“Rome has always held a magnetic pull for me,” says fashion designer Mary Katrantzou. “The first trip was with my family when I was 12 years old, and I remember being struck by how deeply history and beauty are embedded in every corner of the city, from the ancient ruins to the color of the stones. It felt like walking through an open-air museum.” It was an experience that she—having grown up in Greece, where the past and present are also locked in conversation—instinctively connected with. And while she may now be based in London, Katrantzou’s work as the first creative director of leather goods and accessories for Bvlgari, the Italian jeweler and fashion house, frequently brings her back to the Eternal City. “Everything we do,” she says, “begins with Rome.”
Design delights
“Rome has this rare energy that feels ancient and alive. In Piazza Navona you feel that duality in full force,” says Katrantzou, who loves to watch the light shift around Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers there. “Villa Farnesina is also beautiful,” she says. “Raphael’s frescoes feel like walking into a Renaissance dream.” Other must-sees: Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, or the Square Colosseum, because its “balance between heritage and reinvention reflects so much of how I see design,” and MAXXI, the neo-Brutalist national museum of modern art designed by Zaha Hadid: “It represents Rome’s evolving cultural voice.”
Culinary classics
Katrantzou “fully embraces the Italian way” by taking a quick espresso before meetings at Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè near the Pantheon (order the caffè speciale, she suggests). Come dinnertime, Pierluigi is a newfound favorite for its scampi and outdoor setting near the Ponte Giuseppe Mazzini. To indulge in something sweet, she stops at either family-run Pasticceria Regoli, home to “the city’s best maritozzo,” or Otaleg when she craves a scoop of its hazelnut or ricotta gelato.
