When in Rome… stay in the 5-star hotel Lady Gaga lived in while filming House of Gucci

Stay in Rome at the five-star Regina hotel. I did, and it was a pleasure.

“Would you like the same table as yesterday, Mr. Reid?” the hotel breakfast host asked on my second day, artfully recalling both my name and where I had been the previous morning. This flattering attention to detail was, I’m sure, part of the hotel’s training regimen.

And it worked. I have stayed in many large luxury hotels, but not all of them ask the staff to remember the names and seating preferences of their guests. (The hotel has 117 rooms.) It’s no disrespect – it’s the effort to take care of it.

The Regina is marble from Sienna wall-to-wall, but so are many of Rome’s best hotels. It’s the people who make the real difference, and because of that care from the breakfast host and other staff – who go out of their way to be helpful and pleasant – I will be much more likely to remember and recommend the Regina.

It is one of Rome’s most prestigious five-star hotels, several of which can be found close together on the fashionable Via Veneto.

From the hotel it is just a ten minute walk west to the Spanish Steps and to the north it is an even shorter walk to the beautiful gardens of the Villa Borghese.

With no sweeping views, except from the swanky rooftop suite, the Regina, owned by the Baglioni group of luxury hotels, needs to stand out and stand out in other ways.

I came on a folding bike. This did not deter the doorman in blue suit.

He helped carry my panniers to the marble lobby and as I was too early to check in, he ordered that the bike be stored in a luggage cart until it could be delivered to my room later.

The cart was wheeled under a bronze gladiator statue, just one of the works of art in the opulent lobby.

Studded with stucco and an impressive white marble staircase lit by Venetian glass chandeliers, this Art Deco entrance is fit for royals.

It’s no surprise then that one of the first guests at the opening in 1904 was Italy’s Queen Margherita, who lived at the hotel right after the murder of her husband, King Umberto I. The retired monarch, after whom the Margherita pizza is named, stayed for the better part of two years, awaiting the renovation of her royal residence next door.

First known as the Liberty Hotel, the name was changed to Regina – Italian for ‘queen’ – shortly after the former queen moved into the Palazzo Margherita (the palace is now part of the closely guarded US Embassy, ​​opposite the hotel).

Hollywood royalty recently lived at the Hotel Regina. While filming the movie “House of Gucci,” Lady Gaga spent three luxurious months in the Roman Penthouse suite on the top floor of the hotel. (I assume the producers have negotiated a long-stay discount – the suite, with 360-degree views of the Eternal City, costs £7,800 / $8,800 per night at the time of writing.)

Despite not having any blue blood at all, I was treated like royalty by the hotel staff.

The receptionist led me to the parlor-style dining room, where breakfast was still served.

I sat in a low-covered armchair and served tea and cake.

I arrived early to determine if I could check in before noon.

I hadn’t slept because I arrived in Rome after midnight to take sunrise photos of ancient times Via Appiathe oldest and perhaps largest of the Roman roads.

An early check in was duly arranged and to recharge before sightseeing I closed my room’s comforting heavy curtains and slept like a baby for a few hours.

The Regina is located in a tight bend of the fashionable Via Veneto. This is one of the most iconic highways of modern Rome, celebrated in the 1950s as the centerpiece of la dolce vita (‘the sweet life’).

The rich and famous would pour out of the bars and restaurants of the street, as immortalized in Federico Fellini’s seductive 1960 film ‘La Dolce Vita’, in which tabloid journalist and future novelist Marcello Rubini went in search of gossip and starlet scandals in a succession of smoke-filled drinking dens and nightclubs (this art-house film gave the world the word “paparazzi,” coined from the character Paparazzo, a pushy news photographer).

The restaurants of Via Veneto remain a draw, including Hotel Regina’s chic Brunello Bar and Restaurant, which is a favorite with locals.

Dotted with Arabian Nights-style copper lamps, the restaurant’s gold and black decor contrasts with the royal parlor feel of the rest of the hotel.

Chef Luciano Sarzi Sartori – who has cooked for George Clooney and other stars – brings modern twists to traditional Italian dishes.

Brunello’s is an evening destination; breakfast is served in the parlor-style dining room where you are lavishly looked after by those well-trained and wonderfully attentive hosts.