Delfina Delettrez’s Rome begins at the Piazza Navona.  “Everything is here,” she says.  “You just walk to see the churches and little streets, little bars, and little spots.” Delettrez’s own boutique is located on Via del Governo Vecchio, just behind the piazza, alongside some of her favorite vintage shops. (“They don’t have proper names,” she says). A family woman at heart, she admits she can be “very traditional,” and is fond of staying in to savor the company of friends and relatives. “I fall in love with the people in a place,” she says. But she is an expert on the city's hidden pleasures, a few of which she shares here.


L’Una e L’Altro, Piazza Pasquino

Though admittedly not much of a shopper (she says), Delettrez goes to L’Una e L’Altra for designers such as Limi Feu and Yohji Yamamoto. Opened in 1983, the shop-cum-art space is a bastion of deconstructionist style in Rome, and the city’s exclusive stockist of Issey Miyake’s A-POC and Pleats Please lines.

Degli Effetti, Piazza Capranica

Spread over three storefronts on Rome’s Piazza Capranica (no. 93 for women, no. 79 for men and no. 75 for unisex avant-garde), this is Delettrez’s mecca for Comme des Garçons and Maison Martin Margiela. The shop at number 79, Neo-Millenium, boasts an interior designed by architect Massimiliano Fuksas (whose other projects include the Armani store in Ginza, Tokyo).

MAS, Via dello Statuto

This indoor market, on Via dello Statuto in Rome’s Esquilino neighborhood, is where Delfina scouts special treasures, such as dead stock clothing from the 60s and 70s. Visitors can rummage through an overwhelming selection of clothes, textiles, luggage and jewelry every morning and afternoon, seven days a week.

Altroquando, Piazza Pasquino

The walls of Delfina’s studio are lined with books from this cinephile’s dream. The shop specializes in rare Hollywood mementos, including vintage film posters and books autographed by movie stars, and is stocked with film theory titles plus a range of art books new and collectible.

Settimio al Pellegrino, Via del Pellegrino

This family-run, classic trattoria is Delettrez’s most-beloved restaurant. “You have to ring the doorbell. If they don’t know you, they don’t open for you—even if it’s empty,” she says. “It’s like going to your grandma’s house.” The quintessentially Italian eatery is also a favorite of government officials—it’s just down the street from the Senate house.