Spending 48 hours in any city may seem ridiculous, but if you plan well (I roll around lunches, dinners and the people I want to share those with, interspersed with shops and sights and a bit of walking), you can actually get a sense of how a city swings in such a short time. Almost 3,000 years of history and there’s no sign of Rome losing its pizzazz. It remains Italy’s most visited city, probably because of the number of ancient sites and history, a great food culture at many levels and its style. There is a saying which says that Paris is for girls and Rome for women. This may explain why I enjoyed this brief trip to the city. Not only am I no longer a girl, as I was when I lived in Paris, but I had the brilliant company of an extraordinary woman to share “her” Rome with me.
Arriving at Rome’s Fiumicino airport is a breeze. It is organised without too much walking and the taxis to the city are right outside arrivals with a fixed fee of 55 euros to the city. Quite reasonable compared to London which can be three times that. I arrive at the Piazza della Repubblica, a highly impressive Roman piazza with an even more impressive fountain in the centre – all being spruced up for the Jubilee in 2025. In fact, the entire city is being shined, polished and spruced up for the big show next year where Rome is expecting 35 million more tourists than usual. Things will become particularly crowded around Easter, but if you would like to visit in 2025, it’s best to plan winter in Rome early in the year or much later on. November in Rome was 25°C in the day.
Piazza della Repubblica, a highly impressive Roman piazza with an even more impressive fountain in the centre Shutterstock
I stayed at the Palazzo Naiadi, taken over by the Anantara Hotels & Resorts in 2021. It is their first Italian venture which was the beginning of a major expansion in Europe. What I love about this hotel, apart from the splendid architecture, interiors and superb service (not to mention the fab bar off the lobby), was the down-to-earth friendly staff… from the doormen who greet you as you get out of the taxi, to the concierge (the coolest girl concierges I have ever seen in tailored coat and tails), the front desk and the lady who does the show around of the hotel.
The concierge at the Palazzo Naiadi Karen Anand
Parts of the hotel were commissioned by Pope Clement XI for the Vatican in 1705 and the building overlooks the imposing Fountain of the Naiads (from which the hotel takes its name) and stands on the ancient Baths of Diocletian, whose foundations, pools and mosaics are visible from the lower floor through clear glass floors. Please do the show around the hotel where you are taken to the glass floors to see the baths below. They functioned around 300 AD for over 200 years and were the largest imperial baths in Rome spreading over 32 acres and could hold up to 3,000 people at one time. The water was provided by an aqueduct and internal pipes which you can still see. In the 16th century, Pope Pius IV ordered the building of a basilica on the piazza – Santa Maria degli Angeli – and Michelangelo was commissioned to design it. It is very much in existence today. Several remaining halls of the baths were converted into grain and olive oil stores, which today still form part of the hotel and is called the Clementino wing. The baths had hot water, steam rooms and saunas as well as cold pools and rooms for poetry readings, gymnasiums, gardens and libraries. Everyone was allowed into the baths – rich, poor and of course the gladiators. If you need a succinct slice of Roman history, much of it is on this piazza and revolves around this hotel.
The Palazzo Naiadi was taken over by the Anantara Hotels & Resorts in 2021 Anantara
As I enter the hotel’s magnificent neoclassical portico, the soaring lobby is a two-storey confection of white-on-white colonnades and stuccoes, Roman marble topped by an enormous chandelier in Murano glass. I chose a room overlooking the piazza and the Santa Maria degli Angeli church rather than the more cosy intimate sized ones in the Clementino wing with its original wooden granary beams. For a city hotel, there’s an enormous sense of space, elegance and quiet.
The soaring white-on-white lobby of the hotel Anantara
Although the hotel is located on the busy Piazza della Repubblica, around the corner from Via Nazionale, which reaches directly to Piazza Venezia and consequently to the historic centre of the city (about 25 minutes by foot and a 10-minute taxi ride. The Colosseum is around five minutes by car and the Trevi fountain 10 mins), you really don’t feel you’re in the middle of any hustle and bustle. If you’re adventurous, the metro stop is right outside the hotel.
If you need a succinct slice of Roman history, much of it is on this piazza and revolves around this hotel Shutterstock
After a bit of a rest after a long flight, I eagerly await my dinner companion, old friend Stefania Costanza, former consul general of Italy in Mumbai, who is now deputised to the UN until she takes up her diplomatic career in the Foreign Ministry again. We laugh and hug and gush over the food at INEO, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant. I was expecting a long, multi-coursed, laboured extravaganza. What we received were several courses, full of Roman and International textures and flavours and experiences full of joy and high on taste. The clientele was a mix of smart Roman and international hotel guests. Whether you enter directly from Piazza della República or go through the hotel, there’s a distinct air of exclusivity. Perhaps it’s the fact that it's hushed, soft tones and low lighting are more like a drawing room than a restaurant and that there are only a few tables which seat 28 in total. Everyone is keen to sample executive chef Heros De Agostinis’s much talked about creations. Cooking delves deep into his family history, with a mix of Abruzzo and Eritrean. This is a menu for those who love to travel and discover unusual flavours. We started with the tuna beetroot mix and yuzu accompanied by a delicious Cartizze bubbly – superior DOCG Prosecco which comes from a very small area of vineyards located in the Valdobbiadene region where Prosecco is from; followed by blue lobster, carrots, and fermented white cabbage accompanied by a Case Bianche Tenuta Enza La Fauci, an intense white wine from Sicily; saddle of roe deer apple hazelnuts and cubeb pepper sauce followed with one of my favourite wines in the world- Amarone della Valpolicella. I’m not a dessert person but the cream of banana peanut brittle and coffee foam was amazing. And the sweet wine verdicchio passito served with it, a dream of honey and apricots. Some dishes are downright exceptional, like the handmade maccheroni with Madeira sauce, slow cooked beef and Parmesan.
The INEO restaurant and one of its signature dishes Anantara
Next morning I treat myself to the Anantara spa. I had booked the Diocletian Bath Ritual inspired by the hotel’s location above the ruins of the ancient Baths. The ritual begins with an olive oil, honey, salt, and laurel-based exfoliation followed by a healing mud body wrap with cleansing and detoxifying properties. However, after chatting with the spa manager Jessica Bartolozzi, who is also a qualified naturopath, she recommended the Teslamed Ion Stream 680 Pro. This is the result of 20 years of research and innovation in the medical and aesthetic fields, made in Italy. The machine does a nano dermabrasion through stimulation of collagen and elastine and it produces ozone on the treated part. The result of the two worldwide patents, the machine is a contraction of fibroblasts with immediate retention of the tissue and improvement of skin cell metabolism. It can also treat (in a non-invasive way) skin spots, under eye-bags and dark circles, lips plumping, double chin, active acne, and scars. She recommended it so I tried it. Did it work? Well my skin certainly felt tighter and I was keen to try something I could never find in India. The spa also features a large wet area, which includes a caldarium, tepidarium, frigidarium (as the original Roman baths had) emotional shower, sauna, ice fountain, hammam, Vichy shower, infrared sauna and an elegant relaxation area where herbal teas are served.
The hotel’s spa Anantara
Feeling 10 years younger, Stefania then fetched me for a quick whizz tour of Rome in her little Mercedes smart car (the only smart way to do a city like Rome). I felt like Audrey Hepburn in a millennial version of the movie Roman Holiday. When there’s no obvious parking spot in Rome, you can literally abandon this anywhere she said! She drove down the Via Nazionale, past the under rated Palazzo Roma museum and the now uber trendy area known as Monti to the Colosseum – yes of Gladiator fame. A quick jump out to take a photo and back down the Via Aventino to La Fraschetta di Mastro Giorgio, an unassuming trattoria with indoor and outdoor seating in a very “real’ neighbourhood of Rome called Testaccio. There were only Italians in the restaurant – Romans I’m guessing, eating what the restaurant is famous for – pasta carbonara made with organic artisanal pasta, organic egg yolk, pecorino romano DOP cheese and guanciale. Stefania suggested we have their Cacio e Pepe, so typically Roman, served here with wild chicory. The hot water of the tonnarelli or spaghetti is creamed with pecorino cheese and fresh pepper making it saucy.
La Fraschetta di Mastro Giorgio, an unassuming trattoria, famous for its pasta carbonara Karen Anand
After lunch Stefania dropped me to Piazza del Popolo, a pedestrian square pulsating with people. I meandered up the Via Babuino with its once famous shops, past the Spanish steps, a bit of window shop on the Via del Corso and back to the hotel. Don’t forget, Rome is a city built on hills and maps don’t indicate gradient, so it is sometimes wiser to take the longer route than a steep climb.
Piazza del Popolo, a pedestrian square Shutterstock
That evening I invited another friend, an Anglo Italian journalist, for dinner at SEEN Restaurant & Bar by Olivier. “ It’s the best place for an aperitivo in Rome”, she said, suitably impressed. “It has the best view over the city, the Vatican and the city’s many churches”. It also has a delightful outdoor seating area (testament to Rome’s good weather) overlooking the piazza and a pulsating bar and restaurant full of young people. It definitely looked like a hugely popular place with an eclectic International menu and music. Everyone was eating sushi and Brazilian grills. We did too. We had Hugo Spritz which was actually invented in Northern Italy but is very popular in Rome because of the warm climate – elderflower cordial marries Prosecco garnished with fresh mint. Perfetto.
A Hugo Spritz – elderflower cordial marries Prosecco garnished with fresh mint Shutterstock
A perfect end to my Roman holiday. I packed in a lot but there is much much more to see and do in Rome, especially if you want to do it like a Roman… and I will definitely do it again from the comfort of Anantara Palazzo Naiadi for sure.
