PHX Travel – Rome, Italy

The Design Leadership Network (DLN) champions community, collaboration, growth, and best practices in the high-end design industry by creating tailored experiences, educational programs, and resources for its members who are principals of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture firms, affiliated disciplines, media partners, and corporate leaders. DLN members are interior designers, architects, and landscape architects who are highly accomplished in their field and truly passionate about the Design and Architecture Industry.

This year, the Summit took place in one of our favorite design capitals—Rome. Celebrating the infinitely creative spirit of the Eternal City, the 2022 Summit featured esteemed speakers and savvy guides from the worlds of Italian architecture, design, hospitality, fashion, and media. Erik, being a member of the DLN now for 4 years, attended the summit.

DLN Members and Partners enjoyed exclusive opportunities to make lifelong connections and access spectacular spaces not open to the public, all while gaining insight into the soul of Rome and the heart of Italian design, style, and culture. After landing in an unseasonably warm and blue-skied Rome, attendees started off their Summit experience with exclusive tours that transported them to some of the city’s most exciting ateliers, cultural sites, and more, from an intimate gathering at the home of Marella Caracciolo Chia to a private wine tasting with Marchesi Antinori. Later in the evening, guests toasted at the celebrated Villa Medici, enjoying panoramic views of Rome and commemorating another year together with the DLN. Attendees then dispersed into the city for dine-around dinners, held within spaces testifying to the beauty and range of Roman style, from Baroque palaces to a historic apartment filled with contemporary art.

On Day 2 of the Design Leadership Summit, guests had started to get reacquainted with Rome, as they launched into another day of discovery and community. In the morning, author Marella Caracciolo Chia, style director Gianluca Longo of The World of Interiors, 26th-generation winemaker Alessia Antinori, and culinary icon Massimo Bottura addressed guests from the stage of the Auditorium della Conciliazione, a stone’s throw from St. Peter’s Basilica. Attendees later ventured out for another round of tours, seeing a side of Rome they had never experienced. By the evening, participants met up at the historic Palazzo Colonna for moonlit cocktails in a fountain-filled courtyard garden and a private tour, which included the Sala Grande (or Great Hall), a fresco-filled Baroque dreamscape rivaling Versailles. The evening concluded with a celebration of landscape architect Janice Parker, winner of the 2022 Design Leadership Award.

On the final day, attendees returned to the Auditorium della Conciliazione to be inspired by the legendary architect Piero Lissoni, Cabana magazine founder and editor-in-chief Martina Mondadori, hotelier Antonio Sersale of Le Sirenuse fame, designer Britt Moran of Dimorestudio, and Ferrari’s design director Flavio Manzoni. As guests began to depart, others joined the DLN yet again for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to privately tour the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. Attendees looked upward at Michelangelo’s famous frescoes within an otherwise empty chapel – the most visited interior on Earth, where each day typically sees 20,000 visitors.