Review of Boscolo Hotel Aleph, by Jamie Dunford Wood

This luxury design hotel in Rome, Hotel Boscolo Aleph, was formerly a bank, and feels rather like a space age brothel, or the place to come to explain yourself to a higher being - dim red lighting, vast chinese-style warriors like Cerberus's guarding the entrance to hell, with staff black-clad and padding silently about.

The facilities

It is all quite deliberate too - Aleph is 'Alpha' according to the design hotel blurb, while the themed décor of the luxury hotel follows the journey of Dante (sort-of) from hell (the Chinese warriors and the red ground floor) to purgatory (the 6th floor restaurant) and finally paradise - yes, you've guessed it, the spa. This is a design hotel that stands out amidst the five-star hotels of Rome.

The rooms

The design hotel's 96 rooms are, rather pleasantly, somewhere in-between - kitted out with ebony wood, black marble floors, red lights and glass, and large black and white images on the wood effect walls. A top floor suite has a deck and outside jacuzzi, with views of a large decked roof terrace open to all.