99. Rome

The hotel was built around 1800 and hosted visiting Europeans on the Grand Tour for almost two centuries before closing in the second world war. The building later became the headquarters of the Italian TV network, but was converted to its original purpose by Rocco Forte. Forte made his fortune building boring budget corporate hotel chains but after selling these businesses decided to develop a series of unique hotel properties in Europe rather than a chain.



The courtyard and lush gardens at back lead to the sprawling Villa Borghese park, Rome's version of Central Park. Out the front door lies Via del Babuino, Via Condotti and Rome's best antique and fashion shops.

After an understandably late start to the day, we regrettably checked out of our hotel and decamped to Florence's Savoy Hotel. It's ideally located on the Piazza della Republica, which is by far Florence's biggest open space and sits at the crossroads of the well-beaten Duomo-Palazzo Vecchio-Ufizzi circuit. It was built about 100 years ago, but totally revamped by the hotelier Rocco Forte, who always produces hotels high in service, stylish, but perhaps missing the wow factor that makes them unique. And this hotel is no exception, with really excellent service and attractive decor that's a big step above the corporate blandness of the big chains. (although weirdly he adopted a shoe theme for the hotel, in homage of the local Ferragamo family, which only really works if you've got a fetish). And the hotel's restaurant, l'Incontro, was always buzzing, and had a real dolce vita feel to it, spilling out glamourously onto the Piazza. Hotel Savoy: Overall-7, Room-6 (but the suites were full so our smaller room might have dragged the score down a bit), Facilities-7, Service-9, Wow-0.