Hotel de Russie Opens the Aquazzura Bar and Names a New Executive Chef

Hotel de Russie opened the Aquazzura Bar on April 10, 2025, a collaboration with the luxury Italian footwear house that gave the hotel's already-storied bar program a fresh, fashion-forward angle. The bar joins the hotel's secret garden setting just off Piazza del Popolo, one of Rome's most photographed and least accessible-feeling green spaces in the entire historic center.

On the culinary side, Alessandro Buffolino was named executive chef of Le Jardin de Russie, working under Fulvio Pierangelini, the Michelin-starred chef who serves as Creative Director of Food for the entire Rocco Forte Hotels group. Buffolino's own history with the group runs deep. As executive sous chef back in 2012, he helped Hotel Eden in Rome win its own Michelin star, giving him a track record inside the company well before this promotion.

The hotel picked up a One Key Hotel Award from the MICHELIN Guide and a Five-Star rating from Forbes Travel Guide, recognition that covers the property broadly rather than the kitchen alone. Between the new bar and the leadership change in the restaurant, Hotel de Russie continues to refresh itself in small, deliberate ways rather than any single dramatic overhaul, which is very much in keeping with how the hotel has always operated.

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