Six Senses Rome

Courtyard of Six Senses Rome in Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, a curved green marble bar with high leather stools on travertine paving beneath an elliptical rust-red steel ring, with palms and the ochre palazzo walls and windows rising behind
Location: Rome, ItalyType: HotelYear: 2023Architect: Patricia Urquiola + Starching + Paolo MicalizziPhotographer: Luca Rotondo
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Six Senses Rome by Patricia Urquiola, Starching and Paolo Micalizzi in Rome

Six Senses Rome is the conversion of Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, a historic palazzo on Via del Corso in Rome, into a luxury hotel with 96 rooms and suites, a spa modelled on ancient Roman baths and a rooftop terrace. The interiors and overall design are by the Milan studio of Patricia Urquiola, while the architecture was delivered by the Italian engineering and architecture firm Starching with Professor Paolo Micalizzi. The hotel opened on 16 March 2023 as the first urban Six Senses in Italy.

Lobby lounge at Six Senses Rome with two pink leather Soriana armchairs and a round black table on a circular patterned rug, looking through a tall glazed wall to the planted courtyard

Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini

The palazzo stands on Piazza di San Marcello beside the church of San Marcello al Corso, a short walk from the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. It grew from a palace built in the late 1480s for Cardinal Giovanni Michiel, nephew of Pope Paul II, and was remodelled in the 18th century by the architect Tomaso De Marchis, who framed the windows of its main façade with Baroque surrounds for Cardinal Mario Mellini. Over the centuries it was home to the cardinals of San Marcello, among them the Salviati, Cesi and Mellini, before passing to the Aldobrandini family and the Order of the Servants of Mary. Its façade on Via del Corso is protected as part of Rome’s UNESCO-listed historic centre.

View past a thick travertine-clad column wrapped by a curved grey upholstered bench into a lounge with mustard yellow armchairs, small terracotta tables, a large black and white artwork and potted palms

Restoring a listed Roman palazzo

Work began in 2019 for Orion Real Estate Fund V, sponsored by Orion Capital Managers. Starching handled the technical side from acquisition to handover, developing the preliminary, final and executive design on the basis of Studio Urquiola’s scheme, securing permits and managing construction by the general contractor CDS Holding. The team worked within the listing of the building, its archaeology and the legacy of a 1980s scheme by Quaroni and Micalizzi, whose gallery and restaurant spaces were kept. The protected façades were restored, along with the monumental marble staircase and its decorative skylight, the 600-year-old columns of the entrance hall and a fourth-century baptismal font, the oldest in Rome, found in excavations in the early 1900s and now visible beneath a glass floor in the restaurant.

Courtyard of Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini seen beneath a curving rust-red steel ring, the green marble bar and leather stools among potted palms with the pale yellow palazzo façade and its windows above

A lobby, gallery and courtyard built on circles

Urquiola treated the ground floor as a social space open to the city. From Piazza di San Marcello, guests enter an open lobby where sofas and armchairs from her own collections and classic Italian designs, among them Cassina’s Soriana armchairs, are grouped on circular rugs among palms, citrus trees and terracotta amphorae on travertine floors. Circles recur throughout: a curved green marble bar by the windows forms an incomplete ring with matching counters in the courtyard, which follow the elliptical steelwork overhead. A glass-roofed gallery with rust-red steel beams links the lobby to the planted courtyard and to Bivium, the all-day restaurant, café and bar named as the place where all paths cross.

Bivium restaurant-café at Six Senses Rome, a terracotta curved sofa with blue cushions, black armchairs and a teal side table in front of the open kitchen counter, framed by palm fronds

Rooms finished in cocciopesto

The 96 rooms and suites, spread across the central floors in 12 categories including three signature suites, have quirky layouts and a soft neutral palette. Their walls are finished in cocciopesto, an ancient Roman plaster of crushed earthenware or brick mixed with lime and sand, in a nod to Vitruvius, and are paired with timber tambour panelling, travertine, graphic rugs and spherical lights. Some rooms look onto the courtyard, others onto Via del Corso and San Marcello al Corso, and several terraces have Triclinium-style marble seating. Artworks throughout the hotel, from watercolours to textiles and sculpture, were curated by the art advisor Federica Sala and made for the building.

Bedroom at Six Senses Rome with a bed against a ribbed timber headboard wall, a globe pendant and lamp on a fluted bedside table, a graphic black and white rug, travertine floor and long linen curtains

A spa modelled on Roman baths

Below ground, the Six Senses Spa is conceived as a set of Roman baths. A bathing circuit recreates the calidarium, tepidarium and frigidarium, reached through colossal shaped travertine doorways and lined in ribbed travertine, with terrazzo floors flecked with Cipollino Verde marble, mosaic inlays and a one-piece basin in the same green stone. In the tepidarium, bas-relief laurel leaves cut into the travertine walls recall the myth of Apollo and Daphne, and in the waiting areas sheer curtains encircle small groups of seating under curved timber ceilings. At the top of the building, the Notos rooftop bar sits on a 1,000-square-metre terrace with views across the city.

Roman baths in the spa of Six Senses Rome, a travertine-clad passage of arched openings with stepped stone seating on each side leading to a dark niche with a small stone basin

Team and credits

The refurbishment was funded by Orion Real Estate Fund V, the building was later sold to the Statuto Group, and the hotel is operated by Six Senses, part of IHG Hotels & Resorts. Starching acted as architect and project manager with Professor Paolo Micalizzi, and Studio Urquiola led the interior design, with structures by Proges Engineering, building services by Ariatta Ingegneria dei Sistemi, fire safety by GSE and LEED consultancy by Greenwitch. CDS Holding was the general contractor, and Margraf supplied 3,500 square metres of Travertino Romano Classico and 250 of Cipollino Verde. The photography is by Luca Rotondo.

Six Senses Rome gallery

Courtyard of Six Senses Rome in Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, a curved green marble bar with high leather stools on travertine paving beneath an elliptical rust-red steel ring, with palms and the ochre palazzo walls and windows rising behindGlass-roofed lobby gallery at Six Senses Rome, rust-red steel beams above travertine floors, potted citrus trees and terracotta amphorae, round woven rugs and low armchairs leading to a bar at the far endLobby lounge at Six Senses Rome with two pink leather Soriana armchairs and a round black table on a circular patterned rug, looking through a tall glazed wall to the planted courtyardCorner of the Six Senses Rome lobby with a curved pink sofa and low tables on round mosaic-patterned rugs, tall palms, terracotta amphorae and a white stone fragment on the travertine floorView past a thick travertine-clad column wrapped by a curved grey upholstered bench into a lounge with mustard yellow armchairs, small terracotta tables, a large black and white artwork and potted palmsSeating nook at Six Senses Rome with a pair of tan leather armchairs on a round rug against a pale plaster wall with a slim black wall light, framed by palms, a ficus and terracotta urnsCourtyard of Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini seen beneath a curving rust-red steel ring, the green marble bar and leather stools among potted palms with the pale yellow palazzo façade and its windows aboveBar corner at Six Senses Rome with wooden stools around a glass-topped table on a striped black and white marble base, white bar stools at a green marble counter and leafy palms under the skylightBivium restaurant-café at Six Senses Rome, a terracotta curved sofa with blue cushions, black armchairs and a teal side table in front of the open kitchen counter, framed by palm frondsSuite living room at Six Senses Rome with a large grey sectional sofa and dark low tables, a ring chandelier of glass globes, pale cocciopesto plaster walls and a sheer-curtained windowBedroom at Six Senses Rome with a bed against a ribbed timber headboard wall, a globe pendant and lamp on a fluted bedside table, a graphic black and white rug, travertine floor and long linen curtainsReading corner in a Six Senses Rome suite, a tan leather lounge chair and a small round stool on a black and white patterned rug before timber shelves of books and objects with a sculpted classical faceRoman baths in the spa of Six Senses Rome, a travertine-clad passage of arched openings with stepped stone seating on each side leading to a dark niche with a small stone basinRelaxation room in the Six Senses Spa Rome with three upholstered loungers under backlit timber slats, travertine walls carved with leaf reliefs and a glowing purple and amber light artworkSpa corridor at Six Senses Rome under a slatted oak ceiling, with globe wall lights, a curved timber counter, sheer curtains around seating and potted palms on travertine floorsSpa waiting room at Six Senses Rome with two cream bouclé armchairs facing each other between sheer curtains, a timber console beneath a window and a patterned stone floorCircular enclosure of sheer curtains hanging from a curved timber ceiling in the spa at Six Senses Rome, with a terracotta armchair, a paper floor lamp and a low wooden table beyondSpa tea room at the entrance to the Roman baths, a round travertine table with timber stools set in a curved niche of backlit shelves holding ceramic jars, vessels and classical busts

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