Flamboyant Italian entrepreneur hopes to rekindle spirit of Rome's 'la dolce vita' heyday

One of Italy’s most flamboyant entrepreneurs is spearheading a campaign to “relaunch” Rome and revive the spirit of la dolce vita along its most celebrated street.

Flavio Briatore, a Formula One impresario who once dated supermodel Naomi Campbell, is to open an upmarket restaurant on Via Veneto, where Hollywood stars including Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Stewart Granger drank cocktails and dodged paparazzi during its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.

His new pizzeria is one of several fresh venues which, he hopes, will inject new life into the capital.

A Bulgari hotel is to open in a restored palazzo located opposite an ancient Roman mausoleum built to accommodate the remains of the emperor Augustus.

Soho House has just opened a branch in Rome and Nobu, Robert De Niro’s chain of fusion restaurants, is also about to launch in the city.

Via Veneto was once a byword for glamour and sophistication at a time when the Italian film industry was so vibrant that Rome was nicknamed Hollywood on the Tiber.

But it has since fallen on hard times, with hotels and iconic bars closing and nightlife shifting to other, edgier parts of the city.

“Rome is the most beautiful city in Europe. And Via Veneto is the most famous street in Rome. But it’s asleep. We’re going to wake it up. We’re going to relaunch la dolce vita,” Mr Briatore told La Repubblica newspaper.

“We’re going to open up in Via Veneto, along with us there will also be a new Nobu and then five or six big hotels are coming, Soho House has just opened a branch. These new places, these brands, will liven up the city and create jobs.”

Added to the sense of decline is the fact that Rome in general is a mess, with a long-running rubbish collection crisis.

Promises by the newly elected mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, to have the city cleaned up by Christmas have amounted to little.

“It is a scandal that Rome is besieged by wild boar and mounds of rubbish. The only thing that I ask of Gualtieri is that he makes Via Veneto as clean as it was during the 1950s. That’s the only help we need from the authorities,” Mr Briatore said.

In the past he has railed against Italy’s dysfunction, bureaucracy and high taxes, saying he would no longer invest in the country.

“Look, it is true that Italy is not a country that is very welcoming to business but it is also true that if you have a vision, a good idea, then you can build a business here,” he said.

His new venture in Via Veneto, called Crazy Pizza, is due to open in January, while another of his ventures, a restaurant called Twiga, is scheduled to open in May.

Together they will represent an investment of around €6 million and will require 120 staff.

In 2018, the former boss of the Renault F1 and Benetton racing teams was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for tax evasion relating to the use of his luxury yacht, called Force Blue.

The conviction was then quashed by the Supreme Court in Rome, which sent the case back to the appeals stage. But in 2019 the whole affair timed out under the statute of limitations.