Regina Hotel Baglioni

Overall Impression Named in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy and part of the Baglioni chain in Italy, the Regina Hotel Baglioni was our home for four nights during a recent visit to the Eternal City. The hotel was one of the Baglioni City Hotels located near the city center of Italian cities that tout their elegance and “luxury with an Italian touch.”

One of the Art Nouveau hotel’s advantages was its location on the prestigious Via Veneto across the street from the United States Embassy. The family friendly hotel’s beautiful common areas, which looked recently refurbished, had a desirable blend of old style elegance and modern touches.

We spent the first three nights in a handsome newly renovated third floor Deluxe Room and the last night we switched to a second floor Junior Suite. It was nice to know there was a small basement level fitness room, sauna and spa. We liked the hotel’s location, our pretty room with complimentary WiFi, the splendid breakfast buffet as well as the quiet interior and inviting common areas.

Children Yes, children of all ages were welcome.

Class Of Accommodation Luxury five-star hotel

Connectivity There was complimentary WiFi in room.

General Manager Marco Milocco

Handicapped Access While we were there we saw a guest in a wheel chair.

Head Concierge Lorenzo Fantechi

Length Of Stay Four nights

Location The hotel is on the Via Veneto across the street from the United States Embassy and south of the Borghese Gardens in the northern part of the city. It is within walking distance of the Hard Rock Cafe and the well known Spanish Steps.

Managed Baglioni Hotels Spa

Owned Roberto Polito

Pets Allowed The hotel welcomed pets of a “small size”

Size There were 103 rooms and suites in the multi-story hotel with a staff compliment of about 70.

Year Opened-Renovated The building where the hotel is housed was constructed between 1892 and 1894. An important remodeling job was concluded at the beginning of 2009 during which the total number of rooms was reduced to enlarge some of the rooms and create the Regina Suite.

Lobby And Common Areas The Art Nouveau style building was built by Giulio Podesti, described as one of the most important Roman architects of the Post Unitarian Era of the Italian Kingdom. The building features five large windows on each floor on the front façade; the windows on the ground floor are framed by floral friezes and open onto balconies with rectangular stucco ledges enclosed in wrought iron railings. Intricately wrought shelves rest on the pillars and serve to hold up the main floor balconies. The frames are decorated with satyr heads and stucco ribbons.

Although the building was originally designed with five floors and a mezzanine over the years three additional floors were added. Queen Margherita of Savoy made the hotel her temporary residence while she awaited the completion of her permanent residence, Villa Margherita, the modern day home of the American Embassy. According to the hotel’s promotional materials, because she was so pleased with her stay in 1911 she granted the hotel owner permission to name the hotel Regina (Italian for queen) and to decorate the emblem with the royal coat of arms.

The common areas were elegant and pretty. Double glass doors led from the porte cochere (covered) driveway into a small lobby with elevators to the left and a front desk to the right. A small office to the right of the front desk housed the concierge staff. A short hallway led to Caffe Baglioni, the hotel’s breakfast venue. The hotel’s main lunch and dinner restaurant had an entrance from the lobby and a street entrance as well.

Bathroom The bathroom was immediately left of the entrance to the room. It had a wall wide white framed mirror above twin sinks, toilet, bidet and shower (rain shower and hand held options) with half a glass door. There were crisp white towels in several sizes: two shower, four hand towels, two bidet and two face cloths. The bathroom in the junior suite was very similar to the Deluxe Room bathroom.

Rooms Our pretty third floor Deluxe Room, 310, was about 25 square meters in size. It was the last room in our hallway, far way from the front of the building. From our window we had a view of inner courtyard that was the intersection of three buildings containing air conditioning vents, roofs and neighboring offices. One excellent advantage of the location was the quiet within the room. With the exception of the sound of other doors being shut in the hallway the room was always blessedly quiet. What it lacked in size it made up for in decorative touches. To the right of the entrance there was a large closet with glass doors. The room and bathroom had white marble floors with red marble accents. In addition to the natural light that penetrated through the courtyard window there were plenty of lights inside the room. The walls, divided into upper and lower sections, had gold framed wall paper.

On the right side of the room, against the wall, a wall facing desk with a comfortable armchair was home to a large Samsung flat screen television. Next to it there was a matching luggage rack. Two beige armchairs with wood accents and a glass covered wood round table in the middle were at the foot of a large bed made up of two small mattresses joined together and resting against a wood and fabric headboard. The bed was framed by identical glass covered square night tables with a pattern that matched the desk and luggage rack. Modern glass lamps graced the walls and one hung from the ceiling. There were twin reading lights above the headboard. The suite was elegantly decorated in shades of gold with burgundy accents, contemporary light fixtures, double curtains, and a central temperature device with a digital control panel and a safe in the closet.

On our last night at the hotel we stayed in Room 205, a second floor 45 square meter Junior Suite facing a side street. Although more spacious than the Deluxe Room we had stayed in the previous nights it was furnished and decorated in a similar style as the higher floor room. We enjoyed the extra space.

Food And Restaurants Breakfast at Caffe Baglioni (available between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m.) was a self-service buffet with cereal, cheeses (several fresh and two aged), cold cuts (mortadella, turkey, ham, salamis), mixed greens, cold beverages (fruit juices, bottled water and bubbly Italian wine), fresh whole (bananas, tangerine, orange) and sliced fruit (pineapples, kiwi), pastries, cookies and cakes (blueberry filled, flan, plum cake, carrot cake, and butter cookies), breads (Italian, milk, Roman focacia), yogurt and pre-cooked chafing-dish foods including scrambled eggs, bacon, pork sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Lunch was available in the cafe between noon and 3 p.m. Dinner was served Monday through Saturday at Brunello Restaurant. Sunday night when the Brunello was closed the cafe served dinner. Room service was available in the room 24 hours a day.

The night before our departure we visited the bar where we sampled Italian bubbly and a couple of the bar snacks before having dinner at the gourmet restaurant. Entering from the hotel lobby the first thing I noticed was the subdued lighting, spheric chandeliers, dark walls and gold furnishings of the contemporary décor. It was nice to see Fabio, who I had met at breakfast earlier in the week, was the bartender. The restaurant décor was similar to the bar décor in that the shades were dark although the curtains were deep red and the fabrics were velvet. The rectangular shaped enclosed veranda had large windows that looked out onto a side street. We were seated at a corner with cushy seats and a view of the dining room. Dinner at Brunello Lounge and Restaurant consisted of a duck breast with onions pre-appetizer, carbonara pasta followed by veal with ham and sage prepared by sous chef Patrick and paired with a chianti selected by Giovanni who was training to become a wine steward (the wine cellar had 350 wine labels). We wrapped up the meal with chocolate souffle with gooseberries and blackberries.

Amenities There were two cotton bathrobes, two complimentary 25 centiliter bottles of water (Acqua Panna and San Pellegrino) at turn down, cotton swabs, cotton balls, and two each of the house brand toiletries: conditioning shampoo, body foam, body lotion, shower caps, shoe sponges and one handy kit (a sewing kit and one nail file). There was an electronic safe in the closet and a stocked refrigerator.

Facilities The hotel housed: Brunello Lounge and Restaurant, Caffe Baglioni, fitness area with Technogym equipment and spa with sauna and two lounge chairs.

Other There was a small fruit bowl with grapes and berries and a welcome note from the manager in our room when we checked in. When we arrived at the hotel from the airport it was raining lightly. Although there were no guests there were vehicles parked at the entrance leaving insufficient room for our taxi to park under the covered driveway and there was no doorman in sight. Our driver was forced to park and unload our luggage on the street. When we were half way to the entrance a porter arrived to help.

The hotel had two meeting rooms with a capacity of 80 and 20 guests each. The Regina Hotel Baglioni, part of the Baglioni Hotel Group, was one of 15 hotels and a residence (one in London, nine in Italy, and five in France) striving for “a less formal type of elegance and hospitality without missing out on design details.” The Baglioni Hotel Group is a Milan based company.

Famous past guests at the hotel include: Dan Brown, Isabella Rossellini, Jane Fonda, Liza Minelli, Enrique Iglesias, and Roberto Carlos Braga.

Cleanliness Very good

Date Of Visit April 2010

Reviewers Article by Elena del Valle

Photos by Gary Cox

Service Our room was serviced twice daily (in the morning and in the evening). The staff we met were helpful and professional. At the cafe I asked if the hot chocolate was instant. Fabio, one of the staff members, brought me a cup so I could taste it. Twice we spoke with a concierge. Saturday morning after breakfast we asked one for help securing reserved tickets for the Vatican Museum for that afternoon. He immediately said that it was not possible. When I explained I had found a website that had them but couldn’t print the order from my computer he agreed to check. With his help and our credit card we purchased and printed the tickets within a few minutes.

Would You Stay There Again? Yes