"The Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, sits atop Rome’s highest hill, Monte Mario. And the hotel is wise enough to place terraces outside of each of the rooms. Come morning I would take my coffee outside, and watch the flaming pink sun rise over the entire city, lying low and thin before me, in the distance. I’d play a game, thinking of any of Rome’s monuments and frantically running my eyes across the skyline, jumping from the Wedding Cake to the Vatican to Castello St Angelo to the Coliseum to see how fast I could locate them, and in so doing, map out my day ahead (bonus, the hotel’s utterly divine Olympic pool is also visible, and during my August stay I would simultaneously plot my journey from Monti to Piazza Navona to Piazza del Fico, making sure I could fit everything in by 3 p.m. so that I had plenty of time to enjoy that pool after a scorching hot day rummaging around the town. Reward indeed). We have a tendency to think the more central the location the better. But the Cavalieri, for me, defies that. Taking in all of Rome from a singular vantage point felt like an experience in itself, the layers of eras and histories built into the city on full, glorious display. And made me so excited to plan out ambitious days ahead. With pool breaks built in, of course."
