Hotel Indigo Rome - St. George

Rome offers up so much history that it’s sometimes hard for the traveler to remember that, antiquity aside, Rome is a completely current and connected city too. It’s a cosmopolitan town fueled more by academia and the film business than by industry, and top-rate hotels usually aim for grandiloquent historical immersion or a hyper-hip design-house theme. The Hotel Indigo Rome - St. George doesn’t really fit into either camp. Instead, it offers up a polished atmosphere that, despite many Scandinavian design touches, almost feels as if one has just checked into a giant Prada handbag. Everything is stitched just so; no garish colors scream at your senses, just calm precision. The St. George marries boutique scale and business-travel efficiency extraordinarily well, a contemporary balancing act exemplified by its bedroom mural aesthetics: Caravaggio in some rooms, the legendary Fiat 500 in others.

The guestrooms are simultaneously modern and classical, with contemporary art hung below elaborate moldings, all united by floods of natural Mediterranean light over an abundance of parquet flooring and travertine marble. Located on the Via Giulia (an incomplete urban design endeavor of the Renaissance, now a famed antique district), the St. George is in the heart of all things classical, steps from the Vatican and the Tiber with its strollable quays. The hotel offers a full-service spa, the decadent I Sofà Bar Restaurant, a wine bar, a library, and a chic, eye-popping rooftop space for taking in the sights from a comfortable vantage point. The St. George makes for a seriously sophisticated visit to a seriously sophisticated city, but takes great care to keep pace with the modern world.