Review of St Regis Grand, by Jamie Dunford Wood

The luxury hotel St Regis in Rome is just a few paces from the massive half-smashed remains of a great Roman Basilica, now Santa Maria Maggiore.

The facilities

Downstairs the luxury hotel's main hall is stunningly restored in ornate French Empire style, with dark marble floors, red velvet furnishings, antiqued yellow-gold walls, one huge and other smaller Murano chandeliers. Potted plants and impressive flower arrangements add to the effect, and lead into the magnificently frescoed Sala Ritz room. Everyone says hello.

St Regis has a highly acclaimed restaurant (Vivendo) and impressive wine cellar. If you over-indulge, however, you can work it off at the Caroli Health Club, with its state-of-the-art gym, saunas and treatment/massage rooms.

The rooms

The luxury hotel's 170 air conditioned rooms are accessed by an ancient wrought iron lift that takes one up to wide marble-floored corridors. Every room in the luxury hotel has a name - and a fresco - with stuccoed or stenciled walls, swagged curtains and tastefully arranged furniture. You literally sink into them and once there won't want to move.

A few rooms at the St. Regis have balconies, with the tallest windows on the first and second floors.