At the beginning of the 20th century, the restaurant was taken over by the Gioco family, who transformed it into a landmark for Italian gastronomy and the city’s cultural life. For over thirty years, 12 Apostoli was a temple of haute cuisine, frequented by writers, artists, and intellectuals such as Gabriele D’Annunzio, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Indro Montanelli, Enzo Biagi, and Giorgio De Chirico, and served as the home of the historic 12 Apostoli Literary Prize.
In 2023, after 102 years of management by the Gioco family, chef Giancarlo Perbellini returned here—where he had taken his first steps in the kitchen alongside Giorgio Gioco—creating a new “Casa” for his guests, deeply rooted in his own memory and the future of fine dining.
The renovation project, designed by Patricia Urquiola and architect Silvia Bettini, enhances the restaurant’s historical layers — frescoed rooms, ancient vaults, Roman and medieval cellars — translating them into a contemporary, warm, and essential language.The spaces are conceived as rooms in a home: welcoming and intimate, balanced between elegance and functionality.
The restaurant unfolds across three distinct environments: the Sala del Vòlto, the Sala degli Affreschi, and the Chef’s Table. Here, the kitchen opens up to the guests, offering a unique perspective of the brigade in motion and transforming the service into a moment of sharing and storytelling.
