Spirito Santo Palazzo Storico

Spirito Santo Palazzo Storico

At Spirito Santo Palazzo Storico in Rovinj, the hotel's lounge bar and wine cellar occupy a former water cistern, opening onto an inner garden built around a century-old well, and on cooler days a guest can warm up by the old Istrian open fireplace beside it. This is a seven-room boutique hotel carved from three 1920s townhouses that once belonged to an Italian family, restored so closely to their original form that the work followed Rovinj's conservation requirements, and each room is named after a street in the old town it sits on. It suits a couple who wants the old town's lanes outside the door and Balota, Mulini and Biondi beaches close by, who would rather eat house-made dumplings with lobster and foie gras at the hotel's own restaurant, Sapori, than search for dinner, and who has no need for a kids' club, because the hotel accepts adults only. It does not suit anyone travelling with children, or anyone hoping for a large resort with a pool and a spa; there is no pool here, and with only seven rooms the place runs at the pace of a private house rather than a hotel. The cistern-turned-wine-cellar, with its courtyard well, is not something replicated at other boutique hotels in town; it comes from this building's own history, not a design brief. Staff speak English, German and Italian, bikes and diving can be arranged through the tour desk, and pets travel for a small fee. Ask for a sea-view room, walk down to Balota beach in the evening, and come back to a fire lit in a hotel that used to be someone's private house. A seven-room boutique hotel in three restored 1920s townhouses in old Rovinj, with a wine cellar built into a former water cistern and a courtyard well. Adults only, close to Balota, Mulini and Biondi beaches, with homemade dumplings with lobster and foie gras on the restaurant menu.