The building came first. A 1940s Italian rationalist bank designed by engineer Cesare Pascoletti and architect Marcello Piacentini — built to project the kind of permanence that banks once needed to project and hotels rarely achieve. Ian Schrager looked at it, a few steps from Via Veneto, and saw exactly what it should become. He opened the Rome Edition here in July 2023 and the building vindicates the decision entirely.
The staff knew our names before we said them. This is not magic. It is the result of briefings that most Edition properties skip. Rome does not skip them.
Arrival is through a garden. Not a lobby — a garden first, designed as a kind of piazza, with 400 plants and cascading jasmine over the facade, a bronze pergola overhead, white furniture below. The outdoor restaurant operates in this space. It is the most Roman entrance of any hotel in the city, which is saying something in a city that understands arrivals. The lobby that follows has seven-metre ceilings, the original cipollino marble staircase sourced from Apuan caves, original statues and lamps preserved exactly where Pascoletti and Piacentini intended them. Schrager and his collaborators — Patricia Urquiola on design, Roman firm 3c+t Capolei Cavalli on architecture — did not pretend the building was something other than what it is. They worked with it. The result is an Edition property that feels specific to Rome rather than transplanted from a brand catalogue.
91 rooms, including 17 suites. The guestrooms are designed with what Edition calls a pronounced Italian flair — Canaletto walnut wood beds, Peperino stone, Italian artwork. The rooftop is the reason to go once. The Punch Room bar is the Edition standard. The Jade Bar is something new — a mixology destination built into an intimate jewel-box space with floor-to-ceiling antique marble. Food is by Paola Colucci, the self-taught founder of Rome's Pianostrada. The restaurant Anima does her version of spaghetti with roasted tomatoes and veal with tuna sauce, alongside a wine list that understands the region.
What makes this a VV Pick rather than simply a good Edition is the staff. The concierge team knew our names before we said them. This is not a small thing. Most hotels at this price point brief their front desk on arrivals. Not all Edition properties do this consistently. Rome does. The gap between a hotel that does and a hotel that does not is wider than any design decision either can make. The rooftop and pool are worth your evening. Eat outside the hotel for dinner — the food scene within walking distance of Via Veneto would humble any hotel kitchen. But come back for a drink on the roof before you sleep.