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

The beloved Fontana di Trevi in the heart of Rome’s centro storico, the city’s historic center, recently drew world headlines when the city’s tourism councilor announced plans to start charging tickets for access.

Indeed, when I walked by the fountain one sunny afternoon in late summer, it felt as crowded as a bustling train station. But then I ducked two blocks away beneath the regal 16th-century stone arch of Palazzo Talìa, the Eternal City’s newest and most anticipated five-star boutique hotel. Within a few steps, the tourist hubbub had dissolved, and I had entered a dreamy enclave of beauty, history, and art.

The hotel’s buzz is due to its provocative mix of old and new. The fresco-filled palazzo, built initially for a fabulously wealthy papal secretary, has long been renowned in Rome as home to the Colegio Nazareno, the oldest teaching institution in the city. Founded in 1617 for impoverished boys and orphans with funding from assorted cardinals and nobles, it eventually shifted to educating the children of the wealthy before it was closed and left vacant in 1999.

Last May, it reopened with its spectacular public spaces designed by Italian film director Luca Guadagnino, the auteur behind “Challengers,” the 2023 cinematic hit starring Zendaya, the Oscar-winning “Call Me By Your Name,” the remake of “Suspiria,” and the upcoming “Queer,” based on the William Burroughs cult classic and starring Daniel Craig. Each of the films is imbued with a unique visual style, so it should come as no surprise that the director also runs a design store, Luca Guadagnino Studio, which has created private homes and international fashion stores (including the Redemption boutique in New York’s SoHo), and he moonlights as an art curator.  This is the first hotel project by Italy’s (dare one say?) new Renaissance man.

On my visit, the visual feast began in the foyer. I gaped at colorful frescos on the soaring ceilings, a nine-foot chandelier of Venetian glass from the 1940s, and plush carpets with bold contemporary designs. By comparison, the small reception desk was so understated that I almost missed it entirely until the cheerful clerk in a chic scarlet coat gently invited me to check in. Soon, I was being whisked upstairs in one of the two pod-like elevators added to the building’s exterior during renovation to protect its interior. (They have a vague steampunk air and evoke creations from Jules Verne.)

Emerging on the first floor, I wandered wide-eyed along a grand hallway lined with marble busts of ancient Roman emperors and generals. Then, I entered the most fantastical and grandiose space of all: the Aula Magna, or Great Hall. Here, students once met under the benign gaze of a bust of Pope Clement V and yet more lavish frescos 30 feet above.

Read on for my full review of this spectacular Roman palazzo:

The Rooms

Although the 25 rooms have attracted less attention than the over-the-top public spaces designed by Guadagnino’s studio, the custom furnishings by Mia Home Design Gallery and Laura Feroldi Studio are no less stylish. The entry-level Superior Rooms have queen-sized takes on a four-poster bed using minimalist metal frames and are filled with exquisite examples of Italian design, such as sleek Lavazza espresso machines, olive green Alessi water kettles, and multi-colored enamel tables.

Locally baked treats are left on the bed during the turn-down service, and even the pink in-room dining menu looks like it should be in an art gallery. The more spacious suites graduate to king-size beds and sumptuous baths surrounded by boldly colorful tiles. But to live in the true fashion of a Renaissance prince — or decadent Pope — rent the Talìa Suite: It’s more of an apartment complex, including two regular suites and private use of the vast Aula Magna, the Great Hall, with its own choir balcony. Rates range from roughly $1,100 to $15,000.

Food and Drink

The nearby restaurants in this heavily visited part of Rome are undistinguished, to say the least (there is even a McDonald’s on the corner). Luckily, the Palazzo Talìa has everything a gourmand might need before exploring further afield. As is the Italian custom, breakfast is included in the rate, ranging from the Roman staple of cappuccino and sweet cornetto to fresh fruit and avocado toast or the entire international panoply of eggs, sausage, and bacon. (Tables are set up in the leafy courtyard in fine weather.)

Overseen by Executive Chef Marco Coppola, Tramae restaurant, with sumptuous banquettes and elegant chairs by Fratelli Levaggi, offers creative takes on traditional dishes from Rome, Venice, and the chef’s native city of Sorrento, including baked ham tagliolini au gratin and creamy courgette spaghetti alla Nerano (with fried zucchini and pecorino, a favorite of Stanley Tucci). All dishes use ingredients sourced in the nearby Roman countryside, while the wine list was hand-selected by the hotel owner, Elia Federici, chairman of the hospitality consortium Gruppo Fresia.

With its lava stone tables and Murano mirrors, the Bar Della Musa, Muse’s Bar, may be the most beguiling space in the entire palazzo, where you can sip cocktails named after the art-inspiration muses: Erato (“she who provokes desire”), Polyhymnia (“she who has many hymns”) and Calliope (“she who has a beautiful voice”).

The Spa

Thermae, or bathhouses, were famously palatial features of Imperial Rome. Here, the grand portals to the spa are flanked by two fine classical marble statues, one of an unnamed noblewoman and the other of Julius Caesar.

Stairs curl down to the facility, which includes a small, seductively lit heated pool lined with handmade metal-patina tiles, attached steam and cool rooms, and the full range of wellness treatments in the vaulted underground chambers. A tiny but serviceable gym is also attached.

Accessibility

Apart from a few steps up from street level to the foyer, the expansive palazzo can be easily explored using the two exterior elevators.

Location

Rome is one of the world’s great walking cities, and renting a car is unnecessary and a stressful liability. (Even if you manage to park it, driving through the maze of one-way streets with impatient Roman drivers could take years off your life). Ubers are easy to summon, as are taxis via the European app Freenow.

Where to walk? Rome is so dense with layers of history that it is impossible to choose, but apart from the nearby classics — the ancient Pantheon, Renaissance Villa Medici, the Romantic era’s Keats-Shelley House Museum — call in at more modern and eccentric art sites as the Giorgio de Chirico House Museum, where the great Surrealist artist lived from the 1940s to his death in 1978. For a hand-tailored stroll, sign up with Roma Experience run by archaeologist and art historian Elisa Valeria Bove, who can also take you on, say, a wine-tasting visit to a Roman prince’s private estate on the ancient Appian Way — a suitably civilized excursion from any Renaissance palazzo.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Stay

The Palazzo is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World; members of their loyalty club can enjoy perks such as late check-out, room upgrades, and special rates. Somewhat unexpectedly, the lavish Bar della Musa also has a nightly happy hour, with three oysters and a cocktail or glass of Champagne for 25 euros.