in the Inghilterra a couple of years back and loved it – a tiny, quiet little hotel, tucked away down a side street off Via Condotti. So when our friend decided to go to Rome for Easter, we immediately suggested they go there.

When we went, we’d been upgraded to a suite, so we knew we were in for a good time, but we’d peeked in a few of the standard bedrooms and thought they passed muster. So we were surprised when we got a phonecall from our friend on the first day, saying that the room wasn't up to scratch, then followed by a plaintive email mid-stay:

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Hotel Openings / Marriott Hotels / Rome Hotels / Courtyard by Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

Rome's New Courtyard by Marriott Has Nice Views, OK Prices, And a So-So Location

Where: Via Giuseppe Moscati 7, Rome, Italy, 00168

The camera never lies, and that looks pretty far off to us

It’s probably our favourite city in the world, but we always find Rome particularly tricky when it comes to accommodation. In fact, were we not so fond of it, we might be a little put off.

Most of the cheap hotels are clustered round Termini station and the area is, not to put too fine a point on it, scuzztown. If you want somewhere more salubrious, you have to pay through the nose.

The latest addition to the Rome hotel scene is the 162-roomed Courtyard by Marriott west of the Vatican, which used to be the Hotel Central Park. Will it shake the hotel scene up? Sadly, we reckon probably not. Rates are OK for Rome – about €100, and they have a three nights for the price of two offer running until April next year – and there are some smashing views of St Peter’s, as you can see from this pic.

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Deal Or No Deal / Best Western Hotels / Hotel Deals / Rome Hotels / Italy Hotels / Europe Hotels / → All Tags

Best Western's European Deal is Good But Not Great

Winter citybreaks in Europe are our absolute favourite type of shopping-and-culture trips. Hotels are cheap, flights are half empty, the monuments are queue-free and the shops are full of Christmas cheer. Plus, eating loads is obligatory to stave off the demon cold.

So Best Western’s Two Day Promotion really tickled our fancy. The deal is this: 400 BW hotels in Europe and Egypt are offering rates starting at a peasly (for Europe) €49 (£43/$72) up to €79 (£70/$118) over December, January and February (most have backout days around Christmas and New Year, but other than that you have pretty much a free run at it – check the website for individual hotel details). To secure the rates, you need to book on 20 or 21 November on this link.

But then we checked out just how good a deal it was by scoping out the cost of a few days in Rome this December. And we were sorely disappointed.

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Hotel Openings / Rome Hotels / Armando Manni / Luxury Hotels / Intimate Hotels / → All Tags

There Will Be No Shortage of Extra Virgin Olive Oil at Casa MANNI

Where: Via di Pietra 70, Rome, Italy, 00154

This very well may be Rachel Ray's idea of hotel heaven.

We’ve been hooked on MANNI White Truffle Extra Virgin Olive Oil since we sat in on a demo at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen a few years ago. Then, Chef Ryan Hardy of Montagna at The Little Nell gave us two bottles to take home – one Per Mia Figlia (for my child) and one Per Me (for me) and it’s like liquid gold crack for foodies.

Now, the EVOO expert Armando Manni has extended his presence in the luxury lifestyle market with the opening of Casa MANNI Roma, an exclusive penthouse for two in a 17th-century palazzo in Via di Pietra, the heart of old Rome. And yes, MANNI is all caps.

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Hotel Packages / Rome Hotels / → All Tags

Get Your 'Angels and Demons' Experience at Westin Excelsior Rome

Where: Via Vittorio Veneto 125, Rome, Italy, 00187

Ah, we knew it: in all the hype surrounding Twilight (and, somewhat alarmingly, still surrounding Twilight), you totes forgot that the Angels and Demons movie was coming out, didn't you? Yeah, 'member that whole thing? That little book called Da Vinci Code that swept the naysh between the Harry Potter and Twilight crazes? Yes, well, Angels and Demons is the sequel — and now the movie's coming out on May 15th.

Westin has been named the official hotel partner for the movie, and Dan Brown fanboys and girls can get all sorts of into it with a whole Angels and Demons immersion experience in Rome at the Westin Excelsior. If you book the package, you get a night in a double room, an official Angels & Demons private or group tour, 20% off at the hotel's restaurant and bars and a 20% discount on the Angels & Demons "theme menu" at the Doney restaurant.

What is this "official tour" we speak of, you ask? 'Tis this: if you book the Group Tour, you get a 4 hour Rome excursion with other people (24 max), which includes a Castel Sant'Angelo Entrance Ticket, a map of the Illuminati, a coffee break, and transporation in air-conditioned bus (yeah, Rome in the summer? Not so cool). Opting for the private tour will get you an upgrade to a GrandLuxe room if it's available, and a 4-hour private excursion including a pickup and drop-off at the hotel in an air-conditioned car.

The private tour starts at €433 (around $592) and the group tour will run you €326 ($446) per night. Book here.

Cubicle Dreamin' / Rome Hotels / Leading Hotels of the World / → All Tags

When In Rome, Go All Out With Italian Sweets

Where: Via De Notaris Giuseppe 5, Rome, Italy, 00197

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K visits Rome...in her mind. Enjoy.

There are two reasons I want to stay in the Hotel Lord Byron in Rome, and they're both from the one paragraph of a recent Age review:

Life in the hotel centres around the library and lounge, a beautifully furnished space full of interesting, well-thumbed hardcover books, flowers, bowls of Italian sweets and fabulous framed family photos.

I'm sold by the time I know about the piles of books and the Italian sweets, but apparently there is plenty more in this grand hotel to tempt me. It's elegant, but not too stuffy; glamorous, but not arrogant. It's a five-star place that belongs to the Leading Small Hotels of the World collection, and I like the fact that it's small and tucked into a quiet (but still central) corner of Rome.

I could settle on a Junior Suite at €560 ($730) a night (the full version of the Suite is €735 ($960) a night) and I'd definitely need a booking in the Sapori del Lord Byron restaurant – apparently it's got a French chef but the food is definitely Italian-style and delicious. And I'd need to finish my evening at the hotel's Il Salotto wine bar because they say the pianist there can play anything you request. But hey, I was already satisfied just with the books and the sweets.

NYT Reviews / Rome Hotels / Waldorf-Astoria Collection / → All Tags

The Rome Cavalieri Hotel Just Wants Your Euros

Where: Via Alberto Cadlolo, 101, Rome, Italy, 00136

This is the penthouse bedroom at the Rome Cavalieri hotel.

We've had a mild fascination over here with the Rome Cavalieri hotel--once a Hilton, now part of the chain's Waldorf-Astoria Collection--largely in part due to its crazy extravagant services. Gladiator training anyone? Fancy a jog with the hotel's general manager? Or perhaps you would like to bring your dog with you and let him dine out of Gucci dog bowls? The hotel can accommodate all that.

Yet we've never known anyone who has spent a night in the hotel. Until now. The NY Times featured the hotel in its weekly "Check-In, Check-Out" feature in the Sunday Travel section. And while the hotel is full of fancy things, the staff seems to have dropped the ball. From reviewer Oliver Schwaner-Albright:

But for all the amenities, the hotel didn’t so much welcome as tolerate us: the desk staff was curt, the car valet was rude and the concierge couldn’t be bothered to halt his personal conversation to help us make dinner reservations.

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Lisbon Hotels / Rome Hotels / Tokyo Hotels / → All Tags

Green in the City :: The Independent Rounds Up "Best Urban Garden Hotels"

A city stay usually means you're not getting too much in the way of trees and flowers, and we often think that's a shame. Which is why the UK Independent list of urban garden hotels got us especially interested.

We like the sound of the Hotel de Russie in Rome: eat dinner on the terrace and you're surrounded by trees: palm, pine, cypress, magnolia, lemon and orange, apparently.

A place we're surprised to hear about greenery is Tokyo, but the Hotel New Otani Tokyo is actually situated in 10 acres of gardens that belonged to some feudal lord 400 years back, and naturally the obligatory ponds full of bright orange carp are there.

And finally, in Portuguese capital Lisbon, the Pestana Palace appeals to us mainly because the guy who built it in the early 1900s was a cocoa king; but also because the gardens are grand enough to have been declared a national monument. Can't get much greener than that.

[Photo of Pestana Palace: Tones100]

Rome Hotels / New Years Eve Hotels / New-Years-Eve-Hotels / → All Tags

New Years Eve Hotels: The Hilton Cavalieri in Rome

Where: Via Alberto Cadlolo 101, Rome, Italy, 00136

This week, we're looking at some of the best places around the world to spend New Year's Eve. Got a suggestion for ringing in 2008, let us know.

Last summer we were hyped about the Hilton Rome Cavalieri because they were offering gladiator training, which has gotta be one of the coolest hotel add-ons ever. So we were interested to learn about what the Hilton Cavalieri could be offering for a New Year's Eve celebration.

Unfortunately it seems like there are no gladiators involved, but apart from that it sounds like a pretty extravagant way to bring in 2008. The Rome Cavalieri Hilton is offering a 3-night New Year's package for US$2,284 per person, including accommodation in an executive floor room (great views of Rome) plus a 10-course dinner (yes, TEN!) cooked by a 3-star Michelin chef, served in the rooftop La Pergola restaurant. What a great way to spend your last day before the inevitable New Year's diet begins. Finally, when the NYE fireworks go off, you'll have a great view from one of the highest parts of Rome.

The deal also includes a deluxe afternoon tea, apparently made all the more delicious because while you sip your tea, you'll be able to look at three Tiepolo paintings the hotel has just bought; you also get a concert and brunch in the gardens of the hotel on New Year's Day. Perhaps if you ask nicely they'll add an hour or two of gladiator training while you're out in the gardens.

Related Stories:
· Learn Gladiator Moves as the Rome Hilton Cavalieri [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Rome [HotelChatter]