An Oscar-winning Director Designed This Roman Resort — Take a Look Inside

The beloved Fontana di Trevi within the coronary heart of Rome’s centro storico, town’s historic middle, lately drew world headlines when town’s tourism councilor introduced plans to start out charging tickets for entry.

Certainly, once I walked by the fountain one sunny afternoon in late summer season, it felt as crowded as a bustling practice station. However then I ducked two blocks away beneath the regal Sixteenth-century stone arch of Palazzo Talìa, the Everlasting Metropolis’s latest and most anticipated five-star boutique lodge. Inside a couple of steps, the vacationer hubbub had dissolved, and I had entered a dreamy enclave of magnificence, historical past, and artwork.

The lodge’s buzz is because of its provocative mixture of previous and new. The fresco-filled palazzo, constructed initially for a fabulously rich papal secretary, has lengthy been famend in Rome as house to the Colegio Nazareno, the oldest educating establishment within the metropolis. Based in 1617 for impoverished boys and orphans with funding from assorted cardinals and nobles, it will definitely shifted to educating the youngsters of the rich earlier than it was closed and left vacant in 1999.

Final Might, it reopened with its spectacular public areas designed by Italian movie director Luca Guadagnino, the auteur behind “Challengers,” the 2023 cinematic hit starring Zendaya, the Oscar-winning “Name Me By Your Title,” the remake of “Suspiria,” and the upcoming “Queer,” based mostly on the William Burroughs cult traditional and starring Daniel Craig. Every of the movies is imbued with a singular visible fashion, so it ought to come as no shock that the director additionally runs a design retailer, Luca Guadagnino Studio, which has created non-public properties and worldwide style shops (together with the Redemption boutique in New York’s SoHo), and he moonlights as an artwork curator.  That is the primary lodge mission by Italy’s (dare one say?) new Renaissance man.

On my go to, the visible feast started within the lobby. I gaped at colourful frescos on the hovering ceilings, a nine-foot chandelier of Venetian glass from the Forties, and plush carpets with daring modern designs. By comparability, the small reception desk was so understated that I nearly missed it fully till the cheerful clerk in a classy scarlet coat gently invited me to test in. Quickly, I used to be being whisked upstairs in one of many two pod-like elevators added to the constructing’s exterior throughout renovation to guard its inside. (They’ve a obscure steampunk air and evoke creations from Jules Verne.)

Rising on the primary ground, I wandered wide-eyed alongside a grand hallway lined with marble busts of historical Roman emperors and generals. Then, I entered probably the most fantastical and grandiose area of all: the Aula Magna, or Nice Corridor. Right here, college students as soon as met underneath the benign gaze of a bust of Pope Clement V and but extra lavish frescos 30 toes above.

Learn on for my full evaluation of this spectacular Roman palazzo:

The Rooms

Though the 25 rooms have attracted much less consideration than the over-the-top public areas designed by Guadagnino’s studio, the customized furnishings by Mia Dwelling Design Gallery and Laura Feroldi Studio are not any much less fashionable. The entry-level Superior Rooms have queen-sized takes on a four-poster mattress utilizing minimalist metallic frames and are crammed with beautiful examples of Italian design, akin to smooth Lavazza espresso machines, olive inexperienced Alessi water kettles, and multi-colored enamel tables.

Domestically baked treats are left on the mattress throughout the turn-down service, and even the pink in-room eating menu seems to be prefer it ought to be in an artwork gallery. The extra spacious suites graduate to king-size beds and luxurious baths surrounded by boldly colourful tiles. However to reside within the true style of a Renaissance prince — or decadent Pope — lease the Talìa Suite: It is extra of an condominium advanced, together with two common suites and personal use of the huge Aula Magna, the Nice Corridor, with its personal choir balcony. Charges vary from roughly $1,100 to $15,000.

Meals and Drink

The close by eating places on this closely visited a part of Rome are undistinguished, to say the least (there’s even a McDonald’s on the nook). Fortunately, the Palazzo Talìa has all the pieces a gourmand would possibly want earlier than exploring additional afield. As is the Italian customized, breakfast is included within the charge, starting from the Roman staple of cappuccino and candy cornetto to contemporary fruit and avocado toast or your complete worldwide panoply of eggs, sausage, and bacon. (Tables are arrange within the leafy courtyard in wonderful climate.)

Overseen by Govt Chef Marco Coppola, Tramae restaurant, with luxurious banquettes and chic chairs by Fratelli Levaggi, gives artistic takes on conventional dishes from Rome, Venice, and the chef’s native metropolis of Sorrento, together with baked ham tagliolini au gratin and creamy courgette spaghetti alla Nerano (with fried zucchini and pecorino, a favourite of Stanley Tucci). All dishes use substances sourced within the close by Roman countryside, whereas the wine checklist was hand-selected by the lodge proprietor, Elia Federici, chairman of the hospitality consortium Gruppo Fresia.

With its lava stone tables and Murano mirrors, the Bar Della Musa, Muse’s Bar, stands out as the most beguiling area in your complete palazzo, the place you’ll be able to sip cocktails named after the art-inspiration muses: Erato (“she who provokes want”), Polyhymnia (“she who has many hymns”) and Calliope (“she who has a wonderful voice”).

The Spa

Thermae, or bathhouses, had been famously palatial options of Imperial Rome. Right here, the grand portals to the spa are flanked by two wonderful classical marble statues, one in every of an unnamed noblewoman and the opposite of Julius Caesar.

Stairs curl right down to the power, which features a small, seductively lit heated pool lined with handmade metal-patina tiles, hooked up steam and funky rooms, and the complete vary of wellness remedies within the vaulted underground chambers. A tiny however serviceable fitness center can be hooked up.

Accessibility

Aside from a couple of steps up from road degree to the lobby, the expansive palazzo will be simply explored utilizing the 2 exterior elevators.

Location

Rome is likely one of the world’s nice strolling cities, and renting a automotive is pointless and a traumatic legal responsibility. (Even when you handle to park it, driving via the maze of one-way streets with impatient Roman drivers may take years off your life). Ubers are straightforward to summon, as are taxis by way of the European app Freenow.

The place to stroll? Rome is so dense with layers of historical past that it’s inconceivable to decide on, however aside from the close by classics — the traditional Pantheon, Renaissance Villa Medici, the Romantic period’s Keats-Shelley Home Museum — name in at extra trendy and eccentric artwork websites because the Giorgio de Chirico Home Museum, the place the good Surrealist artist lived from the Forties to his dying in 1978. For a hand-tailored stroll, enroll with Roma Expertise run by archaeologist and artwork historian Elisa Valeria Bove, who may also take you on, say, a wine-tasting go to to a Roman prince’s non-public property on the traditional Appian Means — a suitably civilized tour from any Renaissance palazzo.

Methods to Get the Most Out of Your Keep

The Palazzo is a member of Small Luxurious Resorts of the World; members of their loyalty membership can get pleasure from perks akin to late check-out, room upgrades, and particular charges. Considerably unexpectedly, the lavish Bar della Musa additionally has a nightly glad hour, with three oysters and a cocktail or glass of Champagne for 25 euros.