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

Every Italian knows or remembers the image of the balcony on Via delle Botteghe Oscure, in the center of Rome, on that election night of June 21, 1976, when Enrico Berlinguer, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), proclaimed a historic result at the polls: “One in three Italians votes Communist!” Stepping out onto that balcony today — where the charismatic leader’s office once stood — means entering a room numbered 207, seeing a bottle of Valpolicella on the table, and, as you look down, thinking that, with any luck, only one in three people passing by on the street isn’t a tourist. The legendary headquarters of the PCI, which moved out of the building in 2000, has been transformed into the Thompson Rome hotel, a luxurious five-star resort that has just opened its doors. A night in this room costs about €600 ($670).The news has caused a stir in Italy, and understandably so: this is a piece of the republic’s history. The PCI was the largest communist party in the West and this building was a kind of red Vatican. “A lot of people come to see it,” staff at the hotel admit, led by Spanish manager Arturo Reguero, who courteously shows visitors around. It is striking to enter and see a hammer and sickle embedded in the wall on the left. They are part of an artistic work from 1978 by the celebrated sculptor Giò Pomodoro, which also includes a copy of the red flag of the Paris Commune. Historic preservation authorities have required that it be preserved, along with the entrance’s paving featuring a five-pointed star and an imposing bust of Antonio Gramsci visible at the foot of the staircase. But beyond that, it is now unrecognizable to those who used to frequent it. Walter Veltroni, a party leader, spent a day there and said he couldn’t find his way around and left feeling very sad.However, Asian and Arab tourists come and go, indifferent to the site’s significance, although there are some explanatory panels. All the elements have been respectfully and harmoniously integrated into the hotel’s design. Including a safe hidden at the end of a corridor on the third floor, next to room 314. Who knows how many top-secret Kremlin documents it once held. When opened, you think you can hear the whisper of history, but it’s just the air conditioning.The collective memory of this place and this street is also tragic. Just over 100 meters away, the body of Aldo Moro was found in the trunk of a red Renault 4, at a point equidistant from the Christian Democracy headquarters, which is also nearby. It was a message from the Red Brigades, or from whoever was behind it — the CIA, secret services, illegal Freemasonry... who remains unclear: it was meant to tell both parties that seeking agreements and understanding was not a good idea.The hotel’s opening is by no means the first powerful sign of changing times; there have been several. When the DS (Democrats of the Left), successor to the PCI after its dissolution in 1991 and which later became today’s PD, vacated it in 2000, the Italian Banking Association moved into the building and jokes began. The party’s famous bookstore on the ground floor, Rinascita (Rebirth), where successive generations of the left grew up reading, still survived for a time. Carmen Llera, wife and later widow of Alberto Moravia, worked there as a volunteer and was paid in books. But many copies about capitalism’s contradictions would have to be sold to cover the €15,000 ($16,600) a month in rent, and it closed in 2009.The space was rented to a newspaper, then left empty before finally reaching an emblematic end: in 2015 a supermarket opened there, one of those aimed at tourists, selling beer and shampoo. To top it off, the building was bought by an emblematic figure of Italy’s hard right, businessman and millionaire Antonio Angelucci, who became a Lega deputy and holds the record for attending parliament the least.Now, this Hyatt group hotel has managed to turn what was once an austere office block into a very pleasant place, with 69 rooms and 900 wine labels in the restaurant. There is no longer a central committee, but there is an astonishing terrace that will open in spring, offering one of the most impressive views of Rome while enjoying a Negroni. What a treat, comrades — this was a secret that was not in the safe.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition