Orient Express La Minerva Orient Express La Minerva was just named to T+L's 2026 It List , celebrating the best new hotels around the world. The splendid La Minerva Bar is impeccably decorated, with a statue of the titular goddess, linen-upholstered sofa clusters, and fiddleleaf figs stretching toward the restored glass ceiling. The central location—right around the corner from the Pantheon, yet tucked into a piazza that feels somewhat sheltered from the tourist crowds—offers the best of both worlds. The references that connect the hotel to its Orient Express heritage, like the luggage-inspired leather straps on the guest room sofas, add even more character and authenticity to the guest experience. “An American Pope!” the ivory-jacketed bartender exclaimed, clearly excited on my behalf: an American sipping an Americano at his bar, La Minerva, in the lobby of the Roman hotel of the same name. I’d missed the white smoke at Saint Peter’s Square by 90 minutes.…