How times have changed in East Berlin since the wall came down. Statues of Lenin have been hoisted off their plinths, grey government-run shops have been replaced by designer boutiques — and the former East German Central Bank has become one of the city's most exclusive hotels.
Since opening in 2006, the Hotel De Rome has become one of Berlin's most hyped places to stay, inviting well-known guests such as Matt Damon, Karl Lagerfeld, and Rihanna. It's easy to see the attraction. Housed in a palatial late-19th century edifice, the hotel has a superbly central but surprisingly calm setting, sandwiched between the city's main opera house, its Catholic cathedral and the splendid 18th-century Humboldt University library.
Once inside, the place is both lavish and discreet — the old bank's columns and pilasters are complimented with vast baroque flower arrangements, while the lobby's layout mean you can quickly slip in and out without running the usual five-star gauntlet of over-eager staff. High ceilings and a network of courtyards let in plenty of light, corridors are plainly decorated and the hefty room doors are designed to resemble those of bank vaults.
Beyond these doors, the rooms themselves are comfortable and handsome, equipped with full-size Phillips screens and DVD players and iPod docking stations. While several lavish historical suites have kept the wood-panelled interiors of the former bank directors' offices, the other rooms offer an attractive, modernised version of grand hotel luxe. Mosaic-tiled bathrooms are large, well thought out and handsome, but not equipped with the standard deluge of toiletries, while the rooms strike you with their spaciousness rather than their abundance of furniture.
Down in the basement, the old jewellery vault has been put to excellent use as a spa, offering beauty treatments, a 20-metre swimming pool, a sauna and steam room and a gym.
Compared to many of Berlin's five-star hotels (of which the city now boasts more than New York), the Hotel De Rome is an understated sort of a place, with a calm to it more suggestive of a boutique hotel than such a large operation. A self-confident, tasteful sort of hotel, its opulent restraint proves that the newly revamped old centre of East Berlin has finally come back into its own.
Hotel de Rome, Behrensstrasse, 37, 10117 Mitte, Berlin, Germany; (+ 49 30 460 6090; hotelderome.com). Room rates from £206, per room, per night.
