You can go behind the scenes of Renaissance-era Rome with a stay in this 16th-century palazzo crammed with frescoes.

Built by one of Italy’s oldest aristocratic families in 1578, and still owned by their descendents, the Costaguti Experience occupies two floors of the Costaguti palace in Rome’s Centro Storico, overlooking Piazza Mattei and the famous Fontana delle Tartarughe.

But visitors might be more occupied with staring at the walls rather than out of the windows, as the Rome apartment has a startling array of well-preserved works of art on display. The living room is ringed with the Zuccari brothers’ Allegories of the Months and the Seasons from 1598, while Nicola Poussin painted the work in the guest bedroom. Caravaggio’s art master, Cavaliere d’Arpino, is responsible for the 1630 ceiling fresco over the billiard table.

Gilt and gold are liberally applied throughout – not least the cornices on the 8m-high ceilings – but the extravagance is cut with modern touches such as white walls, painted steel four poster beds, wi-fi and a free standing sauna in the master bedroom. There is even some modern art dotted about the Rome apartment, just in case anyone tires of Renaissance works.

The Costaguti Experience starts at €990 a night, sleeping up to 14 in five bedrooms. For those with art and antiquity in their sights, it is just round the corner from the Capitoline Museums and the Forum.

The food-minded might be more intrigued by the Rome apartment’s position on the edge of the Jewish quarter and a step across the river from Trastevere, meaning the perfect deep fried artichoke and tonnarelli a cacio e pepe are mere minutes away.

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