PALAZZO VILÒN ROME

This opulent three-bedroom apartment inside a 16th-century palace is a beautifully restored Baroque gem.

- Steve King

What does it mean to say that "Baroque" style is back in fashion, or that something or other a building, a statue, a poem, a handbag-is "Baroque"? It's a tricky one to pin down. Art historians generally agree that the Baroque period began at the turn of the 17th century and ended 150 or so years later, but they still quibble about its exact characteristics. Roughly, it was a vivid, flouncy style that encompassed art, literature, music, and architecture.

It was adopted in different ways across not only most of Western Europe but also parts of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. The keynote is rampant decorative opulence. Baroque is busy, zesty, sensuous, thick with classical motifs, overgrown with florals, encrusted with gold. Swirls gone wild. Gilty as sin. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's astonishing Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is a Baroque masterpiece, but so are Frans Snyders's spooky still lifes and animal paintings. The Trevi Fountain is Baroque, so is St Paul's Cathedral and the Old Summer Palace in Beijing.

Most of us, most of the time, only get a full blast of the Baroque in short doses during visits to palaces, churches, or museums. It's not often we get the chance to curl up with it at night and wake up alongside it in the morning. Now we can. Palazzo Vilòn is a textbook case of Roman Baroque splendour that has been superbly and thoughtfully restored, redecorated and repurposed, and made available for a not inconsiderable fee admittedly to the likes of you and me.