Roberto Cavalli designing hotels for Nicky Hilton seems a stretch but the Ferragamo shoe dynasty has been at hotels for a long time. Their latest addition is Rome's Portrait Suites. This tiny 6-floored hotel has 5 Suites, 8 studios and one penthouse. Designed by Michele Bonan, who has designed some of the family's Florentine holdings, the Portrait Suites are recall Ferragamo's base in fashion. Materials are paramount: boar skin covers the elevators and tables, marble the floors, and the sofas high-quality fabric. Studios from 290 Euro; Suites from 720.]]> Portrait Suites gridskipper 2007-05-21T23:22:42-05:00 portrait_suites_in_rome una_vittoria_hotel italy rome hotels boutique_hotels luxury_hotels location=roma location=00187 firenze Via Bocca di Leone, 23 Firenze Toscana 50124 italy 41.905331 12.480357 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/27e2f1d65842825ced69d881c20a1752 add to my Wists

The new Sixty hotel in Riccione, a seadside resort town in Northern Italy, is much what you'd expect a hotel to look like if it were owned by a company that specializes in bedazzled jeans. The hotel opened last month and eagerly jumped on the "art hotel" wagon. Like Miami's Sagamore or Berlin's Kuenstlerheim Luise, a different artist decorated each of the 39 rooms. Designed by Studio 63 (9 studios crazier than Studio 54?), the hotel, according to Miss Sixty co-founder and designer Wichy Hassan, will carry over Miss Sixty's 70's inspired aesthetic. "A clash of seventies, colors, shapes, materials...an important but amusing facade, lighting up with video projections. A place where people can meet through video chats and web cams installed in the rooms...to get to know one another...to spy each on other." Despite the over-the-top decor, the grandeloquent descriptions, the Orwellian technology and a lobby packed with Miss Sixty stores, if the Sixty hotel is anything like the Miss Sixty jeans we see, I can't wait to get inside.]]> Miss Sixty Hotel gridskipper 2007-05-21T23:22:03-05:00 miss_sixty_hotel_in_riccio la_hotel_vittoria italy rome hotels tacky boutique_hotels location=roma location=00184 firenze Via Milano, 64 Firenze Toscana 50124 italia 41.897841 12.491492 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/42ceeb78c7f904da1f64e90e22759f08 add to my Wists

It was a combination of poor spelling and our search for cheap ways to get fit for high school reunion that we came across Rome's Hotel Exedra. So though we'll be chubs (no Ephedra for us) when we filter into the gymnasium to meet the high schoolers who mocked us, we'll know about this Roman hotel. Exedra is part of the Boscolo hotel group, a powerful Italian cartel that owns hotels in Prague, Florence, Rome and other metropoli. Boscolo basically has two speeds, luxury and first-class. Luxury is slightly higher than first-class (5 Star vs. 4 Star). Exedra, like the other Boscolo hotel in Rome, Aleph, is 5 star. The hotel is not really avant garde, just run of the mill decadent. Think of it as Rome's Wynn. 240 guest rooms, two restaurants, the smallest room goes for €350. But think of the glory that awaits you: a pool, a spa, a palazzo designed by Michelangelo Buonarotti and thankfully no Picassos to put your elbow through.]]> Esedra Hotel gridskipper 2007-05-21T21:20:14-05:00 exedra _hotel _in_rome_sexyback_not_included hotels lodging location=roma location=00184 Piazza della Repubblica, 47 Roma Lazio 00184 Italy 41.902479 12.496166 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/257c64a435c95b3e2590f6772eab4722 add to my Wists

Now time to bring that Bruni waistline into control, to form the six-pack that has made Frankie the stud at the NYT annual pool party at Sulzberger's loft. Bruni, predictably indeed almost gaily, finds himself drawn to the "statues of hyper-muscular athletes in poses of exaggerated physical vigor" that ring Mussolini's sporting complex, Foro Italico. We've written about the complex before and it still bears noting that that pool is mad capacious.]]> Foro Italico gridskipper 2007-04-23T14:56:33-05:00 italy rome exercise gyms pools bruni location=roma location=00194 Piazza Lauro De Bosis, 3 Roma Lazio 00194 italy 41.930775 12.458491 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/43cf096a927776d2762cc018dedefab5 add to my Wists

This wine bar/shop offers delicious sounding involtini such as "vitello tonnato; beef roll-ups stuffed with herbs; turkey roll-ups showered with black truffle; roasted red and yellow peppers; mozzarella with porcini mushrooms. You point to what you want and an enormous plate -- big enough to justify a price of about 25 euros ($34 at $1.36 to the euro) -- is composed before you. You drink, linger and congratulate yourself for doing Friday dinner here."]]> Casa Bleve gridskipper 2007-04-23T14:54:14-05:00 italy rome restaurants food shopping wine cheese location=roma location=00186 Via del Teatro Valle Roma Lazio 00186 italy 41.897927 12.47504 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/5d16546a067f8b45fd1201b30586b7c1 add to my Wists

Home of the infamously kissed piazza bianca or as Bruni describes it, "white pizza and is really denuded pizza -- like a firm, crispy focaccia gently kissed with oil, herbs and salt (1.40 euros for a snack-size portion)."]]> Roscioli Antico Forno gridskipper 2007-04-23T14:49:47-05:00 italy rome restaurants pizza white_pizza location=roma location=00186 Via dei Chiavari, 34 Roma Lazio 00186 italy 41.894541 12.474289 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/c3f4ed2bf5ae6119e4eaf694e7051e8c add to my Wists

he elegantly updated Hotel de Russie off the Piazza del Popolo is a rare exception in Roman hotelerie. No marble columns, no sternly staring busts, no ancient frescoes -- the building's historic, but the interior spaces are contemporary and modern, with soothing color schemes and comfortable furnishings. The hotel also offers another rare treat for Rome, that being non-sidewalk outdoor dining in either the garden or terraced courtyard (which sports a small butterfly sanctuary). Rooms are large with mod mosaic bathrooms, the latter being one of few classical flourishes on display. Balcony rooms are reportedly particularly great, if you can pay the fare. Rates begin at €440 per night.]]> Hotel de Russie gridskipper 2007-04-22T13:05:26-05:00 hotel_de_russie luxury_hotel lodging location=roma location=00187 Via del Babuino, 9 Roma Lazio 00187 Italy 41.909921 12.477195 http://wists.com/gridskipper/location=roma/e15b93d0a34c44f54a756bbd4a238582 add to my Wists

This Equilino restaurant prompts the following dream: "I have died and been admitted to the farthest reaches of heaven, where Hungarian porn stars and alluringly dressed Cinecittà actresses form an impromptu ladies' choir, and Berlusconi himself humbly serves us Campari and soda, his orange head bobbing above a cheap rented tuxedo." The fish, Shteyngart claims, isn't nearly as overwrought as the dream, thankfully.]]> Osteria degli Artisti gridskipper 2007-04-06T03:01:35-05:00 osteria_degli_artisti italian restuarants food location=roma location=00185 Via Germano Sommeiller, 6 Roma Lazio 00185 Italy 41.890194 12.513937