Rome, Italy · Five-Star · ★★★★★
Hotel de Russie
The secret garden courtyard does more for a couple than any room upgrade. Rocco Forte at its most restrained and correct.
The secret garden courtyard does more for a couple than any room upgrade. Rocco Forte at its most restrained and correct.
"The secret garden courtyard does more for a couple than any room upgrade. Rocco Forte at its most restrained and correct — which, in Rome, is precisely what the city requires."
The de Russie has been one of Rome's definitive addresses since the 19th century, when Picasso, Cocteau, and Stravinsky counted it among their preferred Roman residences. Rocco Forte Hotels acquired and renovated it in 2000, bringing Olga Polizzi's instinctive design sensibility to a property that required neither reinvention nor reverence — just clarity. The result is 121 rooms on Via del Babuino, a five-minute walk from both Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, occupying a position on Rome's famous trident of streets that connects the city to the north.
The garden is the defining feature. Terraced across several levels behind the main building, running toward the Pincian Hill, this is one of Rome's great outdoor spaces — shaded, private, impeccably maintained, and unreasonably beautiful for a hotel courtyard. The Stravinskij Bar opens onto it. Le Jardin de Russie restaurant operates within it. At evening, under the umbrella pines with a Negroni and the last light falling through the terraces, this is one of the most pleasant places in Rome. That is not a casual claim about a city with 2,000 years of pleasant places.
Rooms are individually furnished in a palette that reads contemporary Italian without the corporate minimalism that sometimes afflicts luxury hotels in this register. The largest rooms face the garden; request one specifically. The Popolo Suite has its own terrace. The wellness facilities include a spa with Turkish steam room, Jacuzzi, and treatment rooms that represent a serious commitment to this category — more than the property's size would require, which is characteristically Rocco Forte.
Le Jardin de Russie serves Mediterranean cuisine in the garden setting — al fresco dining under Roman umbrella pines, with the kind of Italian menu that privileges the ingredient over the technique. The Stravinskij Bar is a serious cocktail address, named for the composer who was a regular. Staff here are the kind of Italian hospitality professionals who make guests feel that their preferences were known in advance, because they usually were — the house has a thorough guest history programme.
The location on Via del Babuino positions the hotel optimally for the northern half of Rome: Piazza del Popolo and Villa Borghese are five minutes away on foot. Piazza di Spagna is ten. The Pantheon is 20 minutes. For guests who want proximity to the Borghese galleries, the Popolo churches, and the quieter streets of the Prati neighbourhood, this is the correct Roman address. The Colosseum-and-Forum crowd will prefer a different neighbourhood, but they will likely also prefer a different kind of hotel.
The de Russie garden at dinner, in May, with the pine trees lit and the Stravinskij Bar serving correctly made aperitivi — this is where Roman anniversaries happen at their best. The hotel handles milestone occasions with the discretion of a property that has hosted private celebrations for over a century. Brief the concierge at booking: champagne in the garden before dinner, a table at Le Jardin, and the Popolo Suite with its private terrace. The service will make it feel inevitable.
The de Russie wellness programme is comprehensive for a city hotel: spa treatments, Turkish steam, Jacuzzi, and a fitness centre with equipment calibrated to professionals. The garden functions as outdoor wellness space — genuinely restorative in a way that few hotel exteriors achieve. For guests seeking a Roman wellness retreat that does not require sequestration in a hillside resort, the de Russie offers the most complete in-city option outside of Six Senses Rome. The morning walk to Villa Borghese gardens is five minutes and available before 8am.
The de Russie garden does the work that proposals require and honeymoons reward. Request a garden-facing room, book Le Jardin for your first evening, and spend the morning at Villa Borghese before the crowds arrive. The hotel's position near Piazza del Popolo means you have access to Rome's northern sights — the twin baroque churches, the Pincian Hill view over the piazza, the Caravaggio works in Santa Maria del Popolo — that other honeymoon hotels often miss by positioning their guests too close to the tourist corridors.
Rates checked May 2026. Price may vary by date.
The de Russie secret garden is one of the great outdoor spaces in European hospitality. For the anniversary or honeymoon that deserves a setting worthy of Rome.
See Anniversary HotelsNew hotel openings, deal alerts, and occasion-specific guides — weekly.