# What a treat, comrades: A five-star hotel at the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/what-a-treat-comrades-a-five-star-hotel-at-the-headquarters-of-the-italian-communist-party/
- Published: 2026-11-14T04:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-14T05:22:54+00:00
- Original publisher: El País (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-11-14/what-a-treat-comrades-a-five-star-hotel-at-the-headquarters-of-the-italian-communist-party.html
- Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, Europe, World

## Key points

- Rome’s former Communist Party headquarters is now a five-star hotel.
- A night in Berlinguer’s former office costs about €600.
- Historic symbols remain amid the hotel’s luxury redesign.

## Summary

The former headquarters of Italy’s Communist Party in central Rome has reopened as the five-star Thompson Rome hotel, bringing a politically charged building into the city’s luxury tourism trade. The change has stirred debate because the site was once a landmark of the Western world’s largest communist party and remains part of Italy’s political history.

The PCI left in 2000, and the building later housed the Italian Banking Association, a bookshop, a newspaper and a tourist-focused supermarket. The hotel has preserved historic features including a 1978 hammer-and-sickle artwork, a five-pointed star in the entrance paving and a bust of Antonio Gramsci, while a room occupying former leader Enrico Berlinguer’s office costs about €600 a night. The building is now owned by businessman and right-wing politician Antonio Angelucci.

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.