Hotel Santa Maria

HIDING IN ROME'S TRASTEVERE DISTRICT, Hotel Santa Maria is a tucked-away gem. Surrounded by tall houses packed hugger-mugger within a labyrinth of uneven cobbled, medieval streets, this former 16th century convent still has the feel of being cloistered away.

We pressed the bell on an anonymous-looking door which snapped open to spill us unexpectedly into a pretty pebbled square filled with light. At the heart is the eponymous courtyard, sprinkled with pretty orange trees and an abundance of flowers. Parasoled tables provide shade but there are pockets where you can sun-soak too. An artisan’s workshop is now the dining room, and we flitted happily in and out with bottles from their well-stocked cellar.

Simple but sweet-as-pie bedrooms and spacious mansard-roofed duplexes open onto Hotel Santa Maria's sunny courtyard. Comfortable, quiet and painted in Mediterranean colours, they share oak furniture, terracotta tiled floors and floral motifs.

Higgledy-piggledy streets

A refectory table groans with breakfast goodies – enjoy your fruit, cheeses and cornetti in the courtyard in summer – and there are plenty of places to dine out locally at night. Come evening, the streets around here fill with the tables of good-value osterias; for dessert we called into one of the icecream parlours for our nightly shot of gelato.

Get lost in the area’s higgledy-piggledy streets, before crossing the river to Isola Tiberina and the old Jewish quarter. Here’s a place in an area with some buzz that feels utterly tranquil.

© Room for Romance