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CHECKING-IN TO | CABANA TRAVEL | WORLD OF CABANA
Sophie Goodwin arrives in Rome for the Orient Express experience, checking-in to its brand new landmark hotel, the Hugo Toro-designed La Minerva, mere steps from the Pantheon. Inspired by the all-Italian itineraries on board La Dolce Vita, the 17th-century palazzo has, like its moving counterparts, been designed to evoke the golden age of travel.
BY SOPHIE GOODWIN | CABANA TRAVEL | 15 AUGUST 2026
The newly-opened Orient Express La Minerva in Rome's Piazza della Minerva, mere steps from the Pantheon © Orient Express La Minerva.
Rome has a way of making you feel that history is happening slowly, in every direction at once, all around you. The newly established hotel, Orient Express La Minerva, is situated in the heart of the Piazza della Minerva, with the Pantheon so close you could practically post a letter through its portico. The piazza’s most famous resident is Bernini’s small elephant, balancing an Egyptian obelisk on its back with a look of stoic bemusement.
The brand’s first hotel anywhere in the world occupies a 17th-century palazzo that Stendhal once called home, which has been given a second life by artist-architect Hugo Toro with confident elegance. Toro’s touch is everywhere and never heavy-handed. The corridors are polished and dim in the manner of the legendary Orient Express carriages they deliberately echo; bespoke trunks stand in for bedside tables; bedding comes courtesy of Rivolta Carmignani, the very house that once supplied the sleeper cars. Above each bed is a hand-painted sky of Rome’s rose-gold dusk.
The opulent La Minerva bar, presided over by the original 1854 statue of Minerva by Rinaldo Rinaldi © Orient Express La Minerva.
La Minerva Bar, in the lobby, is the sort of place Rome does particularly well: a grand glass roof, marble columns glowing in the afternoon light, and, to preside over proceedings, the original 1854 statue of Minerva by Rinaldo Rinaldi. Cocktails are properly made. The crowd is half Roman, half international – the ratio for the perfect bar.
Gigi Rigolatto, the rooftop restaurant developed with Rikas Hospitality Group and Paris Society, opened in May to a good deal of justifiable excitement. The views of the Pantheon, the Vittoriano, and the dome of St. Peter’s are extraordinary, and the Riviera-inflected energy suits the setting. Order the red prawns carpaccio with citrus dressing and pink pepper, followed by the sole with lemon sauce and the homemade caponata.
The aperitivos at sunset are showstopping, as is the Neapolitan dessert spread offered daily, with delicious homemade cannoli and lemon cake. The Spa, which launched in February 2026, deserves particular attention. Designed by Toro and structured around the ancient sequence of tepidarium, calidarium, and frigidarium, it draws its language from Roman thermae and the Ottoman hammam — a dialogue between East and West that mirrors the original Orient Express route from Paris to Constantinople.
A grand suite designed by Hugo Toro @ Orient Express La Minerva.
The rooms are particular: each has its own character, its own proportions, its own relationship with light, and its own talented team to indulge you. Your designated concierge members are called ’conductors’, available 24 hours a day via WhatsApp. The Signature Suites meanwhile, unveiled last autumn, are in a category of their own. The Stendhal — 89sqm with vaulted ceilings, restored frescoes, and a freestanding bathtub beneath a painted vault as if it had always been there — is the only suite of its kind.
The Obelisco Suite, at 133sqm, revolves around a bespoke travertine fireplace carved with dancing nymphs and sinuous curved joinery in glossy wood that transitions from minibar to sideboard as you move between rooms. There is a record player, and a curated selection of vinyl. The Orient Express Suite has a hidden door to a private study and a sofa by Toro that contains a library and a reading bench.
Bespoke joinery designed by Hugo Toro @ Orient Express La Minerva.
The marble hammam is central, surrounded by delicate Triton-basin fountains. Hand-blown Murano glass fixtures cast candlelight without candles; brown travertine and red veined marble and stained oak create the sort of material richness that makes other hotel spas feel oddly provisional. Furtuna Skin — the Sicilian luxury skincare house founded by Agatha Relota Luczo, whose ingredients come from an 800-acre organic estate near Palermo — is the exclusive treatment partner, and the signature Dea Minerva ritual, involving rose-infused foot baths, kessa exfoliation, ghassoul clay, and foaming massage, is the kind of thing from which one does not easily return to ordinary life.
The Orient Express has brilliantly given Rome a brand new platform, and we’re all aboard.
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Orient Express La Minerva
Piazza della Minerva 69, Rome, Italy
www.laminerva.orient-express.com
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