- Film director Luca Guadagnino has designed a new boutique hotel in Rome, Palazzo Talìa
- The 26-room luxury hotel sits within a 16-century building that played host to the Nobile Collegio del Nazareno school until 1999
- The hotel has opened its doors after a three-year renovation and features a restaurant, bar, and spa, with rooms starting at approx $930AUD (€565)
Luca Guadagnino has joined a small but growing slate of directors and producers—including Robert De Niro, Ridley Scott, and Francis Ford Coppola—in swapping film sets for the real thing. The Italian-Algerian film director, responsible for the erotic stylings of Call Me by Your Name and Challenbgers, has turned his singular vision to Palazzo Talìa, a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of Rome.
The director founded his eponymous interior design studio—the aptly named Studio Luca Guadagnino—in 2017 and has since lent his discerning eye to a sprinkling of private properties, including residences in Milan, Venice, and Lake Como, as well as retail boutiques in Rome and New York. However, Palazzo Talìa marks Guadagnino’s first foray into hospitality.
Once thought to be a ‘home to the gods’, the 16th-century Palazzo originally served as a home to nobles and high-ranking clergy members, until it was purchased by the Cardinal Tonti. Upon his death, the cardinal left the Palazzo to San Giuseppe Calasanzio who turned it into a school, the Nobile Collegio del Nazareno, which provided education to boys from pool families (female students were admitted for the first time in 1970) until 1999.
Since the school’s closure, the building has experienced a slow deterioration. A three-year restoration and respectful renovation spearheaded by the hotel’s owner Elia Federici sees the architectural grandeur of the 16th-century building neatly cocoon the theatrically informed design language Guadagnino has brought to the project.
Guadagnino’s ability to cultivate emotion through design is in fine form here, with a deft use of colour and texture and thoughtful curation of furniture and decorative objects on display in the public spaces. “If you come to Rome, a hotel like this, you want to diffuse yourself in beauty, comfort and softness,” Guadagnino told the Financial Times. “So, for me, everything needed to exude that pleasure.”
Responsible for the public spaces and the presidential suite—fittingly dubbed the Talìa suite—Guadagnino embraces a bold, saturated colour palette and vibrant design codes that reconcile old with new. A geometric floral carpet designed by Irish architect Nigel Peake and produced by Chi Design lines a first-floor hallway, tailing through decorative frescos and baroque moulded arches; while elsewhere a staircase features a handrail wrapped in bordeaux red plissé leather. It’s small details like the latter that add an alluring tactility to Guadagnino’s design, while an unsparing use of colourful rugs and carpentry add a sense of comfort and intimacy to even the most vast spaces.
The bar is a particularly special place. Lined in small rectangular blown mirror panels, the walls of the elevated watering hole, Della Musa, reflect abstract interpretations of the 17th-century ceiling frescos, which are complemented by the addition of lava stone tabletops and decorative stucco portals by Mauro Peverada. It’s in this intimate space that classic Italian drinks and a curated list of soon-to-be signature cocktails are served. “It’s a great place to find a wife,” Guadagnino observes wryly.
For those more interested in a good meal than holy matrimony, the Tramae restaurant features a menu—designed by Sorrentine chef Marco Coppola and Angelica Federici, owner Elia Federici’s daughter—of Italian classics with a few international staples thrown in, served in an earth-toned space. Meanwhile, the spa evokes a subterranean feel, courtesy of a caldarium pool sitting under a vaulted ceiling covered in patinated metal tiles.
With the exception of the Talìa suite, the remaining 25 rooms have been designed by Mia Home Design Gallery and Laura Feroldi Studio and each boast a unique aesthetic. United in their championing of quality craftsmanship and ability to blend classic and contemporary styles, each one-of-a-kind suite is replete with handmade pieces, luxurious materials, colourful touches, and exquisite details.
Rooms start at $930AUD (€565) and are bookable via the Palazzo Talìa website.
Address: Via del Nazareno, Rome, Italy
Words by Theo Rosen
