Postcards From Rome: Sunset, Cocktails and a Little Wishful Drinking at Sofitel Roma Villa Borghese

Seven floors up, just off Via Veneto, Settimo pairs a sweeping sunset view over Rome with a pop-up cocktail book, a chocolate-coin garnish and a cameo from Emily in Paris.

Photo Credit: Gilles TRILLARD
At Settimo, the seventh-floor rooftop at Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese, the city arranges itself like a postcard: Villa Borghese spread out below, Villa Medici off to one side, the dome of St. Peter’s holding down the horizon. Yes, it’s the rooftop from Emily in Paris. No, that isn’t the best reason to go.

The best reason is timing. I went up at sunset, when the whole city turned into a watercolor, ordered a Zest Gimlet, and liked it all so much I came back for dinner. Give yourself the evening, and accept that whatever you’d planned for afterward has just been cancelled.

The appeal is getting your bearings from above after a day spent navigating the streets below. Rome is wonderfully distracting at ground level; here, you can follow the rooftops toward the dome without checking a map or dodging a scooter. Leave a little room in the itinerary for that. The city has survived this long without you ticking off another monument before dinner.

Photo Credit: Sofitel Roma Villa Borghese

The Gimlet Is the Point

The cocktail list is a book, and the book is called Postcards From Rome, which sounds a touch precious until you open it and a fold-out pop-up of the city’s monuments rises off the page, almost like something from a children’s book, with the real skyline glowing just beyond it. A little nostalgic, completely charming. The drinks split between Italian classics and signatures with a French accent. Not a bad summary of the whole hotel, frankly.

The menu gives you a reason to linger over the choice, particularly with the landmarks themselves in view. It also makes Postcards From Rome a fitting name for the experience: something playful to remember the city by, with a considerably better payoff than the usual souvenir-shop purchase. Mine happens to involve gin and white peach.

My order, then and (I suspect) forever: the Zest Gimlet. Gin Mare, Mandarine Napoléon, Italicus, white peach, lemon, honey, grapefruit bitters and a pinch of salt. In the glass, it’s frothy and peachy with a kick. The gin comes through and blends beautifully with everything else, and there’s only a hint of honey. Very well balanced. I had more than I’d like to admit.

I didn’t get around to the Trevi Royal, but it’s a signature and deserves its moment, if only for the garnish. Vodka, Chambord, crème de cassis, amaro and mezcal, topped with Champagne and misted with absinthe, then finished with a chocolate gold coin in honor of the fountain. Very cute. Make a wish before you eat the evidence.

Two more pours have the holidays squarely in their sights. The Panettone Fashioned (Michter’s bourbon with coconut, apricot and cherry liqueurs, vanilla, orange and Angostura) is Italy’s Christmas bread by way of Kentucky. The Pain au Chocolat Negroni gives the classic a French breakfast habit: Citadelle gin, sweet vermouth, bitter aperitivo, cacao and brown butter. Pastry after dark, essentially.

Stay for Dinner

Chef Giuseppe D’Alessio cooks Roman with a French touch: Lazio produce, familiar flavors, a few shapes you weren’t expecting. We ordered a bit of everything. The amberjack, marinated in citrus with buffalo yogurt and a roasted-peach gazpacho, was lovely (peach, it turns out, is something of a house theme), and my guest fell hard for the Carnaroli risotto with courgette flowers, butter and Cetara anchovies. The kitchen’s calling card is the carbonara tortelli, where the carbonara goes inside the pasta, the pecorino arrives as foam, and crispy guanciale and seasonal truffle finish the job. For anyone ready to surrender completely, there are tasting menus, too.

The carbonara is a useful introduction to the kitchen’s approach. Filling the pasta with it changes the way the familiar dish comes together, while the pecorino foam and guanciale keep the reference unmistakably Roman. It gives the restaurant a point of view beyond its very photogenic address. A rooftop can get you upstairs; dinner needs to give you a reason to keep your seat.

The tasting menus offer three routes through the kitchen: La Tradizione, Il Mare and La Campagna, each €140, with a five-glass wine pairing for €59. Their focus on tradition, the sea and the countryside broadens the proposition beyond a single signature pasta. If you are building an evening around dinner, that choice deserves a look before the cocktails start making all the decisions.

About Emily. Settimo turned up in the latest season of Emily in Paris (the tortelli was inspired by the show), and while nobody was reenacting scenes on my visit, it’s easy to see why the location scouts stopped here. Fans, consider it a bonus.

Photo Credit: Gilles TRILLARD

The Palazzo Downstairs

Downstairs, the hotel is bijou: a 19th-century palazzo on a quiet street behind Via Veneto, reimagined in 2019 by Jean-Philippe Nuel with one eye on the park next door. Its showstopper waits seven floors up. With 71 rooms and seven suites, the scale stays intimate. If a view is non-negotiable, book one of the terrace suites (they come with Jacuzzis) or the top-floor suite that looks straight over Villa Borghese. Rome, evidently, can also be enjoyed in a bathrobe.

Nuel’s interiors pick up the neighboring gardens through botanical patterns and pale colors, with marble mosaic floors and original tiling keeping the palazzo’s history in the picture. The French influence feels at home in that Roman setting, much as it does upstairs in the drinks. Frescoed ceilings, marble bathrooms and Diptyque amenities add to the appeal of making this your address for more than an evening.

The address does a lot of the heavy lifting, too. I walked everywhere. The Spanish Steps are about 10 minutes on foot, and the Borghese gardens, which are nothing short of epic, sit right behind the hotel.

Borrow my plan if you like. Spend the day being a dutiful tourist: the gardens, the Steps, an irresponsible amount of walking. Then head up to the seventh floor before the light goes and watch the city you just covered on foot change color. My postcard from Rome is a sunset, a Zest Gimlet in the foreground and the dome of St. Peter’s on the horizon.

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