When the Italian jeweller and luxury goods brand Bulgari offered to renovate Rome’s world-famous Spanish Steps, the debt-ridden city bowed its head and offered a simple ‘Grazie’. It was meant to become one in a string, more like a pearl necklace of prestigious Roman monuments to be refurbished at the hands of the fashion sector, after the Colosseum was cleaned thanks to the shoe and leather people at Tod’s, and fur traders Fendi revitalised the Trevi Fountain.
Such public-private partnerships arouse typically Italian passions, hand gestures, curse words, and so on and so forth. The Spanish Steps after all are the steps of Audrey Hepburn, who in Roman Holiday showed the world that the Eternal City could also be stylish and modern, seven years before Federico Fellini and La Dolce Vita.
So when Bulgari suggested not only restoring the landmark’s 135 marble steps, but replacing every ninth with a surface of diamonds, conservationists – ‘Vaffanculo!’ – cried out. But whether blinded by the glitz or unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth, the city assembly swiftly acceded to the proposal.
Diamonds of course are notorious for more than their beauty, considered by scientists to be the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth. Yet pear or marquise cut, or in a setting of pink-gold pavé, they are also inordinately slippery. It would be enough to have Audrey Hepburn twist in her full-length midi skirt, or Gregory Peck fall backwards onto the seat of his pleated pants.
Encrusted with diamonds, with the odd sapphire sprinkled here and there, the Spanish Steps today are more slide than staircase. From the Trinità dei Monti church at the top to the Piazza di Spagna at their base, visitors shoot down the steps with barely a glimpse of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House.
Having spent €1.5 million on the project, Bulgari has said that the shine from their diamonds will allow the Spanish Steps to remain open and navigable 24/7, a point of contention between those who desire preservation and those who demand an urban environment they can use. Recently elected mayor Virginia Raggi sides strongly with the latter group, calling repeatedly for a ‘livable’ Rome. The diamonds have certainly caught her eye, as too pointy to serve cycle paths, she reportedly considers using them as a traffic calming measure.
