DESERT BLING

The art of Roman craftsmanship made a pit stop in Dubai as Bvlgari celebrated its Aeterna collection.

- By ARMAN KHAN

When I was in Rome last summer, I'd visited the birthplace of the Roman Empire, which, at its peak, stretched from Portugal in the west to Mesopotamia in the east, and from North Africa in the south to Britain in the north. The grandeur of the Gladiator films is still present in the Rome of today, albeit in subtler ways.

The city, once home to grand temples and palaces, now stands as a patchwork of history. These flourishes of antiquity reveal themselves in the wall mosaics of the Baths of Caracalla, the triumphal arches of the Forum and the Corinthian columns of the Colosseum. Now imagine these rich elements transformed into a statement necklace: a mosaic of memories finding their form in gleaming gemstones and sculpted metal.