Ristorante Massimo D'Azeglio

The history of the ancient hotel in Via Cavour in Rome is immediately evident due to the Umbertino-style facade and interiors. Maurizio Bettoja, a Piedmontese wine merchant, bought the ground floor, first floor, and cellars of the building, which had been built just three years earlier, in 1875, where there had previously been a long-established restaurant. 

A few years later, his son, Angelo, saw an opportunity to expand the business, and so in 1878, at the suggestion of his friend Bonaldo Stringher, the family bought the entire building, with the aim of turning it into a hotel. Over the years, it was transformed into an elegant high-end hotel boasting 181 rooms, which can still be enjoyed by fortunate guests today. In the meantime, the restaurant maintained its fame, offering tasty traditional Roman and Piedmontese dishes, in honor of the origins of its founder, made with extremely rare skill. 

But the most fascinating part of the restaurant was underground: the wine cellar, still used and furnished with spartan tables, was – and still is – stocked with a collection of thousands of bottles of fine vintage Italian and French wines, some dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century. During the World War II the hotel was occupied by German troops, and the Bettojas walled off part of the cellar to protect the precious collection, thereby saving thousands of oenological rarities, which were never discovered by the Nazis.

Today, now at the fifth generation, the Bettoja family is an institution in the capital’s hospitality and dining scene. The rooms and lobby of the hotel, as well as the restaurant, maintain their unmistakable Piedmont Barocchetto-inspired style, while still offering all modern comforts, such as complete soundproofing and individual air conditioning.

In the restaurant’s dining rooms you can admire a beautiful art collection, such as nineteenth-century paintings and 78 tiles by the sculptor Alfredo Biagini. Distinguished guests like Pietro Mascagni, General Diaz, the sculptor Mario Rutelli, King Nicola II of Montenegro, Benito Mussolini, Louis Armstrong, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and many others, have sat at these tables to savor the restaurant’s wonderful atmosphere, the skillful culinary art, and the refined hospitality, now perfected thanks to the centuries-old experience the Bettoja family rightly boasts.