Eternal City gets more than a whiff of new investments

Rome’s Via Veneto is a tree-lined street that is synonymous with the Italian scooter. Back in the Eternal City shooting for CNN’s One Square Meter show, I rented a Vespa to tour the area where I once lived.

It was hard not to think of Federico Fellini’s classic film La Dolce Vita, the movie sparked a 1960s lifestyle of fast times, late nights and the flash of camera bulbs.

So I made my way to the venue at the centre of the action, Harry’s Bar, to meet the man who captured it all — the so-called king of paparazzi, Rino Barillari.

The last living photographer from that era took me downstairs into a room, which is a shrine to his work. As he pointed to his black and white classics, he shared tales of those moments and of being roughed up by bodyguards.

Today’s Via Veneto is a shadow of its former self. The best example of that is the once-famed Cafe de Paris, shuttered by police after discovering alleged links to an Italian crime family.

But as Bob Dylan sang during the 60s — Times are a’changing. Five-star hotels have struck a chord with foreign buyers.

The Regina Baglioni, a Liberty-style property across the street from the US Embassy, was bought by a Qatari sovereign fund. Next door, there’s the Grand Palace, scooped up by Millennium & Copthorne, a Singaporean hotel group.

Marc Lannoy is General Manager of both the Excelsior and the St. Regis, the latter purchased by a Qatari hotel group for $120 million (Dh440 million). Lannoy took me through the grand ballroom and the opulent, but somewhat dated, entrance hall of the St. Regis that he has plans to open up to more light with hopes of attracting a younger and perhaps more discerning clientele.

As we toured, I asked Lannoy why there has been so much foreign interest over the past two years in these trophy properties. All told, there have been six hotel transactions on Via Veneto or in the surrounding area.

The 35-year veteran of the hospitality business replied with some simple wisdom that seems to be overlooked by European buyers who have witnessed slow growth in Italy for the better part of a decade.

“In the city centre of Rome there is not much space to build new hotels. What you need to do is just renovate it [the older ones] and you will have a return on investment that will be very fast,” said Lannoy.

The buying spree stretches from Rome to Venice in the North and cities such as Florence and Milan. I stayed in the newly renovated Gallia Excelsior that sits across from Milan’s main train station. Another Qatari investor spent a reported $430 million on a complete renovation of it.

The high-profile hospitality acquisitions have been interpreted in two ways: as a vote of confidence in Italy’s tourism sector, but on the flip side there are real concerns expressed about the selling out of trophy properties to foreign buyers.

Mario Cucinella is an architect whom I met at the Milan Expo site. The Bolognese professor of urban planning said he did not want to feel patriotic about the high-profile purchases, but said they point to the internal weakness of Italian hoteliers not wanting to invest in their own assets.

Back on Rome’s Via Veneto, the General Manager of Harry’s Bar felt the same way. Pietro Lepore is also the current President of the Via Veneto business association.

While patrons sat outside taking in the view of the Roman arches at the top of the once legendary street, Lepore showed me one of five hardback books he published to illustrate of how the city government of Rome has neglected the area.

Lepore believes Via Veneto could have similar brand recognition to New York’s Fifth Avenue, Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard or London’s Oxford Street with a bit of care and attention.

I received similar answers from other members of the business association. For years, they have asked to create a pedestrian zone during holiday periods to no avail.

Another idea is to keep stores open until midnight to entice five-star visitors to spend after their tours of the Eternal City, but Italy’s rigid labour and retail laws have stood in the way of action to date.

Lepore’s friend, the king of paparazzi, told me the foreign investment wave was the last hope for Via Veneto. With his 35mm camera at the ready and cigarette in hand, Barillari said: “if they don’t invest, everything collapses.”

No one is talking about wanting to relive the 1960s, but they are frustrated the local government doesn’t share the same enthusiasm. After all the investments, this is a case where the beauty may live in the eyes of the foreign beholder.

— The writer is CNN’s Emerging Markets Editor.