Parisian group Experimental has landed in Rome, opening a hotel that trades postcard nostalgia for something more cinematic. The new property sits on the storied Via Veneto, in a building that used to be a bank, and comes with 82 rooms, a rooftop bar, a suspended swimming pool and an interiors concept by French designer Rodolphe Parente.
Parente's brief to himself was clear: don't imitate old Rome. His answer is a French take on Italian grandeur, filtered through references to mid-century masters like Gio Ponti, Carlo Scarpa and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, with a healthy dose of 1970s glamour — chrome tubing, lurex carpets, disco-inspired accents and a sculptural staircase in the lobby. He describes the result as a place holding the same tensions as the city itself: sacred and profane, splendour and decadence.
The hotel splits its rooms into two very different moods. One category leans theatrical: light filtered through interior shutters, dramatic headboards inspired by antique drapery, bold blocks of colour and a romantic intimacy the design team compares to the Villa Medici. The other goes sleek and almost futuristic, with ribbed stainless-steel headboards, two-tone lacquered ceilings, mineral patinas and artworks nodding to Cy Twombly and Christo. Bathrooms are treated as contrasting boxes — warm wood against cool stone, raw materials against bespoke graphic detailing.
Upstairs, the rooftop is the headline act: an expansive bar with views over the city, a swimming pool and a terrace, all wrapped in quilted drapery and exposed beams that pay homage to Italian cinema. It's easy to imagine a long aperitivo hour here stretching well past sunset.
For travellers, this is a fresh reason to revisit a neighbourhood that has seen better decades. The Via Veneto was the backdrop of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and Experimental's branding leans into that legacy without turning the hotel into a museum. It also joins a growing stable that includes Cowley Manor in the English countryside, suggesting the group is serious about building a European design-led collection. If your Roman itinerary is about design hotels, rooftop pools and a lobby you actually want to linger in — rather than ticking off fountains — this one belongs on the list.
