Though he spent his childhood in the U.S., Germany, and Spain, Marco Cilia was quick to return to his birthplace of Rome for his first job at Deutsche Bank’s investment office for what he thought would be a career in finance. But a year later, he received a call from his father, who needed help running a hotel he owned in Tuscany. “I decided to take him up on the offer with the intention of going back to investment banking,” Cilia says, “but I ended up loving hospitality and never looked back.”
In 2009, at age 27, he moved to London to work alongside Anouska Hempel as GM of the 5-Star Blakes Hotel. “From a design standpoint, she taught me attention to detail and the importance of lighting and using the right materials,” Cilia explains. Yet, he was looking for a new challenge. After three years, he moved to New York to take on the GM role at Grupo Habita’s Hotel Americano, where he stayed for almost five years. Though they shared a similar vision, Cilia felt compelled to return to Rome to deliver to his city what he had experienced internationally. “Italy has so many great hotels, but they don’t have soul—great bones and architecture but poor interior design,” he says.
A vibrant mural behind the bar contrasts the industrial backdrop of Chapter Roma
Venturing out on his own, Cilia developed and opened Chapter Roma in the city’s historic Regola district. He describes it as “the first real lifestyle property in Rome and probably in Italy.” With a design from South Africa-based designer Tristan du Plessis of Studio A, the property features a midcentury Italian aesthetic, which Cilia chose because, at that time, “Rome was truly the world’s capital of cinema, art, design, fashion, and lifestyle in general,” he says. This fall, Cilia is reuniting with Studio A for a new restaurant in Chapter Roma with interiors inspired by 1930s Italian-American restaurants in the U.S. “I always look at history and try to bring back a specific time period,” he says.
Chapter Roma is only the first hotel in the Chapter Hotels Italia portfolio, with another already in the pipeline for 2021 that will continue the brand’s provocative design ethos. “You will never find a Chapter Hotel that is minimal and modern,” he says. “I find that too cold and unwelcoming.”
Midcentury furniture is a counterpoint to the dramatic brick arches in the lobby bar
Photos by Angelo di Pietro and Paola Pansini
This article originally appeared in HD’s July 2020 issue.
