The luxury stays behind Rome’s hotel renaissance

At last the Eternal City is enjoying a golden era of accommodation, says Steven King, Cleopatra lovers Burton and Taylor would approve

The Roman Empire, famously, declined and fell. In more recent times the Roman hotel scene declined pretty drastically and, though it didn’t quite fall, certainly fell behind that of Europe’s other great capitals. The reasons for its decline had nothing to do with mad emperors, moral dissipation or marauding barbarian hordes. Just cumbersome planning regulations that effectively made opening a new hotel with more than 30 rooms in the historic centre impossible. Other Italian cities with less of that kind of unhelpful red tape flourished – look at Milan.

However, pretty much the moment those Roman regulations were relaxed, the situation began to change molto velocemente. The resurgence has been spectacular – and isn’t over yet.

The W opened on Via Liguria in December 2021 in an explosion of colour, kooky ancient-and-modern stylistic juxtapositions and luxuriant foliage both inside and out – a maximalist rebuke in three dimensions to the spoilsport microbes that had both delayed the hotel’s opening and dampened the world’s spirits.

The W was followed in April 2023 by the Six Senses Rome, a subtler, though no less uplifting affair, light and airy, with a central staircase as broad and pale as the white sandy beaches with which the brand is associated elsewhere in the world. The building has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis over the past 300 years, from palazzo to cinema to bank to today’s textured, creamy-toned, Patricia Urqiuola-designed oasis of calm- and wellness-centric serenity.

Sustainability is a Six Senses fixation and the Rome property is an interesting case study in that respect. Commendably, this concern is expressed not only through eco-friendly materials and practices but also through the hotel’s willingness to reach out and engage with the local community, as it has done, for example, with its next-door neighbour, the church of San Marcello al Corso. During the course of its own restoration, the hotel provided financial assistance for much-needed work on the church’s exterior. It has had a transformative effect on this once slightly grimy stretch of Via del Corso near Piazza Venetia. Locals who had passed by the church on their way to and from work for decades without giving it so much as a glance now stop and gaze in admiration at its freshly scrubbed facade.

But of all the city’s newly opened hotels the one that best – and almost literally – embodies the idea of a new golden age in Roman hospitality is the Bulgari Hotel Roma, on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, which opened in June.

According to Richard Burton, the only Italian word Elizabeth Taylor knew was “Bulgari”. They met and fell head over heels in love on the set of Cleopatra at Cinecittà in 1962, with Taylor, of course, in the title role and Burton as Marc Antony. It was also at that time that Taylor fell head over heels in love with Bulgari. Thereafter she and Burton pretty much took up residence in the great jewellery brand’s store on Via Condotti whenever they were in town.

I wished they could have been there for the opening of the new hotel. Not so much for the extra glamour they would have brought to the occasion as for the chance to see how things played out when they squared up to Caesar Augustus, who was conspicuously present – more or less the guest of honour – in sculptural form, in full imperial fig, in the hotel’s main entrance. You will recall the way it all worked out between Augustus, Marc Antony and Cleopatra. (Extremely well for Augustus; less well for the lovers.) Burton, I reckon, would merely have shouted articulate, resonant, unrepeatable abuse at the statue. Taylor would have fixed him with those immortal violet eyes, then knocked his block off.

This particular opening was an especially big deal for Bulgari. Rome is its ninth hotel but only their second in Italy (the first was Milan in 2004). Getting it right in its hometown was always going to be crucial. Bulgari is a quintessentially Roman brand and occupies a unique position in Roman hearts, rather as Tiffany does in those of New Yorkers. Its high jewellery is as high as jewellery gets, out of the reach of anyone who is not a Burton, a Taylor, or an actual Cleopatra. Yet in Rome everyone knows someone who has a treasured piece, however small.

The hotel manages to give an impression of great opulence executed with great restraint. There are vast quantities of marble sourced from four continents; forests of glossy walnut panelling and acres of Marmorino plaster; original ceramics by Gio Ponti for Richard Ginori, at once fine and exuberant; hand-cut Venetian terrazzo as luminous as the hand-blown crown-glass chandeliers; authentic opus spicatum paving on the staggering roof terrace.

In the signature Bulgari Suite, there’s an Agapecasa dining table by Angelo Mangiarotti that floats like a massive Hawaiian surfboard carved in stone; a bathtub as big as a tugboat fashioned from a single block of arabesque Corchia marble so hefty it had to be hoisted in by crane before the windows were sealed; bespoke golden Rubelli silk wallpaper in the same motif as a vintage Bulgari powder compact; bedside lamps mounted on sterlingsilver candlestick holders.

In short, it’s an eloquent love letter to 1930s Roman style and a proud showcase of Italian craftsmanship. It’s also a carefully calibrated expression of almost-ostentation, a kind of outrageous understatement. Nothing gets out of hand, quite. Credit for striking this fine balance must go to Antonio Citterio and Patricia Veil, whose firm ACPV Architects has designed all of the Bulgari hotels. I wonder how much credit should also go to Silvio Ursini, Bulgari’s executive vice-president and grand panjandrum of hotels, a man clearly obsessed by detail, nuance and inflection. When I asked him what sort of message he hoped the hotel would convey, he screwed up his eyes and thought for a moment and said: “I want it to celebrate Romanity and defeat stereotypes with magnificence and warmth.”

Mission accomplished. Elizabeth and Richard – you should get a room.

g Hot seats: the Bulgari is a love letter to 1930s Roman style – the Burtons would have approved

j Balancing act: the bar area is thoroughly modern, yet understated