The Grand View Suite

If you are passionate about cutting edge fitness practices you can train at home with a former star of the Verona Arena. Now a Pilates and and Garuda instructor at the Mimma Testa Dance School. Choose your one hour session between these two popular disciplines. The Garuda Method was founded by the Indian dancer and choreographer James D’Silva, and represents a new frontier for Pilates. Only a few instructors in the world are authorized to teach it. It mixes Pilates, Yoga and Tai Chi, and allows practitioners to improve many and diverse physical traits, including strength, elasticity and cardiovascular power.

The Caelian Hill. The Colosseum stands at its base, and its streets and squares are rich with history and monuments, as is its underground belly. Here you can admire one off the oldest paleochristian churches in Italy, dedicated to the first martyr. Our guide will lead you to the Basilica di Santo Stefano Rotondo and the Arch of Dolabella, probably built over the gates of the Servian Wall, to the Temple of Claudius, defiled by his wife Agrippina, and the Church of Saints John and Paul. Here you can descend underground to discover the remains of what probably were the homes of these two Christian martyrs. 

A city within the city, a journey within the journey through thousands of years of history. Located in the heart of the city the Jewish Ghetto boasts a community of sixteen thousand people. One of the most fascinating communities in the world thanks to its incredible mix of multiculturalism. Guided by members of the Jewish Community of Rome you will become immersed in the monuments that line its streets and alleys, participating in the still lively life of the community. You will learn its anecdotes, and travel beyond history. You will visit the Jewish Museum and the synagogues, and will taste the delicacies of the many restaurants and bakeries that populate the area.

If you are a fan of beer, this is the perfect way to get to know the best Italian breweries and their products, with their merits and particularities, through an exploration of their geographical origin.

Tasting, as you may know, is not only about taste, just like listening is not only about sound. It is a real sensual and sensory experience that involves all the senses, even the sixth. An exciting journey in one of the most famous restaurants in the world led by culinary experts who know the raw materials they choose just like a scientist would, but who are also acutely aware of the human soul and the emotional functioning of human beings, and are capable of uniting the knowledge of the latter and the former in what industry insiders call neuro-enogastronomy.

Villa Torlonia is an architectural jewel in full liberty style, and played a leading role in 20th century history. It was founded as an agricultural estate, and over the centuries became the property of some of the most important families in Rome. Even Benito Mussolini succumbed to its charm, so much that he moved his residence here. Its surprising and mysterious buildings - perfect to enchant children and adults (the Cascina delle Civette, the neoclassical Casino Nobile and the renaissance era Casino dei Principi, as well as Mussolini’s bunker) - will plunge you in a timeless atmosphere that has lived through the history of the city and its nation.

A little more than 300 meters in length and no wider than 90, it is among the smallest inhabited islands in the world and, despite this, houses the monumental 16th century hospital Fatebenefratelli. Myth says that in 291 BC Aesculapius, god of medicine, hid in a Roman ship sailing to Greece in the guise of a snake to seek help from the Gods and save his people from a plague. It is said that on his return the snake escaped from the boat and hid on the island. A temple was erected here to worship him, over the ruins of which the Church of Saint Bartholomy, which today still shelters a miraculous spring, was later built.

You are not dreaming. You can go grocery shopping at Eataly’s minimal contemporary market with the proclaimed 2018 Female Chef, in one of the city’s most characteristic local markets - a true gastronomic center for food excellences. You will choose between three seasonal menus, based on meat, fish or vegetables, and then follow all the preparations in the kitchen. Together, you will select the necessary ingredients to cook your menu. Cristina will be your gastronomic guide and accompany you each step of the cooking process at home. This is a truly memorable experience which will be hard to wash out: dish-washing is not included in the service!

His father was part of the editorial team behind RAI Sport, one of Italy’s leading sports channel, for a lifetime and taught himself to play tennis by imitating his idol, Ivan Lendl. When Riccardo was born, his destiny seemed to have been prescribed: “My father immediately put a racket in my hand, by the time I was four I already owned one.” He was subsequently recruited by the Under 12 Italian national team and went on to lead them to victory, by 15 he was competing in Italy’s third professional league, motivated by tennis players such as Riccardo Ghedin and Flavio Cipolla. He soon became a certified instructor for the Italian Tennis Federation and completed his training at the Professional Tennis Registry, an American association that promotes tennis around the world. Meanwhile, he collaborated with important international academies, meeting Emilio Sanchez of the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona and Nick Bollettieri of the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in the US. Book the court and play some sets with him at the Tennis Academy Vigna Clara, where you will be able to rent or purchase excellent Head, Wilson, or Babolat, gear along with all the other best brands on the market.

A short walk from via del Corso, immersed in the festive and chaotic atmosphere of the Roman center, an epigraph marks the entrance of an elegant and simple church: it is Santa Maria in Via, home to a miraculous freshwater spring. The legend tells of a miracle that occurred here in 1256. There is a chapel with an altar inside the building in the far right corner. On this stands an image of the Madonna del Pozzo. This is a symbol of the wooden tablet that the owners of the stable that is now the church saw floating in the water of their well. This is where the chapel was built and where to date the faithful continue to drink water, which is said to have miraculous properties. The journalist will explain what extremely rare organoleptic characteristics make this water so pure, without betraying the mystical and suggestive atmosphere of this little Lourdes in the heart of Rome.

The New York Times listed it in its famous 36 Hours column as one of the city’s must-see sites. The Museo Nazionale Romano was born in 1889 at the Baths of Diocletian, and has since expanded into four locations: the Baths, Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps and the Balbi Crypt. The Baths are the largest Roman thermal bath complex. Today this ancient place of wellbeing displays archaeological artifacts and holds the Museum of Roman Written Communication, the Museum of Protohistory of the Latin People and the Digital Museum of the Villa Livia. This is also the place where Michelangelo created the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs. Palazzo Altemps, on the other hand, houses the largest Roman aristocratic collections. At Palazzo Massimo, a late 19th-century neo-renaissance building originally built to host the Jesuit Order, you will discover one of the most important collections of classical art in the world. Finally, the Balbi Crypt is a treasure trove of sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, numismatics and artifacts that tell the history, myths and daily life of the time that was.

The first stone of one of Rome’s most famous neighbourhoods - Garbatella, or as it is affectionately called "La Rossa" - was placed by King Vittorio Emanuele III in the 1920s. The area soon became populated by people displaced from the medieval quarters of the city, who had been evicted from the center to allow for the construction of Via dei Fori Imperiali. Garbatella, which today still retains its popular character, is located near Tor Marancia, another popular neighbourhood that in recent years has undergone surprising development thanks to the extraordinary works of street art by artists from all over the world. In the midst of this open-air contemporary art gallery you will find typical restaurants, local delicacies and extraordinarily picturesque corners of the less beaten track in this multifaceted city.

Right in the heart of the city, Villa Ada is Rome’s second largest public park. As fascinating as it is surprising, between archaeological ruins and history both ancient and recent, with its luscious vegetation and thriving animal population, this green lung is the ideal location for regenerating walks. Across woods and paths, we will take travelers among the ruins of ancient civilizations as well as the evidence of a less remote path, such as the bunker used by the Savoia family during the Second World War, or a collection of mysterious tombs. Hidden between clearing and chasms, and isolated from satellite signal, if you are fortunate you may also meet the man who lives in the trees.