Bulgari Hotel Roma: the jeweller's hometown hotel, from the published record

Bulgari Hotel Roma opened on 9 June 2023 at Piazza Augusto Imperatore 10, in Rome's Campo Marzio district, facing the Mausoleum of Augustus. It is the ninth property of Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, following the April 2023 opening of Bulgari Hotel Tokyo and nearly two decades after the first Bulgari hotel in Milan in 2004. Rome is Bulgari's hometown, and the launch, a ribbon-cutting attended by the brand's ambassadors, framed the hotel as a homecoming.

The building

The hotel occupies a 1930s rationalist palazzo attributed to architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, on the square named for Emperor Augustus. Milan-based ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, the practice behind the signature look of the Bulgari hotels, handled the architectural restoration and the interiors. The 114 rooms, including 48 suites across seven categories, are decorated in four color palettes (white, yellow, red and green), each room facing either the Piazza Augusto Imperatore or the narrow Via della Frezza behind it.

The Bulgari Suite

The signature suite is the 300-square-metre Bulgari Suite on the second floor, with a view of the Mausoleum of Augustus directly opposite. It holds a master bedroom with walk-in closet, a living space and a private dining room, furnished with pieces from Antonio Citterio's Flexform and Maxalto collections and custom tapestries by the Venetian textile maker Rubelli. One detail from the launch reporting: the suite's white marble bathtub is so large it had to be craned in before the windows were installed. The suite can be combined with the adjacent suites.

Dining, by Niko Romito

All of the hotel's signature dining is curated by Niko Romito, the chef whose Reale restaurant in Abruzzo holds three Michelin stars and who has led the culinary program for Bulgari Hotels & Resorts since 2017. The fact sheet lists five venues: Il Ristorante, Niko Romito (54 seats); the Bulgari Bar (up to 141 guests across terrace and bar); Il Caffe (136 seats, indoor and outdoor); Bulgari Dolci, the brand's first Italian chocolatier and patisserie; and La Terrazza, the seventh-floor rooftop with views across the city.

The spa

The Bulgari Spa sits at the heart of the property: eight treatment rooms, the Workshop Gymnasium, and the long pool pictured above, ringed with marble columns and patterned mosaic. The hotel's general manager is Vincenzo Falcone, who also oversees the packing-and-unpacking service, personal trainer and personal shopper listed in the hotel's service notes.

Three years on from the opening, the property remains the collection's Roman statement: imperial Rome outside the windows, contemporary Italian craft inside them. Whether it earns a place on a Rome itinerary is a matter of taste and calendar; the record above is what is knowable without checking in.

Photography courtesy of Bulgari Hotels & Resorts