Aleph

Aleph Review

Wondering where the beautiful people are? Look no farther than the Aleph, the most unfalteringly fashionable of Rome's design hotels. The just-this-side-of-kitsch theme here is Dante's Divine Comedy, and you can walk the line between heaven and hell through the Angelo bar, the red-red-red Sin restaurant, and Paradise spa. The shiny blood-red-and-black color scheme looks great, but guest rooms are thankfully less threatening, in subdued neutral tones with wood furniture, made galleryesque by giant black-and-white photos of Rome. As many will guess, this hotel was über-designed by Adam Tihany (who also did the honors at Rome's Exedra). His relentless, in-your-face decors throw everything into the mix, from Shogun suits to his signature red twigs to shirred silk lamps. Fortunately, he likes to poke fun at himself (clothes hooks shaped like devil's horns; tiny TVs set in the bathroom floors in front of your toilet), and earnestly cool staff notwithstanding, the Aleph doesn't take itself as seriously as might be feared. When old Rome feels, well, old—this is something new.