The hotel group Experimental has opened Experimental Roma on Via Veneto, the storied Rome street forever tied to Fellini-era glamour. The building, a former bank, now holds 82 rooms, a cocktail bar, a restaurant and a rooftop with a pool and city views. Interior architect Rodolphe Parente describes the concept as a French interpretation of Italy — not a nostalgia act, but a hotel that plays on the city's tensions between sacred and profane, splendour and decadence.

Via Veneto was the natural stage for this. In the 1950s and 60s it was the strip where paparazzi ambushed film stars outside grand hotels, and the design leans into that cinematic aura without turning it into a theme park. Parente name-checks Italian design masters Gio Ponti, Carlo Scarpa and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, then filters their legacy through 1970s touches: chrome tubing, lurex carpets, disco-inspired accents and a sculptural staircase in the lobby.

The rooms come in two distinct flavours. The first draws on theatrical Roman bedrooms — light filtered through interior shutters, dramatic headboards modelled on antique drapery, bold colour blocks and a romantic intimacy Parente compares to the Villa Medici. The second category is sharper and almost futuristic, with mineral patinas, two-tone lacquered ceilings and ribbed stainless-steel headboards that read like sculptures. Artworks throughout nod to Cy Twombly, Christo and the Yvon Lambert Gallery, and the bathrooms are built as contrast boxes of warm wood against cool stone.

Public spaces carry the film theme too: quilted drapery, enveloping banquettes and exposed beams throughout the restaurant and lounge. The Experimental Cocktail Club Roma serves classics and the group's signatures using vintage spirits and local ingredients, while the rooftop bar and terrace sit above the rooftops of the Eternal City.

For travellers, this is a fresh reason to reconsider a street many wrote off as past its prime. If your Rome trips have revolved around Trastevere bars or Monti boutiques, Via Veneto now has a genuine design destination with a serious cocktail programme and a pool — still a rarity in central Rome. It suits design-minded couples and city-breakers who want atmosphere and a rooftop sunset as much as sightseeing, with the Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese and Barberini all within a short walk.