Aleph

Aleph Review

If you're wondering where the beautiful people are, look no further than the Aleph, the most unfalteringly fashionable of Rome's design hotels, über-designed by Adam Tihany with a just-this-side-of-kitsch theme of Dante's Divine Comedy. You can walk the line between heaven and hell through the Angelo bar, the red-red-red Sin restaurant, and Paradise spa. Guest rooms are more subdued, made galleryesque by giant black-and-white photos of Rome. Tihany's relentless, in-your-face style throws 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 too seriously. When old Rome feels, well, old—this is something new. If money is no object, book the presidential suite for a Jacuzzi on your private terrace.