‘We like to mingle with people’: The Italian princess who wants tourists to stay in her palace

Rome (CNN) — In the classic movie “Roman Holiday,” Gregory Peck’s American reporter encounters Audrey Hepburn’s incognito European princess without initially realizing her royal identity.

With Rome as the backdrop to entertaining scenes of 1950s Italian life — Vespa rides past the Colosseum, shopping near the Spanish Steps, cafes and wild dance parties — it’s a film that, even 70 years later, inspires people to visit the Italian capital.

Of course, while the Vespas, cafes and Colosseum can all still be experienced, aristocratic adventures are probably unlikely for most travelers — unless they’re staying at the Ruspoli Bonaparte Residence.

Blending the luxury of a five-star hotel and the glamor and exclusiveness of a Renaissance palazzo, the Residence has to be one of the most unusual accommodations in Rome.

Not because of its historic heritage, despite the fact it dates back to the 16th-century and has four huge suites decorated with antique furniture and tapestries. Nor because of its location, right in the center of the Eternal City’s central shopping district.

But because it’s still owned by royalty — and guests staying there will be greeted by its owners: Princess Giacinta Ruspoli, a lawyer and journalist turned hotelier and event organizer who handles her family’s properties, and her mother, Princess Maria Pia.

Sharing the beauty

Rather than sequester themselves in their ornate family home, the pair say they have a mission to share it with travelers — for a price, of course.

“We consider ourselves as mere keepers of palazzo Ruspoli Bonaparte, we do not like to say we are the owners of it,” Giacinta said. “Times have changed.

“My family wants to share all this beauty we have been gifted with everyone else. It comes imbued with a unique chunk of Italy’s history and traditions. We do not live shut in our castello, we like to mingle with people by opening the doors of our very home.”

Giacinta says her palazzo typically attracts American guests lured by the appeal of “experiencing royalty.”

“They pick us because they want to enjoy a princely sojourn and are curious to discover the history of the place and the nobles who still live here, like my mother and I,” adds Giacinta. “America doesn’t have a history nor heritage of aristocracy.”

Renting out their ancestral house helps them raise money to invest in the constant maintenance required to keep the old palazzo standing — a task the princesses say is “overwhelmingly expensive.” The upkeep headaches aren’t just financial. Each renovation, they say, involves securing the extensive paperwork that is mandatory for all historic buildings in Italy.

Scandals, love affairs and ghosts

A night in one of the property’s four suites —each measuring more than 1,000 square feet including several halls, ceiling-high stone fireplaces and marble decorations — starts at about $470, including butler service and breakfast. Private meals, with en-suite chefs, tailored Italian menus can be booked as extras, as can beauty services.

Giacinta says the entire Ruspoli palace can be exclusively rented out with prices starting from 4,000 euros, or about $4,700, a night.

While each suite sleeps up to four people, the two on a higher story have double bedrooms, a panoramic veranda and private terrace overlooking Rome’s historical center, with comfy lounge chairs.

Decor includes ancient, coffered ceilings painted with golden backdrops, frescoes of vineyards representing the Ruspoli’s coat of arms, parquet flooring and old portraits of ancestors.

When Giacinta and her mother greet guests or bump into them during the day, they like to tell tales of the past — the grandeur, the scandals, the love affairs, the ghosts. And of the battles fought by their ancestors.

There is plenty of family history. The Ruspoli name has clear lineage back to the Middle Ages and the reign of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor who united much of Western Europe at the end of the 9th century. Key milestones include how the Ruspolis made their fortune through Vatican connections, helping usher in several Ruspoli-linked popes and even a saint.

The Ruspoli Bonaparte residence is where Emperor Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, grew up in the 1820s with his mother, Hortense de Beauharnais, a Dutch queen. The palace is filled with paintings and other artworks she commissioned.

Giacinta, who’s in her 30s, handles bookings, client emails and requests, but also organizes tailored private events and guided tours of the palazzo.

One of the highlights is the Ruspoli residence’s entrance staircase, a flight made from elaborate marble stones that, according to popular tradition dating from the 1700s, are known as one of the “four wonders of Rome.”

For most guests, the biggest wow factor is the interior design. There are purple and green canopy beds, plush sofas, silk-covered walls, huge crystal chandeliers, enameled mirrors and life-size wooden statues turned into lamps. There are tables made from precious woods and stones such as black onyx and green malachite. Everything shines and glitters.

A rural retreat

Guests also get an “entrance ticket” to another noble residence. The princesses have opened up their family’s Castello Ruspoli, a sprawling former hunting estate in the village of Cerveteri, 30 miles to the north of Rome.

The 16th-century building, perched on a hillside near the Tyrrhenian coast, has recently been renovated to create a boutique hotel with 10 suites that will soon open for bookings at similar rates to the Rome property. For now, guests at the Ruspoli residence in the capital can take tours and make reservations for dinner at the castle.

The venue also hosts exclusive sunset cocktail evenings on a two-story loggia, or colonnade, overlooking the village piazza and is currently used for extravagant celebrations such as weddings, birthdays, parties — and even movie shoots.

Giacinta says the renovation has taken time due to red tape.

“The restyle is an example of how long we had to wait to get permits and works done,” she says. “It took us years just to get the green light from the local art authorities.”

Once it opens, guests will be able to enjoy the castle’s manicured grounds, including a walkway with views that stretch to the sea.

The castle is located in the old district of Cerveteri village, embedded within fortified walls that date back to the fourth century BCE.

Cerveteri is at the heart of the so-called Roman Tuscia, a historical region renowned for its ancient burial sites and picturesque villages built on volcanic tuff rock.

Although the castle was originally constructed as a defensive lookout against enemies marching towards Rome, the Ruspoli family have long used it as a rural retreat. Giacinta’s ancestors would spend summer and fall here, hunting wild boars in the surrounding chestnut woods, often accompanied by senior clergy.

Aristocratic style

Trophy heads of hunted animals peer down over the castle’s main stone staircase, which is wide enough to accommodate a horse and carriage.

The castle’s enormous main hall, resembling something out of “Game of Thrones,” now hosts dinners and formal banquets. At one end, a massive fireplace stands empty. The space in which towering piles of burning wood were once built is big enough to hold a small group of people.

The hall is lined with entrances to luxury suites decorated with frescoes of bucolic and mythological scenes that include orgies between animals, women and divinities.

“On weekends we take our guests staying in Rome over to visit the Cerveteri castle, and upon request, they can have exclusive dinners in the loggia with the best authentic dishes of this area,” says Giacinta.

She says that staying at the Ruspoli palaces allows visitors to experience both sides of Rome — the grandeur of the capital and the peacefulness of its pristine wild countryside — in aristocratic style.

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