A Renaissance palace grafted onto the top of an ancient Roman theatre is up for sale in Rome for €32 million ($42 million).

Its asking price is thought to make it the most expensive property currently on sale in the Italian capital, and one of the most expensive in Europe.

The 11,000 sq ft property has frescoed staterooms, a ballroom, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a library, a dining room, a terrace, a separate penthouse and cellars.

Queen Elizabeth II has given her approval to rent out state apartments at St. James’s Palace as party venues during the 2012 London Olympics.

Companies with long-standing ties to the royal family that hold royal warrants can now have a chance to throw a bash in the royal palace.

The palace is in a prime spot for a number of the Olympic events which will take place in London next year, including beach volleyball, which will be held in nearby Horse Guards Parade, and the marathon, which will start and finish in The Mall.

Paris’s Hotel Ritz, famed for generations as the city’s highest-profile luxury hotel will close for two years from next summer for an “unprecedented” renovation.

The move comes after the five-star hotel in central Paris failed earlier this year to win France’s coveted palace designation marking a top luxury destination.

Once the hotel of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, the hotel has not had a major refit since 1979.

The Mandarin Oriental opened its doors in Paris on Tuesday, becoming the third top-end Asian hotel brand in less than a year to put out its shingle and woo rich visitors to the French capital.

Newly built behind a 1930s facade, the eight-story property on fashionable Rue Saint Honore boasts 99 rooms and 39 suites going for an average of 950 euros a night.

“We absolutely wanted to be in the best arrondissement, the best location for leisure travellers,” said Christoph Mares, director of operations for Europe.

The French government announced the eight recipients of its new ‘palace’ hotel rating May 5, dealing a blow to some of Paris’s most famous hotels.

The ‘palace’ rating is an official designation above five stars awarded by the French tourism authorities — it’s designed to help travelers identify the cream of the country’s many swanky hotels.

A total of four Paris properties were given the award — the Bristol, the Meurice, the Park Hyatt and the Plaza Athenee.

RuLeaks, a Russian WikiLeaks type site has posted photos of a lavish mansion alleged to be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s estate on the Black Sea.

The existence of the “Putin palace” on the Black Sea was discussed by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius in an article last year.

According to Russian whistleblower Sergey Kolesnikov, the still under-construction digs cost more than $1 billion, include an amphitheater and three helipads