With varying results, Rome’s hoteliers are converting choice buildings from the city’s vast collection of period architecture into bijoux boutique properties. Among the more recent successes to emerge from the scaffoldings is Chapter Roma.
Set an easy seven-block stroll south of the Pantheon in the Regola neighbourhood, the interiors of the 42-room hotel are the work of Tristan Du Plessis, the South African designer deftly transforming the late 19th-century pile with a smart mix of industrial touches and humour.
Where possible, the original brick-work and structural arches frame spare room sets of monochromes, Du Plessis judiciously allowing colour to seep through by way of brass pendant lamps, dark-stained herringboned floors, rust coloured velvet lounges, and quirky rugs in the bedrooms, and graffiti art in the lobby bar by local artist Alice Pasquini.
An in-house restaurant is currently in the works, but with some of the best kitchens in Italy within easy reach, gastronomic deprivation is unlikely. §
