Rome is steeped in ancient history, with plenty of grande dame hotels to complement its cultural legacy. But thanks to a recent influx of notable brands, the city’s hospitality scene has acquired a dynamic, contemporary sheen—one that is poised to grow only brighter with the arrival of more stylish properties. In fact, there are 3,139 guestrooms in the city’s total construction pipeline, according to Lodging Econometrics.
Hilton, for example, opened the 76-room Cosmopolita Hotel Roma in the city center as part of its Tapestry Collection, the brand’s first in Italy, this year. Last year, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts added Hotel Maalot into its fold. Designed by local studio RPM Proget, the 30-key property is situated in a central historic building that makes a dramatic first impression with a glass-capped winter garden. Guestrooms, complete with Italian limestone fireplaces, are swathed in hues of deep blue, ochre, or red. The 52-room Tribune Hotel, rebranded as part of the JdV by Hyatt collection, also came on the scene in 2021. Found on the famed Via Veneto, it flaunts brightly colored guestrooms and an expansive rooftop terrace overlooking Villa Borghese. “Rome remains a priority market for us, especially as we assert our expertise in leisure destinations, reinforcing that Hyatt’s brands continue to resonate and cater to leisure travelers,” says Felicity Black-Roberts, vice president of Western European development at Hyatt.
Set for a 2023 opening, the InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace will be restored by Interior Architects
In 2023, IHG Hotels & Resorts is slated to open the 160-room InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace in a neo-Renaissance palazzo originally designed by Carlo Busiri Vici. At turns a retreat for visiting ambassadors and the U.S. embassy library, the heritage building is being revamped by Interior Architects with timeless Italian materials like marble, stone, and wood.
The luxury sector will also make way for a Corinthia hotel on Parliament Square, in the former Central Bank of Italy acquired by developers the Reuben Brothers, as well as Bulgari Hotel Roma. Like all properties in the Bulgari portfolio, the design comes courtesy of Milan-based Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, which will vivify a modernist 1930s building facing the Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus with travertine marble and burnt red brick.
Another highly anticipated debut, the 96-room Patricia Urquiola-designed Six Senses Rome, is scheduled for early 2023. “It is a pleasure to write the next chapter in the story of Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, which Six Senses Rome calls home. As custodians, we are excited to weave our core values of emotional hospitality, sustainability, and wellness into this 15th-century gem,” says Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas CEO Neil Jacobs. “Patricia has given us a fresh and contemporary design in this historic building and has successfully blended the heritage façade and traditional stone and plasterwork with imaginative patterns and graphic elements throughout the hotel and Six Senses Spa, with its reinterpreted Roman baths.”
A rendering of the greenery-filled Six Senses Rome courtyard, slated for an early 2023 debut with a design by Patricia Urquiola
When W Rome opened late last year on hushed Via Liguria, it invigorated the city’s luxury boutique stock. Meyer Davis designed the 162-room hotel and senior associate Zoe Pinfold, director of the Los Angeles studio, points out that it was influenced by Italy’s deep history of fashion and design. “We wanted to bring together the glamorous colors and shapes of 1970s Valentino with Emilio Pucci’s whimsical and irreverent patterns with the refined lines of Carlo Scarpa’s architecture in a way that could only be at home in Italy,” she says. One of her favorite parts is the elevated Welcome lounge. “It sits on two major axes of the hotel, allowing you to see from the entry to the central bar while tucked into a luxurious curved banquette below a gold domed ceiling. It is at once secluded and on display.”
The boutique category has also seen the unveiling of the First Musica in a 1960s concrete building. Part of the Pavilions Hotels & Resorts portfolio, the 24-room property is designed by local practice Studio Marincola Architects and melds travertine and Nino Marquina marble with dark boiserie and brass accents. Another chic layer will be added when the 122-room Nobu Hotel and Restaurant Roma opens in 2023. A collaboration between Carlo Acampora, chairman and CEO of Grand Hotel Via Veneto, and Nobu Hospitality, the design of two unified 19th-century buildings will be handled by Venice, California-based Studio PCH.
Independent hotels are also receiving updates. Take Hotel Locarno, an elegant fixture in the shadow of Piazza del Popolo since 1925. The nearly 100-year-old property is filled with antiques, color, and Art Deco details. But owner Caterina Valente infused new life into it by overhauling the second floor’s four suites with an assist from local architect Fabrizio Ventura, with restoration by Skené Decorazioni. The Serenissima suite, for example, combines soothing bancha green and saffron yellow tones, paving the way to a bathroom covered in green marble, while the romantic Prestige Deluxe Degli Artisti is wrapped in vivid restored fresco murals that maintain a link to the past. “I love the decorative flowers on the walls and mirrors and the 3D plaster corniche in this room,” says Valente.
Fettle Design crafted the California-inspired Beverly restaurant at the Hoxton, Rome
On the lifestyle end of the spectrum, the Parioli neighborhood welcomed the 192-room Hoxton, Rome earlier this year. Ennismore’s in-house team worked with London practice Fettle Design on the public spaces, including the lobby, Beverly restaurant, and coffee and aperitivo bars, incorporating such features as patterned brick walls, timber-clad columns, smoked glass chandeliers, and vintage Italian furniture. “The hotel lobby is like stepping into an old Italian film, inspired by ’70s design and filled with beautiful vintage Italian furniture,” says Ennismore Design Studio associate designer Chris Stringfellow.
In another offbeat neighborhood not far from the Vatican, the 217-room Mama Shelter Roma has been providing a buoyant alternative experience since 2021, one that Benjamin El Doghaili, Mama Shelter’s head of design, describes as a “cheerful and surprising architectural melting pot, halfway between pop culture and classical art.” The goal was to distill the spirit of Rome through the lens of Mama Shelter, he explains, singling out the niches in the lobby shop reminiscent of the Colosseum’s arches, the chandeliers with forms that mimic St. Peter’s Basilica, the tiled Roman-style baths, and the elevator walls decorated with the images of soccer players “who seem to have just come out of the pages of a Panini album.”
Another standout is the ceiling by the artist Beniloys in the pizzeria that nods to palatial frescoes fused with “medallions of the classical age and surrealist motifs,” El Doghaili says. “The different design elements are many, and while they are valuable in their own right, the magic comes out exactly when they are mixed and shine together.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s October 2022 issue.
