The Bulgari Hotel Rome opens with a VIP party, from Zendaya to Priyanka Chopra among the celebs

Like a casket full of precious jewels, the Bulgari Hotel Rome. The excellence in hospitality culminates – just to get an idea – in an iconic 300 square meter suite overlooking the center of Rome. It is the twelfth in the chain (there is also one in Milan), but the most powerful from a symbolic point of view, in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, the historical figure who brought Ancient Rome into the future.

Vanity Fair did a private tour with project director Roberto Mariani to see what is hidden in this place of wonders after the inauguration of a thousand and one nights (with DJs and colored drones). Just think that Zendaya and Priyanka Chopra, brand ambassadors, they cut the opening ribbon surrounded by a rain of local stars. All the Italian icons were there – all aspiring to the place that once belonged to Anna Magnani and Monica Vitti, but with a long way still to go – including Miriam Leone, Vittoria Puccini, Sarah Felberbaum, Matilde Gioli and Anna Foglietta. Sublime, as always, Adèle Exarchopoulos, fresh from the glories of Cannes Film Festival.

The beauty of this hotel, however, is not just for the customers. Just like the Domus in via Condotti, it exists an area that can be visited by appointment and is the library that contains all volumes on the city, set in the 1956 Albini for Cassina bookcases, with a walnut floor and Rubelli curtains in golden silk that depict the geometric floor of the Pantheon. Beyond the bar and restaurant – with private lounges – which obviously welcome visitors with meticulous craftsmanship, inspired by the Bella Epoque, with French tables based on 1925 designs and wall mirrors that reflect the columns of the Mausoleum of Augustus.

The building, owned by the Benetton real estate holding company, underwent almost three years of restoration by Bulgari, who brought it back to the splendor of 1934, when it was one of the three that formed the corolla of the place, with clear references to the Roman arcades. Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, is known to have created three architectural jewels to consolidate its power: the Mausoleum, in fact, but also the Ara Pacis and the Pantheon. He’s the one who said he found a brick Rome and left it in marble. And not just any, but coming from all the provinces, a symbol of welcome and unity in diversity. That’s why rooms and suites are embellished with one of the four specially made Italian marbles.

A holiday in this hotel is an experience, a tribute to the beauty of the past which is slowly being rediscovered by great artists and craftsmen. As of today it is fully booked (from six months) because the wait has paid off. And to culminate this cheeky hymn to luxury, with spa, swimming pool, gym and so on, it ends with a garden on the roofs with a floor that recalls the roofs of Rome because it was recreated with the same local clay quarries and set in a spicatum . Even the street grills are branded because the hotel has re-evaluated the area and by Christmas it is expected to be able to admire the Mausoleum in its former glory. For now, all we have to do is delight in the high jewelery works displayed in the corridors, the portraits of the divas of the Dolce Vita and the priceless details that every corner encloses.

Also ideal for an aperitif or dinner with a view. And what a view!

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