Get up close and personal with exclusive, inspiring interviews and taste profiles delivered with a cheeky twist to your inbox daily.

Success! You’re all signed up. 🎉
Please enter a valid email address.

By subscribing to our email newsletter, you agree to and acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Policy and Terms.

Cynthia Rowley Doesn’t Like to Plan

When in Rome...

Travel
Cynthia Rowley Doesn’t Like to Plan

When we met designer Cynthia Rowley’s husband, Bill Powers, recently, we noted his seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy. But now we’re starting to see that trait also applies to his wife, the endlessly chic brain behind her eponymous line (and those so-cute-they-make-us-want-to-learn-to-surf wet suits).

Rowley generously offered to bring us along on her recent family trip to Rome, and we happily obliged. If there’s anyone who knows how to travel well, it’s this family. Between visiting Trevi Fountain and sipping Limoncello, it’s safe to say we have full-on FOMO.

The Italians have a term for wet-on-wet painting called alla prima, which literally means ‘at first attempt.’ While the term describes a painter layering one coat over the next before either has a chance to dry, I like to apply it to my vacation travels,” she says. “In my version, you check into your chic boutique hotel—this gem, the Palazzo Dama, was recommended by Mr & Mrs Smith, and is set alongside the Tiber River—you take a walk to the Spanish Steps before the bellboy has a chance to bring up your bags, then you dine at Julian Schnabels favorite Roman hideaway before catching the last train to Naples. Some travelers might call this scheduling hectic, but I prefer to think of it as on-the-road alla prima, where one memory colors the flavor of the next adventure.

Click through to see everything they did, everywhere they went, and everything they ate in Rome.


1/19
Buongiorno, Roma! One of the only swimming pools in the middle of the city.”
Part of the series:

On The Road

VIEW THE SERIES
You May Also Like