The Eternal City’s latest luxury hotel has sometimes seemed like it was taking an eternity to arrive. The Romeo Roma, opening its doors into the opening days of 2025, was originally slated to debut in 2016, since then a slew of other ultra-luxe offerings have landed amidst the Italian capital’s style-infused streets. No doubt the hotel’s ebullient owner, Neapolitan businessman Alfredo Romeo, would maintain the best is saved until last. With all roads leading to Rome about to become jammed with pilgrims celebrating this year’s catholic jubilee, we’re about to find out.
The property is Romeo’s second, following the launch of Romeo Napoli in 2008, while a third is nearing completion on the Amalfi coast. Sited in the 16th-century Palazzo Capponi just along the Via Ripetta from the majestic Piazza del Popolo, the relatively (for Rome that is) understated entrance belies an abundance of over-the-top design lurking inside.
And there are big names bandied about. Principally, the late Anglo-Iraqi starchitect Zaha Hadid who worked on the property from its 2012 inception until her death in 2016, with studio Zaha Hadid Architects, ZHA, continuing the project. In addition, the world’s most Michelin-starred chef, Alain Ducasse makes his Rome debut, following Romeo Napoli last June, with a third Ducasse eatery planned for the Amalfi property.
Clearly, the Ducasse-Romeo connection sits on firm foundations, as was evidenced by the two men’s huddled tête a tête at the restaurant’s debut dinner, though Romeo readily acknowledges a few bumps in the road on his journey with ZHA.
Stay
The influence of the “queen of the curve”, as Hadid became known, is apparent right from check-in, where golden vaulted walls soaring up into the ceiling, a quarry’s worth of Carrara marble, and curved everything in sight, conjure up the set of a sci-fi movie.
A now-covered courtyard where 18th Century A-listers would have descended from their coaches welcomes guests with Risacca, a wall of water installation from artist Christian Leperino and its colored lights spelling out ‘welcome”, a bright red baby grand piano, polyester ZHA designed furniture, and a sculpted head of Livia Drusilla, wife of Emperor Augustus, excavated during the building work. The shock of the new perhaps, as art historian Robert Hughes famously conceptualized modern art. The Jesuits who published their magazine at the Palazzo right up to the 1950s would certainly have had a shock. Alfredo Romeo is an avid collector and art, mostly Italian, mostly 20th Century, is carefully curated all around.
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At Romeo Roma this amalgamation of avant-garde neo-futurist design with the centuries-old fabric of the palazzo, together with the two newer buildings that comprise the hotel, encompasses 74 rooms and suites. Accommodation interiors are no less radical with wavy walls, custom-made beds, and huge stand-alone TV screens, all crafted out of the principal material prolifically deployed throughout – Makassar ebony. With its striking black and brown grain, the Indonesian hardwood is undeniably beautiful, but also intensely lacquered. Five suites are exquisitely enveloped in restored frescoes, though with its expansive terrace, the Penthouse Suite, perched up amidst the tiled tranquillity of Rome’s rooftops represents a refined eyrie of exclusivity.
Fake fires with a crackling soundtrack, and steam substituting smoke are a recurring motif. Provocative statements of contemporary art à la Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup, or an idea that should have been allowed to burn itself out? The jury’s still out. This shiny sheikh’s palace ostentation can sometimes sit incongruously alongside Hadid projects like the nearby MAXXI, Rome’s Museum of 21st Century Art, for which she earned the 2010 Stirling prize (the UK’s preeminent architecture award). Ultimately, though, while the Romeo Roma is destined, if not deliberately designed, to provoke a plethora of opinion, the wall-to-wall ebony and the art-for-art’s-sake design template, deliver a singularly stunning 21st-century style statement.
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Dine
Breakfast in the company of gastronomic greatness isn’t an everyday occurrence. Alongside me, though, is Chef Ducasse, and he’s busily suggesting dishes from the breakfast menu of his newest restaurant – No. 33 in the global empire. He’s keen for me to try the new eggs carbonara which, of course, like everything else coming over the pass of this very open kitchen, proves devastatingly delicious.
The restaurant at Romeo Roma is supported by its dramatic sequence of shiny sprouting Makassar ebony columns, is like entering some opulent futuristic rainforest hideaway. With its phalanx of chefs busily concocting culinary magic, it’s one of the most impressive elements of the hotel. The combined impact of the two megastars, Ducasse and Hadid, is viscerally felt in a room that will undoubtedly make a dent in the Roman fine dining scene.
Ducasse doesn’t hide his long-held love of Italian cooking. As a Monegasque citizen he’s probably perfectly placed to harmonize French and Italian cuisines, and a Franco-Italian hybrid haute cuisine is precisely the formula here, under the supervision, of young head chef Stéphane Petit.
The previous evening’s inaugural dinner harboured hints of what lies ahead, encompassing exotica such as a bright orange gourd with eremorange (rare citrus), encompassed within the purple spikes of a sea urchin, looking like one of Signor Romeo’s 1970s artworks. Or the excellent tagliolini and tortelloni with white truffle, the lingering memory of which has yet to be fully expunged.
I enquire of the great cuisinier why he’s not eating breakfast himself, to which he explains it’s all to do with a life spent continually tasting and testing the dishes created in his name. The palate needs some downtime, basically. I suppose even the most enviable of lifestyles, all succumb to some sort of toil in the end.
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Relax
The spa at Romeo Roma represents another stand-out feature. Operated by Sisley Paris with its renowned plant-focused, science-supported anti-ageing technology, this is 13,000 sq. ft. of sleek soporific escapism. Incorporating a particularly impressive steam room crafted from krion, a white porcelain-type material, and a futuristic relaxation suite encased in pink salt bricks, there’s also a glass-walled sauna looking out onto the hotel’s inner courtyard.
The swimming pool that straddles the inside and outside spaces, sitting partially above the visible ancient Roman excavations responsible for much of the project’s delays, isn’t huge. It will, though, on those sweltering summer days where the heat weighs heavy like lead, serve as a welcome respite to those who haven’t joined the rest of Rome on its annual exodus to the coast.
The courtyard, peppered with contemporary artworks and tastefully tailored horticulture will no doubt emerge as a fashionable haven of escapism from the congested chaos of the city center. A magnificent stairway crafted from krion hugs its way up a wall to lead onto to a cosy first floor terrace that in turn can only lead to an aperitivo. Up on the top floor of the building, there’s also La Terrazza, a chic rooftop space partnered with Krug that will operate Thursdays through Saturdays.
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Explore
Exploring Rome? How many lifetimes do you have to hand? One might not be enough for a city stuffed to the gills with art, archaeology, history, fashion, and culture. The good news is that so many of the iconic sites from the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps, to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and the Vatican are all within a short, or shortish, walk of the hotel. The bad news is that the third decade of the 21st Century is probably the worst time ever to come and marvel at the sights of Rome. The medieval period when the population dwindled to 30,000 might have been a better bet.
The 35 million visitors anticipated for the 2025 jubilee turns the screws even tighter. At the Trevi Fountain, cordoned-off tourists are now allowed access in small groups, where they toss their coins before being tossed back out themselves into the scrambling over-touristed melee.
None of which precluded what, in fact, emerged as one of my more memorable Roman visits, thanks to the input of the Romeo Roma concierge team and a truly superb brother and sister guiding operation who chaperoned us into some of the more esoteric corners of this endlessly fascinating city. From suddenly disappearing inside a nondescript ’60s office block, down into an incredible subterranean temple dedicated to the cult of Mithras, to facilitating exclusive access to hidden corners of the Foro Romano, this excellent city tour probably underscors how even the scariest-looking over-tourism scenarios can be overcome.
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