The lobby of Palazzo Talia, designed by Studio Luca Guadagnino
Giulio Ghirardi
Palazzo Talìa is “the best of Italy,” says food and beverage manager Angelica Federici. She’s referring to the aesthetics and the pedigree of her family’s new hotel near Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. The design is a collaboration among leading Italian architecture and design firms—one of which is Studio Luca Guadagnino, led by the film director (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers)—and the 16th-century building has a long history as part of the fabric of the city.
Now the hotel is owned and managed by the Federici family of real estate developers, with Angelica’s father, Elia, as the CEO and her brother, Fortunato, as the general manager. But it’s had many lives: a residence for noble families, a Nazarene college, a sentinel of resilience that resisted Napoleonic invasions and endured the dark days of Nazi rule.
Until the early 2000s, it was one of the most prestigious schools in Europe—and one that many Romans passed through, says Angelica. Since the hotel opened a few months ago, after a three-year renovation, many of them have stopped by to see their old school in a new way. “They’re always very happy and impressed.”
A guest room at Palazzo Talìa
Giulio Ghirardi
Maybe some of that is just because no one is forcing anyone else to study philosophy here anymore. Instead, the polished staff is welcoming visitors to the city and a “home away from home,” to cite an idea that’s not exactly novel in 21st-century hospitality. But what the concept lacks in originality, the owners make up in detailed execution.
It’s Guadagnino’s first hotel, and his sense of visual storytelling is apparent. His design team was guided by chromatism—a commitment to a particular color palette, in this case a soft green and a warm burgundy—and close collaboration with artisans. Elia Federici says he admires the director’s “keen aesthetic sensibility,” “absolute modernity” and “quintessential Sicilian tenacity in crafting bespoke experiences.”
A floral-patterned monumental carpet extends from the sidewalk through majestic wooden doors, into the hotel lobby and eventually up the grand staircase. Significantly oversize couches fill the lobby, giving it a dreamy quality. In the back, a large, leafy courtyard serves as part of the hotel bar and offers refuge from the busyness outside.
Colorful tiles in a guest bathroom
Giulio Ghirardi
The Federici family is particular about their positioning. Talìa refers to the muse of hospitality, whose name is in turn derived from the Greek, meaning “abundance” and “prosperity.” Palazzo Talìa is not a boutique hotel, they say. Nor is it a grand hotel. It has a grandiosity of space, but it’s also intimate. There are only 26 rooms and suites, which allows for personal service.
They’re smart about their guidance. Angelica Federici curated the city guide that’s offered to guests. For those who want some hand-holding, they work with local players like Italy with Class, a family-owned company that leads walking tours and has the lovely InRome Cooking school—and whose co-founder, Salvatore Barberi, excused himself from a lunch with me to give Sheryl Crow a private tour of the city.
Palazzo Talìa’s architectural volumes reflect the style of traditional Roman palazzi: massive staircases, the grandeur of the Renaissance, a collection of artworks lining the long hallway of the piano nobile. But here, the artworks are contemporary, and the curvaceous light fixtures were designed by Studio Luca Guadagnino and fabricated by one of the oldest producers in Italy.
A guest room
Giulio Ghirardi
They know the rooms are dark. They call them cocoons—private oases within a city that gets busier every year. There are other hotels whose rooms have glorious views. Palazzo Talìa offers splendid tranquility inside. Sound engineers made sure everything stays silent.
Their look, by architect Marianna Lubrano Lavadera of the studio Mia Home Design and architect Laura Feroldi, is moody and sumptuous, all jewel-toned velvet, rounded couches and graceful wrought-iron beds. And the bathrooms are gorgeous—the walls in some are covered in graphic tiles made in the Amalfi Coast, and in others they have newly painted frescoes.
The top accommodation, the Terrace Suite, has a different feeling. It’s the only one designed by Studio Luca Guadagnino, with peach wood paneling, soft shades of pink, a bed imagined as an alcove and a huge terrace overlooking the inner courtyard. That firm also designed the hotel’s glass elevators, which look out onto the courtyard and resemble gilded birdcages.
The sitting area in a guest room
Giulio Ghirardi
The hotel’s restaurant likewise offers an understated grand tour. Its name, Tramae, signifies a tapestry of stories from the past and present. Chef Marco Coppola grew up in Sorrento, and he shows that off in his finesse with raw fish and his inventions like a whisper-light caprese ravioli with fresh tomato and fragrant basil.
Other dishes come from Federici family recipes, including milanese con osso (a classic veal shank stew), a delicate vitello tonnato and the decadent layers of artichokes and potatoes in the filet millefeuille, a classic of Roman cuisine. There are other Roman standbys, like carbonara and cacio e pepe, the latter of which is not only a pasta sauce but also a surprisingly delicious dip for the potato chips that are served with the apertivo.
Many ingredients come from the family’s biodynamic farm just outside the city, which produces everything from olive-oil to pasture-raised beef. And some of the wines are from their Villa Pepoli, an estate that once supplied fine wines to the Vatican.
Coppola says he’s serving his heart on a plate (and in fact, heart-shaped rolls are placed on the bread plates). His menu is short, and his cooking isn’t flashy. Instead, he brings together ideas, products, quality and technique, of course, but also his passion. As Angelica says, this also is the best of Italy.
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