Bulgari Hotel Roma

Entrance of Bulgari Hotel Roma between travertine pilasters and potted cycads, glass doors under the BVLGARI name opening onto a marble-lined vestibule with the ancient statue of Augustus
Location: Rome, ItalyType: HotelYear: 2023Architect: ACPV ArchitectsPhotographer: Francesco Luciani
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Bulgari Hotel Roma by ACPV Architects in Rome

Bulgari Hotel Roma is the conversion of a 1930s Rationalist office block on Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome, facing the Mausoleum of Augustus, into a luxury hotel with 114 rooms and suites, restaurants and bars, a library, a spa with a 20-metre indoor pool and a rooftop garden terrace. The restoration and interiors are by the Milan practice ACPV Architects, led by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, which has designed all of Bulgari’s hotels. The hotel opened on 9 June 2023, bringing the Roman jeweller back to the city where Sotirio Bulgari founded it almost 140 years earlier.

Ground-floor corridor at Bulgari Hotel Roma with grey-veined marble door frames, a patterned stone floor, a large framed historic map of Rome over two marble console tables and a bronze floor lamp

A Rationalist landmark on Piazza Augusto Imperatore

The building forms the northern side of Piazza Augusto Imperatore, which was laid out in the 1930s around the excavated drum of the mausoleum as part of the Fascist regime’s effort to evoke Augustan Rome. It was designed by the architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo as the headquarters of INPS, Italy’s national social security institute, and is clad in brick and travertine above a double-height colonnade, with mosaics, frescoes and bas-reliefs inside and out. ACPV dates its completion to 1935, while Bulgari gives the construction as 1936 to 1938, and the offices were formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi in 1950. Bulgari spent around ten years looking for a site in Rome before acquiring it, and a letter from Morpurgo himself had suggested that the building could one day become a hotel.

Café under the double-height travertine portico of Bulgari Hotel Roma, rows of woven rattan chairs and red-topped tables between tall glass doors, banana plants and palms

Restoring the former INPS headquarters

The adaptive reuse of the 14,000-square-metre building for the owner, Edizione Property, was carried out under the protection of the heritage authorities, with Studio Polis restoring the original works. During the project the team uncovered and restored portals framed in Fior di Pesco marble, curved staircases and mosaics of hand-cut coloured marble, and set them into the new plan, while two new lift cores were inserted and the once inward-looking colonnade on the street was opened up as a café for the public. Inside the entrance vestibule stands a 2,000-year-old marble statue of the emperor Augustus from the Torlonia collection, the first of five statues restored with Bulgari’s support that will take turns on display in the hotel.

Interior of the café at Bulgari Hotel Roma, rust-orange velvet banquettes and planters with palms lining a marble-floored hall that leads to an arch and a glass chandelier

Imperial Rome meets 1930s Rationalism

Citterio and Viel set out to avoid the clichés of Roman style, pairing the rigour of 1930s Rationalism with the decorative richness of early imperial Rome. Floors are laid in opus sectile, mosaics draw on the Baths of Caracalla and the Villa of Livia, and the curved walls of the foyer are lined in Chiampo marble, alongside walls of Venetian crown glass, Murano lighting and Ginori vases by Gio Ponti from the 1930s. The Bulgari Bar has a backlit Murano glass counter under a black marble top, the walnut-lined library takes its shelving from Franco Albini, and under the double-height portico the café spills out among banana plants and palms.

Lounge at Bulgari Hotel Roma with tan leather armchairs and stools around small marble tables on herringbone parquet, framed black and white photographs and a marble-framed bar counter

Marble rooms, Il Ristorante and the roof garden

The rooms and suites are composed in large blocks of colour inspired by imperial marbles, with bathrooms in Sudanese red jasper, olive-green Brazilian quartzite, yellow Iranian marble and white Indian marble, round mirrors that echo the drum of the mausoleum, and mosaic roundels of vintage Bulgari jewels made by Friulian artisans over two years. The 300-square-metre Bulgari Suite on the third floor has ten windows facing the mausoleum and a bathtub carved from a single block of Corchia marble. On the fifth floor, Il Ristorante by the chef Niko Romito seats 54 among mahogany, walnut and marble, and the roof has been turned into a terrace planted as a Roman garden with aromatic species known in antiquity, looking out over the domes of the Campo Marzio and towards Villa Medici.

Roof terrace of Bulgari Hotel Roma at dusk, a cream sofa with patterned cushions among planted beds and lavender, with a baroque church dome rising above the Rome rooftops

A spa of marble columns and gold mosaic

Below ground, the 1,500-square-metre Bulgari Spa is built around a 20-metre pool whose water is crossed by fluted columns of richly veined marble. Its walls are lined in striped marble and gold mosaic, with gold Bisazza mosaic laid in a scale pattern behind the pool and a gilded classical statue standing in an arched niche, while black loungers sit in a gold-tiled alcove beside the water. Like the rest of the hotel, the spa sets ancient Roman bathing culture in a calm, contemporary frame.

Indoor pool of the Bulgari Spa in Rome, fluted grey and white marble columns standing in green mosaic water before a gold scale-patterned mosaic wall and a lit niche

Team and credits

Bulgari Hotel Roma is the ninth hotel in the Bulgari Hotels & Resorts collection and its second in Italy. ACPV Architects was led by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel with Roberto Mariani as senior project director, and worked with Ariatta Ingegneria dei Sistemi on building services, Ai Engineering on structures, Metis Lighting, the landscape studio P’arcnouveau, AcusticaStudio, Kent on kitchen design, Studio Polis on restoration and the general contractor Carron. The project won an Architectural Record Interiors Award in 2023. The photography is by Francesco Luciani, courtesy of Bulgari Hotels & Resorts.

Bulgari Hotel Roma gallery

Entrance of Bulgari Hotel Roma between travertine pilasters and potted cycads, glass doors under the BVLGARI name opening onto a marble-lined vestibule with the ancient statue of AugustusBulgari Hotel Roma in Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo's 1930s brick and travertine building, seen behind the circular ruin of the Mausoleum of Augustus with cypress trees and a planted roof terrace on topGround-floor corridor at Bulgari Hotel Roma with grey-veined marble door frames, a patterned stone floor, a large framed historic map of Rome over two marble console tables and a bronze floor lampBulgari Bar at Bulgari Hotel Roma, a long backlit amber glass counter with a black marble top, tan leather bar stools, a gold dome lamp and walnut-panelled shelves of bottles under a coffered ceilingCafé under the double-height travertine portico of Bulgari Hotel Roma, rows of woven rattan chairs and red-topped tables between tall glass doors, banana plants and palmsStreet entrance to Il Caffè at Bulgari Hotel Roma, glass doors set in a ribbed travertine façade under the BVLGARI Il Caffè sign, flanked by bird of paradise plants in large potsInterior of the café at Bulgari Hotel Roma, rust-orange velvet banquettes and planters with palms lining a marble-floored hall that leads to an arch and a glass chandelierLibrary at Bulgari Hotel Roma with walnut shelving lit in amber, black and white marble-clad piers, tan leather armchairs, a white lounge chair and a tall plant on a herringbone wood floorLounge at Bulgari Hotel Roma with tan leather armchairs and stools around small marble tables on herringbone parquet, framed black and white photographs and a marble-framed bar counterDining room at Bulgari Hotel Roma beyond beige sofas and a woven globe lamp, with walnut-panelled walls, a grey-veined marble wall, orange leather chairs and a curved red velvet banquetteRoof terrace of Bulgari Hotel Roma at dusk, a cream sofa with patterned cushions among planted beds and lavender, with a baroque church dome rising above the Rome rooftopsRooftop garden at Bulgari Hotel Roma around a shallow marble-edged pool with a compass star mosaic, white outdoor sofas and palms, looking towards Villa Medici on the Pincian HillIndoor pool of the Bulgari Spa in Rome, fluted grey and white marble columns standing in green mosaic water before a gold scale-patterned mosaic wall and a lit nicheSide of the Bulgari Spa pool in Rome with a gilded classical statue in an arched golden niche, striped marble walls, black loungers in a gold mosaic alcove and a colourful glass window

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