The Italian capital may best be known for its extraordinary history, but it is now taking great steps to present a more modern front, says Sara Turner
Rome’s skyline is changing. Long associated with the classical architecture of the 2,000-year-old Colosseum, a futuristic new city is emerging alongside the venerable ruins. Two striking, ultra-contemporary buildings have recently opened – Maxxi, the museum for 21st-century arts, and Auditorium Parco della Musica.
Originally mooted in 1998, Maxxi finally launched in November last year. Designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, it won this year’s much-coveted Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize. It is Italy’s first public museum entirely dedicated to contemporary arts and architecture, a sure sign of things to come. Located in Flaminio, towards the north of the city, its flowing, sinuous walls house a number of permanent works by the likes of Anish Kapoor and Gino De Dominicis, as well as temporary shows. Next month will see a display of art by the four finalists of the first-ever Italian Contemporary Art Prize.
A short walk from here, Italian architect Renzo Piano has designed the Auditorium Parco della Musica. Rome’s new-found home of music comprises three venues – the smallest can be used for theatre, cinema or pop music, the second has been built for live acoustic and chamber music, while the third is a full-size concert hall. While uber-modern, Piano’s designs give a nod to the city’s classical heritage – the distinctive curved roofs are made of tin, as were many buildings in ancient Rome, and the thin red bricks used for some of the walls echo those found on archeological digs.
As one of the oldest capitals in the world, Rome is understandably proud of its heritage. But for some, the feeling is that it’s high time the city broke out of its classical mould. Vice-mayor Mauro Cutrufo, who is heading up the city’s plans for expanding tourism, says that while Rome is “one of the top cities in the world for archaeological, cultural and religious tourism”, these count for a relatively small proportion of the total number of visitors who travel to foreign destinations each year.
A plan is therefore afoot to develop new reasons to visit, and to strengthen Rome’s offering in less developed areas such as sport and convention tourism. Cutrufo is spearheading the secondo polo turistico, a project to create a new network of visitor attractions including golf courses, two theme parks and an aquarium. And by 2012, Cutrufo says, “we will finally have a professional dedicated conference centre”.
Construction has already started on La Nuvola convention centre – the design, by Massimiliano Fuksas, features the “cloud”, a glass and steel structure seemingly suspended in mid-air, giving the building its name (nuvola means cloud in Italian). It is due to be completed in 2012, and the first events will be held the year after. With a capacity of 9,500 people, it will have an auditorium for 1,850 delegates, two large conference halls, plus some smaller meeting rooms.
The southern district of EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma), where La Nuvola is located, is seeing plenty of redevelopment. The last time the area – known for its Mussolini-era modernist architecture and broad boulevards – saw any significant investment was for the Olympics in 1960. Apart from the new convention centre, the iconic Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, known colloquially as the colosseo quadrato (square colosseum), is being restored, and construction on the Mediterraneum Aquarium has started.
This year, Rome was chosen as the Italian bid city for the 2020 Olympics, and for Cutrufo, being selected would be the ultimate pay-off for his plans to develop the city. “All the work I’m doing is looking towards bringing the Olympics back to Rome,” he says. While details of the bid are yet to be released, the decision will come in 2013, by which time La Nuvola should be open, and the city will be hosting its first Formula One street race.
Cutrufo hopes the two new theme parks will also prove a draw. One, Cinecitta World, will tell the story of Rome’s historic film production career, while the other, as yet unnamed, will reconstruct ancient Rome in full colour. “When you visit the original [colosseum] it is stripped down – you don’t understand where the lions were kept, and where the gladiators were killed, but at the theme park you will,” he says. “We’re collaborating with three Roman universities to get it right.” The theme parks will also mean six new hotels for the city, he adds. Launch dates for the projects have not been confirmed, however, nor has construction started – one Roman I spoke to warned that the 12-year timeline in the case of Maxxi was not uncommon in this city.
More concrete plans are confirmed for Rome’s Fiumicino airport. The hub for national carrier Alitalia has recently opened a new e20 million baggage-handling system, which the airport says has improved connection times for transferring passengers. It is now planning a e195 million project to include a new pier – due to be completed in 2012 and boosting passenger capacity by five million to 41 million – and a 22,250 sqm expansion for T3 (previously known as TC).
In contrast to all this activity, hotel developments seem slow. The Waldorf Astoria-branded Cavalieri is one of only a handful of international chains in Rome – the majority of five-star properties remaining independently run – and its general manager, Serge Ethuin, thinks there is room for more. “It would be nice to have a few more integrated chain hotels,” he says. One of the newest large properties to open is the Rome Marriott Park hotel but it is already four years old. However, Marriott is planning a new Renaissance hotel for the EUR region.
According to Ethuin, Italian business travellers have not downgraded their class of accommodation as many have had to in the rest of Europe and the US. “They continue to use five-star properties – as an Italian, when you have to organise a meeting to close a contract, the image and the place where you do these things influences the final decision a lot,” he says.
So some traits of old Italy do remain. And while Cutrufo is putting Rome on the path to becoming a more 21st-century city, it’s vital to maintain its links with the past, he says. “The history of the city, for us, is everything. It doesn’t stop at the Roman Empire – it is a real time machine. Here you can see everything that has happened,” he says.
Doing business in Rome
Like Rome’s architectural persona, business culture is changing in the city – no longer are wine-fuelled lunches the norm, according to Serge Ethuin, general manager of the Rome Cavalieri. While eating has always been an important part of doing business in Italy, lunch-time alcohol consumption has faltered as the nation has become more health conscious.
The tradition of no shop talk at the dinner table has also somewhat died out. “When I was working in Rome in 1993, I would often take three or four hours for a business lunch,” says the Frenchman, who has lived in Italy for ten years. “We would end up talking about family, friends, culture and politics. Then you would say goodbye, and meet another time to talk business. Now, the first hour of a business lunch or dinner is very much spent socialising and trying to know each other better, but people will talk business or even try to close a deal during the latter part.” The importance of food remains, however. About 94 per cent of bookings at the hotel’s three-Michelin-starred La Pergola restaurant (see panel, next page) are for business, he reports.
Building relationships is also very important in Rome. Ethuin says: “In Italy, you only buy from people you like. An established relationship is fundamental to being successful.” Respecting associates’ titles is an important part of this, he says. Italians tend to be friendly and informal in their body language – something you would do well to mimic, he advises – but they are “extremely respectful of titles such as ingegniere (engineer), dottore (doctor) or avvocato (lawyer)”. If you hear these being used to address someone, you should adopt the same. “You might lose a piece of business just because you didn’t recognise that somebody was a dottore,” Ethuin says.
Roma antica
Rome is full of ancient remains besides the Colosseum and Forum. Here are a few sites to look out for.
Ara Pacis Augustae Built to celebrate the reign of Emperor Augustus, a relatively peaceful era in the history of ancient Rome, this intricately carved marble temple, on the river by Villa Borghese, was once used for animal sacrifices to the gods. It had a new museum built to house it in 2006, so you can now walk around and admire the artistry up close. Visit ara-pacis-museum.com
The mouth of truth La bocca della verita has long been used by spouses to test their partners’ fidelity – legend has it that if someone puts their hand into the mouth of this round stone with a man’s face carved into it, then tells a lie, their hand will be bitten off. You’ll find it in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in Piazza della Bocca della Verita.
While building the new music venue, some ancient ruins of a country villa were discovered. It has now been fully excavated and you can see the outline of the walls, and even some of the simple stone flooring, from a viewing gallery. There is also a display of earthenware pots found at the site, as well as a reconstruction of how it would have looked.
Piazza del Popolo This city-centre square, popular for evening passeggiate, is home to an ancient Egyptian obelisk dating back to the reign of Ramses II in 13th century BC. The giant structure, with hieroglyphs carved into it, is thought to have been brought to Italy by Emperor Augustus after the Romans defeated Anthony and Cleopatra.
