Hotel Vilòn

A 17-room hotel in the 16th-century annex of Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio, once a school for poor girls, with Art Deco rooms and the Adelaide restaurant.

In 1841 Princess Adelaide Borghese de la Rochefoucauld turned the house that is now Hotel Vilòn into a school for poor girls, run by the French nuns of the Figlie della Croce. Princess Anna Maria De Ferrari Borghese ran it from 1897 to 1916, and in 1938 the school was given to the nuns. The building itself dates from the mid-16th century. It was one of the houses annexed to Palazzo Borghese, and the Borghese princes rented these out from the early 1600s.

The hotel is on Via dell’Arancio, in the Campo Marzio district, seven minutes on foot from the Spanish Steps and nine from the Pantheon. Its 17 rooms and suites are retro, with Art Deco touches, pastel colours, patterned wallpaper and marble bathrooms. Charming rooms face the inner patio, and some look onto the private garden of Palazzo Borghese. The Suite dell’Arancio, in a 1930s style, has two marble bathrooms, one with a jacuzzi. The 87 sq m Vilòn Suite on the first floor has a private marble steam bath.

Adelaide, the restaurant, is named for the princess. Executive chef Gabriele Muro cooks a seasonal Mediterranean menu with Roman classics, served indoors or on a patio planted with greenery, open all year. The bar is In Salotto.