It is with great regularity that at the eCool Compound field questions about Rome’s multitude of hotels.  Such questions are hard to answer, of course, unless one knows the asker quite well.  So, we generally respond with questions of our own:  what are you looking for in your hotel?  do you like big luxury palaces or intimate b&bs?  is it more important for you to have a view of the Pantheon or Colosseum or is shopping your main priority in the Eterna?

For those whose answers indicate a preference for small, intimate accommodations located in the heart of Rome’s shopping district around the Spanish Steps, we encourage you to take a look at Portrait Suites, a property owned by the Florence-based Lungarno Group (which is affiliated with the Ferragamo family).

Located just above the Ferragamo Men’s Store at the corner of  ultra-chic Via Condotti and Via Bocca di Leone, Portrait Suites occupies a luxurious Italian town house.  Because there are only fourteen suites and studios, services is attentive and impeccable.

The architecture and interior design is by Michele Bönan, who chose to fit this luxurious residence out with marble and wood – and in the case of some tables, even boar skin! Sofas and armchairs are covered in lush fabrics reminiscent of the unique Ferragamo style.

The suites and studios – many of which have ample living space – are all equipped with a  bar-kitchenette so that you can indulge in your daily routine.  It’s an effort, of course, to make you feel that Portrait Suites truly is your home away from home.  In keeping with that goal, rooms are also equipped with satellite TV, DVD/CD players, and WI-FI,  and two suites even boast a sauna and fitness corner.

Beyond the intimate atmosphere (and it is lovely – we’ve visited several times)  the most alluring aspect of  Portrait Suites Hotel is its rooftop terrace with a beautiful view of Trinita dei Monti, the church that perches atop the Spanish Steps.  And while the hotel encourages you to take your breakfast on this terrace (though they’ll happily serve it in your room if you prefer), it’s drinks at dusk that we most enthusiastically recommend!

Portrait Suites, www.lungarnohotels.com, Via Bocca di Leone 23.

Today we continue our week-long Text & the City series with a visit to the Keats-Shelley House:

In the era of the Grand Tour, the now-swanky neighborhood around the Spanish Steps was known as the English Ghetto, for it was there that English-speaking travelers and expatriates made their homes. Among those resident in the area were a large number of literary greats whose presence in the city is now attested by marble plaques hanging on the sides of buildings that say things like, “Here the Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote his play The Cenci.”

In residence in Rome at the same time as the illustrious Percy Shelley was the poet John Keats, whose tenure in Eternal City proved to be a very short one. Suffering from consumption, Keats and his friend Joseph Severn traveled from England to Rome in search of a dry and warm climate in the latter part of 1820. By the time they arrived in the Eterna, Keats’ illness was quite advanced and the young poet was scarcely able to enjoy the Romantic pleasures of Rome.

The sickly Keats and his friend Severn set up housekeeping in a majestically-placed but modest pensione. They had a bedroom that looked out at the Spanish Steps and a living room that faced Piazza di Spagna. As there were not kitchen facilities, meals were brought in by local restaurants.

Keats died in that pensione Rome in February of 1821 – he was neither wealthy nor well-known at the time. And though his possessions and furniture were burned after his death in 1821 (Roman law required this following death by a disease like tuberculosis), the building that housed Keats’ rooms was purchased by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association and restored in the early twentieth century (click here to read how that series of events came about). It now houses a museum and one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in the world.

Now many thousands of literature lovers and curious tourists make pilgrimages to the Keats-Shelley House each year. On view in the museum is an extensive collection of paintings, objects, and manuscripts celebrating the lives of Keats, Shelley and Byron, as well as locks of Milton and Elizabeth Barrett’s hair, a manuscript and poem by Oscar Wilde, and splendidly bound first editions and letters by Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Joseph Severn, Charles and Mary Cowden-Clarke.

You can learn more about the Keats-Shelley House by visiting their website, where you can take a virtual tour. Or, if you’re headed to Rome and want to do as the poets by immersing yourself in the literary scene, consider renting the first-floor apartment available in the Keats-Shelley House. It’s available for short-term rentals ranging in length form 3 nights to 6 months, is suitable for one person or a couple, and has an outside terrace. Further information available at info@keats-shelley-house.org

Heaven may be governed by the pleasure principle. If so, you can find out what the afterlife will feel like with a stay at the Radisson SAS es Hotel. The name, es, refers both to the hotel’s unusual location, on Rome’s Esquiline Hill, and to the German word for Freud’s id, that eternally desirous part of our unconscious.

It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to discover why this hotel, a product of Rome’s King Roselli architects, has been a hit. The sleek lobby seems a summary of Rome’s history, ancient past to high-style present. It showcases an archaeological site discovered while the hotel was in construction, and is furnished with glowing desk pods from which the stylish staff meet and greet hotel guests.

The more-than-comfortable rooms, white and wood in their tones, comfort both the conscious and the unconscious mind. Beds are showcased at the center of the room—a reminder that your body may need a break—and your efforts to relax are aided by plasma screen TVs, DVD players, and high speed internet connections. Despite its simple beauty, your room may not be your favorite part of the es.

On the seventh floor of the hotel, you can take your id for a dip in the rooftop pool or otherwise drench your ego with spirits from the bar, Zest, which offers an unbelievably chic view across the mass of train tracks that enter Rome’s main train station. Don’t forego a dinner at the hotel restaurant, Sette, which has become one of the hippest eateries in town. They offer creative versions of Italian standards, and in fine weather, you can eat at tables artfully placed around the drop-dead gorgeous pool.

Radisson SAS es hotel, Via Turati 71. Tel. +39 06 444 841 or Fax + 39 06 44 341 396

Hell, the hotel lobby and bar, is an inferno of reds. The deluxe decor suggests that Dante has redecorated and that his designer has an eye for luxury and a startlingly good sense of humor.

But, heaven can’t wait. As a way of reuniting body and soul after a long flight you can choose spa in the lower level of the hotel and the 7th Heaven rooftop bar which showcases the cityscape of domes pointing toward the skies. The rooms are equally ethereal. They’re ultra-mod and sleek, decorated with huge black and white photos of Rome’s past and present.

Should you want to further indulge your vices (or virtues?) visit the lush restaurant, Maremoto, where the creative cuisine offers a distinctly Roman interpretation of “soul food,” or spend some quality time paying homage to the god of wine in the Dionysus Bar.

In 1503, Giuliano della Rovere was elected as Pope. By choosing Julius II as his name, he paid homage to the early Christian Pope Julius I, but he also announced his intention to style himself as a new Julius Caesar.

Julius II’s pontificate lasted a decade and in that time he proved himself to be a most able and powerful man, quite like his ancient namesake. He fought wars against those who encroached upon the Papal States, insisting that Cardinals and the Sistine Chapel Choir accompany him to the battlefield. He tore down the 1200 year-old St. Peter’s Basilica and commissioned his architect Bramante to design a new church (it would take 120 years for it to be finished). He collected ancient statuary, hired Raphael to paint his private apartments, and insisted that Michelangelo fresco the Sistine Chapel ceiling. As if that were not enough, Julius II also showed himself to be an urban planner, for he funded the cutting of two long straight streets through Rome’s dense and twisted medieval urban fabric. He intended that these streets, the Via della Lungara and the Via Giulia, would help pilgrims reach the Vatican with ease and efficiency.

Along the Via Giulia (a street named, of course, for Julius himself) Julius and Bramante intended to construct the Palazzo del Tribunali, the first real office building to be constructed since antiquity, and a palace from which the city of Rome would have been administrated. The project was begun in 1508 with the placement of large rusticated travertine blocks, but difficulties soon forced its abandonment. Eventually a palace was built atop the travertine blocks but it didn’t follow Bramante’s design.

Now, that palace – with its Renaissance rusticated travertine blocks – has been transformed into a five-star hotel called the St. George. Designed by Lorenzo Bellini, the hotel’s lobby showcases the Renaissance basement constructed by Bramante (see photos above). There are 64 rooms, a charming terrace overlooking the elite Via Giulia, as well as a spa. The hotel restaurant, Sofa, is quickly becoming trendy, and the hotel also hosts a wine bar and a cigar bar for the pleasure of its guests.