Duomo Hotel

Hotel description

What was once a fading and slightly tacky seaside resort town is currently enjoying something of a renaissance, and a new hotel like the Duomo can’t help but propel the town a little further into the 21st century. The Israeli-born architect Ron Arad’s bold hypermodern redesign is aimed at a youth market that Rimini once neglected, and the Duomo is set to become an obligatory stop on the city’s burgeoning club scene.

Down a quiet side street in Rimini’s old quarter, the Duomo’s facade has been modernized; still, it can’t quite prepare the eye for the interior, the gleaming steel ring and columns of the reception, the bold colors of the public spaces, the cool tones and soft whites of the guest rooms. For all its flash, though, this is proof that modern design can be futuristic and functional at the same time — the rooms are striking but never awkward, and the bar and restaurant are successful spaces, if the bustle of constant activity is any measure.

This is certainly not your father’s Rimini, nor Fellini’s either. Time will only tell if the rest of the town evolves in this direction, but for now the Duomo works quite well as an attraction unto itself, an avant-garde outpost in a traditional town.