The Rooms of Rome - Palazzo Rhinoceros

Rome has plenty of great hotels. This one, though, is something else entirely. The Rooms of Rome has higher aspirations — architect Jean Nouvel has created 24 unique apartments within the Palazzo Rhinoceros, an immersive, interdisciplinary “art environment” conceived by the Fondazione Alda Fendi-Esperimenti. It’s more than an art gallery, and more than an art hotel: when it opened it featured Michelangelo’s “Crouching Boy” as its centerpiece, thanks to an ongoing affiliation with the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The fact that the apartments manage to be worthy of the artworks is testament to Jean Nouvel’s talents. Old and new often collide in Italian hotels, but rarely to such extremes. The exterior of this landmark 17th-century palazzo was hardly restored at all, and in the interiors, crumbling plaster, battered tilework, and unfinished concrete were left bare in places, to heighten the contrast with the hyper-modern furnishings and the steel panels concealing appliances and wardrobes. Meanwhile trompe l’oeil murals show illusory windows and hallways — the effect throughout is unpredictable, to say the least.

Also unpredictable: the cuisine isn’t strictly Italian, but has pronounced Russian overtones thanks to Caviar Kaspia Roma, an outpost of a well-loved Parisian restaurant. And it’s hardly your only option — from the Palazzo’s location at the foot of the Palatine Hill, you’re close to the old city center, and you’re straight across the river from Trastevere, one of the city’s most food-focused neighborhoods.