Bulgari Hotel Roma

Bulgari's return to its home city in 2023 carried obvious symbolic weight, and the house met the moment with one of the most lavish hotel conversions Rome has seen. The setting is a 1930s rationalist building on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, directly facing the Mausoleum of Augustus and steps from the Ara Pacis, so two millennia of Roman architecture are visible before breakfast. Inside, the brand's Milanese design partners Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel layered travertine, rare marbles and bronze into interiors that read as a contemporary echo of imperial Rome.

Rooms and suites are tailored rather than theatrical, with saddle-stitched leather, veneered timber and bathrooms in book-matched stone; many look across the piazza to the mausoleum. Jewellery vitrines and archival pieces scattered through the public spaces remind guests whose name is over the door. The subterranean spa is a genuine destination, its mosaic-lined pool modelled on the great Roman baths.

Dining is entrusted to Niko Romito, whose Il Ristorante applies his precise, ingredient-first Italian cooking, supported by a rooftop terrace and an all-day cafe. The location favours the quieter northern reach of the centro storico, with Via del Corso and the Spanish Steps a short walk away. It is an unabashedly expensive hotel, and among the new Roman openings it is the one with the strongest sense of place.