Hotel Santa Maria

Rooms

All 18 rooms are arranged around the cloister, with covered walkways running around in front of the doors. Although modern and dating from the refurbishment in 2000, they have been appended onto the original building, so some of the room shapes are unusual. For example, room 22 feels like it's been built into an attic and some ceilings are double height, others are low.

Delicate apricot tones give them a cosy glow, with softly mottled walls enlivened by hand-painted borders. Latticed windows frame leafy views. Wrought-iron lamp fittings, light terracotta floor tiles, floral bedspreads, pale oak-wood furniture and paintings of Rome complete the picture. Beds are firm and comfortable with plain, soft headboards.

There are only 8 doubles; the rest sleep 3-6 people and come in all shapes and sizes. Room 20 (Junior Mansard Suite) is a duplex sleeping up to four, and resembles a cottage, with a quaint low ceilings upstairs (not for the tall). Room 21 (Senior Suite) is an even larger duplex that will sleep six, with the upper floor (again, you might have to stoop) reached via a wrought-iron spiral staircase. Room 22 – the Mansard suite - also sleeps six in two adjoining rooms, with low slanted ceilings embedded with skylights. All rooms have a flat-screen satellite TV and a sparkling, though not huge, bathroom with tub.


If the hotel is full, ask for a room at the nearby Residenza, which has similarly decorated rooms - a mix of doubles, triples and quadruples - at slightly lower prices. And being newer, it is more likely to have space.