‘What rules today is money’: Rome’s five-star hotel boom

As high-end tourism returns to the Italian capital there are concerns the ‘incredible rebirth’ has not been well managed

“Rome is now the city of luxury hotels,” said Giuseppe Botrugno as he served his loyal crowd of lunchtime customers, mostly office workers who pile into the humble bar and eatery for affordable, no-nonsense Roman fare.

“There is one opposite, one around the corner, and another planned next door to that one,” added Botrugno, who along with his brother has run Bar San Marcello on Via di San Marcello, a narrow street close to the Trevi fountain, for more than two decades.