Former Italian Communist Party seat in Rome becomes 69-room luxury hotel

A party seat turned hotel

The Bottegone on Via delle Botteghe Oscure, bought by Palmiro Togliatti for 30 million lire, has been converted into the Thompson Rome, a five-star hotel run by the US Hyatt group. ANSA reports the sale was already known before the hotel opened in the days before the reports of 3 November 2026. Der Standard describes the building as the former seat of the Italian Communist Party, which it calls once the largest communist party in Western Europe. Togliatti set up the party's headquarters there, and Enrico Berlinguer worked in the palazzo alongside other party leaders, according to ANSA. The building sits a short walk from Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Colosseum.

Rooms, suites and prices

Il Messaggero gives the hotel 69 rooms over about 8,000 square metres. Citing the Corriere della Sera, the paper says the royal suite, which is not yet open, will cost three to four thousand euros a night. The paper's headline puts the price of sleeping in the former offices at 600 euros a night, while its text cites 500 euros a night without specifying the room type. Some visitors, according to the paper, want to sleep in rooms once used by communist leaders, while others simply want to see the spaces where party meetings took place.

Art and architecture kept in place

The renovation restored the original architectural elements of the building, including a marble staircase. Two works by Giò Pomodoro, a sculptural wall and an inlaid floor, were preserved and now have a prominent role in the hotel's spaces. ANSA says the hotel stands near the ancient Crypta Balbi. The collection includes works by artists linked to the Scuola Romana and the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo, among them Francesco Del Drago, Giangaetano Patanè and Guido Strazza. Il Messaggero also notes that a bust of Antonio Gramsci remains in the building.

Reactions from the left

Ugo Sposetti, a former MP and the party's long-serving treasurer, recalled that the seat had already been abandoned by its political heirs in 2000, when the party moved to Via Palermo. Gianni Cuperlo would have preferred a large museum on the history of the Italian left in the palazzo. Walter Veltroni, after visiting the building, said he felt deep sadness because he no longer recognised rooms that had marked part of his political career. Il Messaggero describes the conversion as a near paradoxical contrast between communist history and luxury tourism.