Our interview with Andrea Ferolla and Daria Reina

The Rome of two authentic aesthetes who created the Chez Dédé concept store

Andrea Ferolla and Daria Reina are a couple in both life and work. The authors of Italian Chic, the guide to Italian good taste by Assouline, they have worked as creative directors, designers and communication consultants in the luxury industry for over 20 years. He is a sophisticated artist and illustrator, she is a photographer, travel editor and taste-maker. He is Italian, she is Franco-Italian. Together, in Rome, they created Chez Dede, the natural development of their creative and sophisticated nature.

“We decided to do, on a larger scale, exactly what we have been doing for ourselves for years - Daria says - travelling, creating beauty in all forms, promoting excellence wherever we find it, sharing wonders in order to keep their memory preserved, meeting interesting people”.

French music, soft lights, velvet sofas, chinaware, lifestyle magazines and rare and antique books, accessories such as the Grands Sacs, large canvas bags for the city or the beach. Chez Dede lives by one rule only: make customers feel at home. In short, it is more of an unforgettable experience than a boutique or concept store. “We are located in a Renaissance building of Rione Regola (Rome’s smallest neighborhood), downtown, on what is considered to be by now, with our contribution as well, Rome’s most elegant street: Via di Monserrato” Andrea says.

“Since the opening of the shop, about seven years ago, we have been joined by some amazing neighbors with whom we enjoy working together on initiatives that increase the lovely atmosphere we have here”. “We both grew up far from Rome and we could not be unmoved by our first experience with this open-air Pucciniesque scene. For two art and formal beauty lovers like us - Daria concludes- Rome is addictive. No city ever seems to be enough when you get used to all this. I feel very grateful to all the great artists, architects and poets who left us all this beauty. We need to take care of it and, if possible, pass on, in turn, something good to be enjoyed by the future generations”.

Books
The Fahrenheit 451 bookshop, a cultural garrison of excellence in Campo de' Fiori, where we always discover rare volumes and unobtainable magazines. And La Antica Libreria Cascianelli, behind Piazza Navona: practically a temple for aesthetes and free thinkers, whose vestal Valentina guards small rooms full of irresistible curiosities.

Film
The Hollywood video library, a stone's throw from us in Via di Monserrato, is an institution frequented by the elite of international cinema, by those who make cinema and by those who deeply love cinema.
Cinemas
The Cinema Farnese, in Campo de' Fiori, is to be supported and screens films that can only be seen there in Rome. To rediscover the pleasure of going to the Cinema with a capital C.

Food
Pasticceria La Deliziosa, in Vicolo Savelli: try their croissants at breakfast and you'll understand. Ristorante Pierluigi, in Piazza de' Ricci, a vibrant salon of cosmopolitan glamour, a privileged destination for paparazzi and bon vivants welcomed in one of the most elegant monumental squares in the centre. But the Trattoria da Settimioal Pellegrino, in a parallel street of Corso Vittorio, is truly a place-symbol of Rome: homely hospitality and cuisine with a very limited menu, always the same, unchanging for 70 years. Here the various souls meet, noble and popular, artistic and clerical, bourgeois and bohemian, worldly and discreet of the most authentic Rome.
Here, in the tiny open kitchen, Teresa cooks the best grilled meatballs in Rome. At the tables, faces from the neighbourhood, famous faces, foreigners who know it all, incredible characters. Casting is done by Mr Mario, directly at the door, with careful selection.
Probably, in time, if you are faithful, you will be given a nickname. We have earned that of 'the Lords of Monserrato'. This is Rome, the Rome we like'.

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