French interior designer Rodolphe Parente has a particular talent for reconciling seemingly disparate references, artfully combining classical heritage with contemporary design to create interiors that are as refined as they are unexpected. His penchant for experimentation, coupled with a discerning eye for craftsmanship and detail, makes him a natural creative partner for Experimental Group, the Paris-born hospitality brand known for its design-led properties and strong sense of place. Their collaboration at Experimental Roma, a new 82-room hotel near Rome’s storied Via Veneto, sees Parente reimagine the city’s architectural and cultural legacy through a distinctly French lens, blending Roman grandeur and mid-century Italian design into a richly layered setting that feels both nostalgic and forward-looking.
Interior designer Rodolphe Parente. Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Occupying a former bank in the historic Ludovisi district, just off the thoroughfare immortalised by Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, the hotel draws as much on the stately elegance of the city's historic hotels as on the sensuality of Italian cinema, filtering these influences through a contemporary design vocabulary informed by the work of Gio Ponti, Carlo Scarpa and Luigi Caccia Dominioni. The result is an eclectic interplay of eras and idioms, underpinned by Parente's flair for unexpected juxtapositions.
Material contrasts are central to this approach. Warm, ochre-toned plaster and polished terrazzo evoke the city’s timeworn architectural fabric, while stainless steel, chrome and reflective finishes lend the interiors a sharper, occasionally futuristic edge. Brass accents, lacquered surfaces and plush carpeting introduce further layers of refinement.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
This layered conversation between past and present finds its fullest expression in the hotel’s rooms and suites. Ochre plaster walls, paired with glossy ceilings in chocolate-brown or mustard tones, or with timber coffering, accentuate the rooms’ classical proportions. Silver-painted joinery, including doors and internal shutters, along with mirrored surfaces, provides a crisp counterpoint to the otherwise warm palette, while bespoke geometric furnishings, tactile upholstery and colour-fringed rugs nod to the hedonism of 1970s Italy.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
The rooms are divided into two design families. The more theatrical take their cues from Roman palazzi and historic residences such as the Villa Medici, with upholstered headboards framed by vertically striped burgundy or navy drapery lending the beds an almost ceremonial presence. The second family adopts a more minimalist, gallery-like register. Here, ribbed stainless-steel headboards edged in brass introduce a sculptural, contemporary contrast to the terrazzo floors, with floating bedside tables in vibrant green lacquer and suspended brass bowl-shaped lights adding a touch of cinematic glamour. Framed artworks, casually propped above the headboards, further enhance the gallery-like atmosphere.
Curated in collaboration with Maurizio Faraoni, director of the archive of Rome's influential Galleria Ugo Ferranti, which championed Conceptual and Minimalist art in the 1970s and 1980s, the hotel's art collection echoes the worlds of Cy Twombly and Christo, two artists who have long informed Parente’s own sensibility.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
In the bathrooms, geometric floor tiles and glossy blue or burgundy panels framing oversized circular mirrors recall the graphic inventiveness of Gio Ponti. Powder-blue and buttery-yellow sanitaryware introduces a confectionery note of colour against the earthy plaster walls, while Murano-style faceted glass sconces and shimmering chain-mail vanity skirts add unexpected flourishes. Combining traditional craftsmanship with unconventional materials, these details show Parente’s knack for turning functional fixtures into focal points.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Food and drink have been integral to Experimental’s identity since its founders opened the first Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris in 2007. In Rome, this convivial spirit finds expression in Ludovisi e Cadore, the hotel’s 100-seat restaurant, and its own Experimental Cocktail Club. Both extend the hotel’s material vocabulary into more sociable settings, from the restaurant’s voluptuous mustard banquettes and shelves lined with classical reliefs, busts and masks, to the bar’s brass-gridded panelling, green marble counter and emerald-upholstered stools.
Conceived by Giovanni Passerini, a Roman-born chef who has spent more than two decades in Paris, the restaurant’s menu reinterprets familiar Italian dishes through the techniques and instincts he has honed in France, from tonnarelli cacio e pepe with black truffle to ricotta ravioli enriched with Normandy butter. The cocktail bar, meanwhile, boasts an inventive drinks programme that draws on Italian ingredients, Mediterranean flavours and the group’s international outlook. Signatures range from the botanical Nannarella, combining vodka, mastiha, apple and mint, to fresh takes on classic cocktails such as the Martini, Negroni and Margarita.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.
The hotel’s social spaces culminate in a roof terrace, where minimalist sunloungers and fringed yellow parasols sit alongside striped seating and amber-toned glass tables amid lush greenery. Complete with a swimming pool and bar, the setting carries Parente’s dialogue between nostalgia and modernity into the open air. Looking out across a sweep of domes and terracotta rooftops, it is where Experimental Roma’s French reading of Rome finally meets the original.
Photography Giulio Ghirardi.