Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week

A taste of la bella vita

Anna Solomon, digital staff writer

As a lover of beautiful interiors, my stay at the 15th-century Florentine villa, Il Salviatino, a couple of weeks ago is still on my mind. Once owned by the Salviati family – the ‘-tino’ denoting that, unbelievably, this was their ‘small’ country pied-à-terre – it already promised the fairy-tale allure of Italy’s grand estates. What I hadn’t anticipated was the design extravaganza waiting inside.

At Il Salviatino, every corner is filled with objects and curios in a way that doesn't feel overly staged or polished – and is all the better for it – most of it sourced by owner Alessandra Rovati Vitali. Mid-century pieces mingle with late-Renaissance giardino all’italiana flourishes, all wrapped in unapologetic bella vita glamour, while greenery bursts from terracotta amphorae and snakes up the walls. The library is the villa’s heart: breakfast here is bathed in sunlight; cocktails linger late into the evening. Dining at Da Giacomo al Salviatino, sister to the renowned Giacomo Milano, feels theatrical – Marzano red prawns and octopus ragù served beneath candy-striped canopies and a frescoed ceiling.

Just fifteen minutes by shuttle from Florence’s centre, Il Salviatino feels like another – impossibly serene (aided by a dreamlike Aquae Vitali spa and Augustinus Bader facials) – world. Yet the Renaissance city is never far: framed perfectly from the hotel’s terraces, the Duomo rises majestically above terracotta rooftops.

An architectural invitation

Ellie Stathaki, architecture & environment director

I was invited by Mexican architecture studio Sordo Madaleno to visit their new home in London at King’s Cross for a drink. Not only does the gorgeous new space feature contemporary yet warm design (a reflection of the studio’s approach) high ceilings and views out to the canal (there's a strong hint of Venice to working there), but the practice has also planned a lush gallery space they hope to open for shows and events. Watch this space.

A meander into mezcal

Anne Soward, production editor

As the weather turns chillier and wetter, thoughts of venturing far arouse little enthusiasm, so the opening of a new mezcal-focused tasting room on my doorstep lifted my spirits and had me reaching for my coat. Sorbito, the latest addition to Dalston's Mexican strip on Stoke Newington Road, has been launched by the Sin Gusano Project, a social enterprise dedicated to promoting artisanal mezcal. Here you can try sips (sorbito means ‘little sip’ in Spanish) of rare agave spirits, using a series of self-serve dispensing machines, before buying a bottle of your tipple of choice to take home (although some are actually too rare to bottle). Events and private tasting sessions are also on offer, as well as a rotating menu of mezcal-based cocktails for those who want to stay awhile and talk tequila. We sipped our Oaxaca highball and agave martini (both went deliciously well with the little bowls of corn snacks peppering the bar) while enjoying a fascinating lesson about process, sustainability, variety and flavour.

A sublime spectacle

Sofia de la Cruz, travel editor

I feel as though I’ve been living in the O2 arena lately. Partly out of a need to break the winter habit of hibernating at home, partly because all my favourite artists decided to tour at once. Tuesday closed out the streak with Wolf Alice and their new album, The Clearing – a fierce, hypnotic spectacle. I’m drawn to their genre-bending register, the way they slip between the highest and slowest rhythms; one moment shouting through a microphone, the next dissolving into something ethereal.

An enchanting exhibition

Jamilah Rose-Roberts, social media editor

Earlier this week, my artist friend Hamed Maiye presented a new exhibition at HSBC’s 8 Canada Square. Being both a longstanding admirer of his work and someone who has grown to know him through a previous interview, attending felt less like an obligation and more like a quiet inevitability. Hamed has a way of drawing you into the world he builds, and Aleph is no exception.

The exhibition takes its name from Borges’ ‘Aleph’, a point that contains all other points, and immediately you feel that sense of simultaneity: past, present and possibility moving at once. Yet Nina Simone’s declaration that an artist must reflect their time hums beneath the surface, grounding the show in something urgent and human. Those two forces – timelessness and responsibility – collide throughout the space.

Hamed’s contribution sits at the centre of that collision. His work moves between the symbolic and the intimate, carrying traces of myth, memory and lived experience. Here, it feels even more distilled, as though he is shaping several realities into one gesture. It is deeply personal yet reaches beyond itself, speaking to the conditions that form us, and those we long to transcend.

The wider exhibition gathers voices from Unyimeabasi Udoh, Divine Southgate-Smith and Tami Soji-Akinyemi, each navigating their own version of the infinite and the immediate. Together, they form a shifting constellation, asking what it means to hold many worlds in a single moment.

Aleph runs until 31 March 2026.

A sartorial screening

Bill Prince, editor-in-chief

On Thursday, I was in Rome for the world premiere of Brunello: A Gracious Visionary, a two-hour docu-drama directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), which charts the life and career of Italy’s ‘King of Cashmere’, Brunello Cucinelli. From his humble beginnings as part of an extended family of tenant farmers, to a somewhat dissolute youth perfecting his skills as a card sharp (which would later stand him in good stead for navigating the vagaries of the global fashion business), to his present status as the champion of ‘humanistic capitalism’ that places the worker at the centre of the enterprise, the film – featuring an artful blend of archival footage, contemporary interviews and extended dramatic narrative – receives its official theatrical release in Perugia on December 8, with screenings planned across the globe in the new year.