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Orient Express
The Rail Legend Now Checking-In as Living Palaces
140 years of history, now a historic palace and city landmark

Launched in 1883 as the Paris–Constantinople sleeper, Orient Express wove Belle Époque glamour into steel and steam. After LVMH and Accor join forces to take Orient Express to new horizons, the brand’s romance switched from rolling carriages to resting places, beginning with Orient Express La Minerva in Rome. Housed in a 17th-century palazzo beside the Pantheon, the 93-room hotel layers Art-Deco marquetry, Lalique-inspired glass and discreet contemporary tech; cocktail hour unfolds on a rooftop that surveys the Cupola of St Peter’s and, in spirit, the original rail terminus of the Eternal City.

The collection now turns a page in Venice, where Palazzo Donà Giovannelli—a gothic mansion once painted by Canaletto—re-opens as a 45-key hideaway trimmed in Fortuny silks and terrazzo floors; its piano-nobile bar revives the train’s clinking crystal with lagoon views in place of Alpine passes. Farther east, the forthcoming Orient Express Diriyah Gate will plant the brand in Saudi Arabia’s adobe citadel, fusing Islamic geometries with shaded courtyard pools, and joining a pipeline of projects from Paris to Shanghai. Across the portfolio, adaptive reuse and LEED-minded engineering echo the original train’s technical daring, while “rail-car” service rituals—sunrise coffee delivered in silver pots, luggage monogrammed en route—carry the legend forward.

Orient Express Collections

The most comfortable and noble service experience

2 hotels

Orient Express La Minerva

Rome  •  Italy
Orient Express La Minerva carries forward the storied travel legacy of the Orient Express brand, seamlessly blending Rome’s timeless history with a quietly assured sense of contemporary luxury. Set on Piazza della Minerva beside the Pantheon, the hotel occupies one of the city’s most coveted locations, within easy walking distance of Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Tiber River. Housed in a meticulously restored 17th-century palace, the property preserves its classical façade and historic presence, while interiors reimagined by French designer Hugo Toro introduce warm materials, bespoke furnishings, and refined craftsmanship that create an elegant dialogue between past and present. The hotel features 93 guestrooms and suites, many overlooking Rome’s rooftops and historic cityscape, offering a calm, residential atmosphere reminiscent of a private Roman palazzo.

Dining is integral to the La Minerva experience, unfolding through atmospheric spaces that celebrate Roman and Mediterranean flavors. Gigi Rigolatto Roma Rooftop Restaurant & Bar crowns the seventh floor, pairing sweeping views of the Pantheon’s dome and the city skyline with classic Mediterranean cuisine and polished cocktails, equally appealing by day or night. At street level, La Minerva Bar serves as an all-day social salon, offering creative drinks, Italian wines, and refined light bites in a relaxed yet elegant setting. With its rooftop garden, fitness facilities, and attentive service, Orient Express La Minerva defines luxury through proportion, location, and rhythm, an urbane retreat attuned to the enduring spirit of Rome.

Orient Express Venezia

Venice  •  Italy
As the morning mist quietly lifts from Venice’s Grand Canal, Orient Express La Minerva Venezia awakens the romance of a gilded age through the lavish legacy of a 15th-century palace. Set in Cannaregio, this historic treasure was once the celebrated Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, and under the careful restoration and renewed vision of internationally renowned architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman, it reclaims the grandeur of the Renaissance with remarkable poise. Guestrooms and suites preserve elaborate frescoes, intricate stucco ornament, and precious mosaic floors, while blending them with the signature vintage travel aesthetic of Orient Express and a more contemporary level of craftsmanship. Open the richly detailed wooden windows, and a world of winding canals and hidden gardens comes into view, turning each stay into something like an aristocratic dream suspended across centuries, where Venice’s purest historical rhythm still seems to move with the water.

Dining and social spaces give the palace hotel a fuller sense of occasion, moving the experience beyond a simple idea of Italian luxury. The hotel’s culinary program is overseen by three-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck, with three distinct venues shaping different moods throughout the day. Heinz Beck Venezia is an intimate fine-dining restaurant for just 20 guests, where tasting menus and à la carte dishes reinterpret Mediterranean cuisine in a lighter, more contemporary way. La Casati, open from lunch through dinner, offers a warmer and more relaxed expression of Venetian flavor, with the atmosphere extending naturally into its garden seating. Meanwhile, Wagon Bar recreates the spirit of an Orient Express carriage through an Art Deco lens, moving from daytime cicchetti and aperitifs to more intimate evening cocktails. What makes Orient Express Venezia so compelling is not only the palace itself, but the way it brings together refined dining, Venetian local character, and the romance of a vintage bar culture into a more complete and theatrical way of inhabiting the city.

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