Orchestrated by global who's who in the worlds of architecture, culinary, and interior design, two recently opened luxury hotels demonstrate the staying power of the Eternal City

Written by Bridget Cotrell (ROMEO Roma) and Claire Williams (Casa Monti)/ Photos courtesy of ROMEO Roma and Casa Monti

Under most circumstances, a bespoke tour that leads a group up a long flight of stairs, down a graffiti-lined alleyway, and to a windowless wooden door next to a loading dock in a non-descript manufacturing building would be head-scratching, but not in Rome. Noting our puzzled looks, Marilena Barberi, co-founder of Italy with Class (italywithclass.com) and Walks Inside Rome (walksinsiderome.com), promised us that a surprise awaited. "Rome is like lasagna," she said as we descended several flights of stairs that emptied us into the 1st century CE and the ruins of a Mithraic temple. "You can't really know Rome without going underground," remarked Barberi.

For millennia, Roman buildings destroyed by war, natural disasters, a desire to repurpose raw materials, or the whims of the powers that be have been blanketed by dirt, debris, and, eventually, new construction. A pair of recently opened hotels—ROMEO Roma and Casa Monti—have added another layer of deliciousness to the Eternal City's architectural casserole.

Roman ruins on view from beneath the garden pool.

ROMEO Roma is situated within a historically significant 16th-century palazzo on Via di Ripetta, a stone's throw from the Piazza del Popolo. Constantly evolving, the building began as the home of a prosperous family, resplendent with museum-quality art and thousands of books, before becoming a refuge for an exiled king and later the headquarters of the oldest Catholic Italian periodicals. When ROMEO Collection founder Alfredo Romeo acquired the building over a decade ago, it was being used for government offices.

Mr. Romeo, whose 85-key 5-star hotel in Naples is credited with being the catalyst in a neighborhood renewal project, brought the same visionary approach to his second hotel in Rome. He recruited the late Iraqi British architect Zaha Hadid (who designed the nearby MAXXI, the first national museum of contemporary art in Italy, and worked on the ROMEO Rome project for four years before she died in 2016) and acclaimed French chef and restaurateur Alain Ducasse to lend their creative star power to this seminal project.

No sooner had work commenced when ancient Roman walls were discovered in the garden. Once the hand-executed excavations were complete, 80 square meters were declared part of the city's architectural heritage. The subterranean site can now be enjoyed above ground through the clear-bottomed garden pool, where pieces of contemporary sculpture are watched over by an ancient fresco at the rear of the oasis. Unearthed during the excavation, a bust of Livia Drusilla (59 BC–29 CE), a Roman empress and the wife of Augustus, is on display in the lobby.

Hadid is known for her signature futuristic style, which is characterized by curving façades, sharp angles, and severe materials such as concrete and steel. At ROMEO Roma, Mr. Romeo challenged the Hadid team to work outside their comfort zone and festoon the futurism with natural materials, namely sustainably harvested Macassar ebony, lava stone, and Nero Marquina and Carrara marbles. The latter two were acquired in quantities sufficient for book-matching exposed seams from floor to ceiling.

Stepping into ROMEO's lustrous wonderland is akin to feeling like Alice when she tumbled down the rabbit hole. The 74-key boutique hotel encompasses three buildings and is chock-full of pieces from Mr. Romeo's art collection, including the likes of Christian Leperino, Mario Schifano, Mimmo Paladino, and Francesco Clemente, all of which he says are a testament to his love of beauty in all forms. Fluidity, from the fountains in the lobby to undulating patterns on the floor in guestroom corridors, adds a sensuous aura and design continuity.

My head was on a swivel in the reception area, where the walls behind the desks were armored with brassy scales; Alice's exclamation of "curiouser and curiouser" came to mind. I quickly surmised that nothing is above elevation in this dreamscape, from the bespoke Poltrona Frau furnishings to surfaces decorated with the care of a Renaissance artisan.

Bespoke tableware at II Ristorante Alain Ducasse. Photo by Giulia Venamsi

A billionaire's pod on the USS Enterprise is what instantly sprung to mind when I opened the door to my lustrous Deluxe room. Everything was high-tech and high-touch, from the controls on the jacuzzi tub behind the bed to the Starpool shower system, which turned the ordinary shower experience into an aquatic disco, complete with music and colorful lights. Interrupting a lacquered wood wall was an electric fireplace nestled into a form best described as a "burst blister" on a pizza crust. Four rooms on the hotel’s “noble floor” retain their original historical frescoes, creating a fascinating interplay of ancient artworks with contemporary details, including one suite with a curved staircase fashioned of Corian with an integrated jacuzzi tub at the base.

The hotel's primary amenities are all located on the ground level, and except for Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse, are reserved exclusively for hotel guests, creating a sanctuary of calm and exclusivity in the bustling city. Savoring lunch at IL CORTILE, an all-day dining outpost, I was surrounded by a forest of lacquered ebony, sculpted into groin vaults and interspersed with gill-like slits recalling midcentury Italian painter Lucio Fontana's Buchi and Tagli artworks, which imbue the heavy solid surfaces with a feeling of etherealness.

Experiencing the eight-course tasting menu at Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse is an absolute delight. Ducasse's involvement in his first Roman restaurant goes way beyond the menu; he designed everything from the table and chairs to the tableware, including Hermès plates, titanium tumblers, and wine glasses with impossibly delicate stems. Staff deliver each course with scripted synchronicity. And, while literal smoke and mirrors are involved, if the theatrics were stripped away, the merits of each dish would be just as memorable. Hotel guests are privy to an a la carte breakfast in the space, where the Ducasse influence is tasted in pain au chocolat and touched in crockery explicitly designed to prepare and present his eggs carbonara.

The eight-course tasting menu at Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse is also a feast for the eyes.

Encompassing nearly 4,000 square feet, LA SPA Sisley Paris offers treatments based on the Phyto-Aromatiques philosophy, which combines plant extracts and natural essences for a sensory relaxation experience. After a long day of exploring, spending time in the hammam, sensorial shower, and the sinuous lounge chairs in the salt room was indulgent and restorative. Enveloped in sculpted ebony, the Technogym-equipped fitness center is a beautiful space to assuage any lingering guilt about over-indulging in la dolce vita.

"Architecture is inhabited sculpture," said the late modernist Romanian sculptor Constantine Brancusi. Sure to invoke conversations about its design merits, ROMEO Rome is a compelling work of art that reflects an owner willing to take risks to pursue the proverbial brass ring. Even Ducasse, who prefers to communicate in his native tongue, broke into English during a breakfast meeting to praise the artistry of an ebony cabinet in the dining room, switching back to French to underscore its magnifique-ness.

After descending from the Roman forum and weaving through the cobblestone streets of the Monti neighborhood in Rome's beating heart, you soon realize all roads lead to Casa Monti (casamontiroma.com), a boutique hotel that opened last summer. A vintage mustard-colored Fiat 500 sat perfectly framed in the arched doorway of the 5-star, 36-key hotel, whose facade, while seamlessly integrated into the surrounding ancient architecture, belies its la bohème interior.

Stepping inside, you plunge into French architect and interior designer Laura Gonzalez's world of color and patterns, inspired by the artisans and creatives tucked away on nearby Via Panisperna and Piazza della Madonna dei Monti. During a brief property overview and tour en route to our room, the concierge, struggling to find the best word in English to describe the interiors, asked, "What's the opposite of minimalist?" His endearing inquiry was honest and apt as Gonzalez’s maximalist vision is a cornucopian display of chromatic and eye-catching motifs co-mingled with Italian flair that creates a one-of-a-kind sense of place.

Inspired by the Italian concept of sprezzatura (the art of making something difficult look easy), Gonzalez has carefully curated four singular themes throughout the 26 rooms and 10 suites. Birds are prominent subjects in the varied wallpaper; Gonzalez says birds filling the Roman skies caught her eye while conceptualizing her designs for Casa Monti. With tiles procured from the south of Italy and fabrics from the north (in the same place where Missoni also shops), Gonzalez ensures guests are consistently fully immersed in Italian craftmanship and its influence.

Gonzalez also playfully indulges in a meta-touch, such as a stairwell adorned with Roman graphics resembling hieroglyphics, exaggerated graphic clay vases, and detailed mosaics and frescoes. One of my favorite details in our room was the Broadway-esque flair of the draped curtains hiding the television. It created a moment of drama every time we turned on the TV and clicked a button to pull away the curtains.

Relaxation, social interaction, and therapeutic modalities characterized ancient Roman baths, and the fifth-floor spa at Casa Monti operates in this spirit. Treatments by beauty pioneer Susanne Kaufmann adopt a holistic approach through a spa menu that emphasizes naturalness. After enjoying a signature body treatment, followed by a dip in the jacuzzi, and donning a plush robe to recline on a chaise lounge positioned to overlook the Eternal City while enjoying a facemask and freshly squeezed juice, I've never felt more ready for my cameo in a Dolce & Gabbana commercial.

The first-floor bar and Casa Monti Ristorante are adored just as much by locals as hotel guests. After a meal of seasonal Roman flavors at the ristorante, the adjacent Casa Monti bar provided a logical and seamless transition for a digestivo. Amplified Amaro amare awaits at the rooftop bar, which boasts a view that even Caesar would envy.

One of Rome's oldest neighborhoods, Monti was once a residence for gladiators and is now the preferred haunt of artists and ragazzi fighi (cool kids). Just a few steps outside the hotel are intriguing bars, restaurants, and boutiques. The main artery for shopping and sightseeing is a few streets away, including the Colosseum, where we met with Isabella Calidonna of ArcheoRunning (archeorunning.com/en). With a PhD in Art History, a degree in Archeology, and a bonified love of exercise, touring with Calidonna was a highlight of our trip. She covers nearly 17,000 kilometers annually as part of her private running and walking tours of the city.

As a history nerd and an ultimate Jeopardy fan, I was thrilled to ask limitless questions to someone without a script and with encyclopedic knowledge. I had no shame in asking, "How realistic is Russell Crowe's depiction of a gladiator?" to which Calidonna quipped back, "While Russell Crowe is a great actor, Roman gladiators were all short and fat, à la Danny DeVito since no one was tall at that time (except Germans) and an extra layer of fat was an extra layer of armor."

Returning to the hotel each evening, we navigated without maps by traversing streets where we could see the Colosseum at the end and, eventually, leading back to Casa Monti.

Rome Around the World