When art becomes hotel

A silver wire, bright, almost like a finger that invites you to enter a corridor that leads to the mystery perhaps, but certainly curiosity. Who walks away in via Margutta coming from via d'Alibert, l 'Hotel Art is a bit like that, square and "clean" presence on the right in the middle of buildings dripping with ivy and antiques. The old walls remained, and the structure of the ground floor and basement, inherited from an other "hotel" . "In the building lived the boarders, or more often the professors, of the College of St. Joseph of religious Instituto de Merode, which includes kindergarten to high school, and still survives next door with entrance on Piazza di Spagna - says the hotel referent Matteo Moretti - When the building went out of use for opening a new office in the convent, and for the "secularization" of teachers, it was thought that his could be the ideal destination hotel. And so it was .

In fact when the chain Palencia Luxury Hotels, which owns more than Art Hotel in Rome although the Empire Palace on the Via Veneto and a castle from 1100 on the Via Cassia used for banquets and meetings, took over the structure, was reduced to little more than warehouse. Almost white canvas on which architects  Gianfranco Botti and Raniero Mangiarotti have designed a work totally inspired by contemporary art. "This hotel is pure art in all its parts - explained Moretti - the chapel of the school, which today has become the lobby and breakfast area of the hotel, we kept the ceiling, the altar and the tabernacle where now there is a bar. But that area , which is a prelude to the stairwell to the upper floors, is characterized by a series of works created specifically for those spaces, which often  we grant, and how could it be otherwise, as location for temporary exhibitions.

And then, the elevator to the dream. "The 46 hotel rooms are divided in four levels, each of which has its own color. Yellow, green, orange and blue walls, ceilings, floors of the corridors, on which stand on land carved verses of poetry in several languages. In addition, each room, enhanced by details such as stitched leather headboard di San Miniato and bathrooms to match the color of their plan, it houses a small picture recalling a detail of a famous painting from Middle Ages to Pop Art.

An offer in this area of Rome, accustomed to a conception of art, a bit 'classic, is certainly very "particular". "At first it happened that someone would remain baffled by our offer, since those arriving via Margutta expect a traditional structure. But with time we have built a hard core of customers who come back often, from Italian businessmen during the week with regulars foreigners over the weekend. Who looks for the design of a certain type is also staying with us, we offer a small fitness room and sauna in the basement as little surprise for guests. For lovers of the genre, will resume in the fall tradition Happy hour 'tight', which last season has already given many satisfactions.

Certainly we can not say that this is "diversification" of the competition. "Sure, but always with a view to pamper the customer - Moretti claims - for example, we decided to maximize the time of breakfast, from 7 to 11, in order to leave more freedom to the guests. And then the Tridente in this helps us a lot, although competition remains fierce. We work a lot with the Internet and by word of mouth to publicize our being 'special'. It was a gamble, and lasted six years. I would say that if you win, we just missing.