My husband, son(16) and I will be staying in Rome for 4 days, April 9 - 13. Would appreciate suggestions on hotel accommodations ($300/night) near Spanish Steps, Colliseum, Pantheon and the Vatican. Any other thoughts on sights to see and places to eat would be wonderful.

At this point you should be willing to take what you can find since that is the Easter holiday. Try venere.com, but you've picked the busiest time in Rome at the highest season.

Rome's tourist board has itineraries for 48 and 96 hour trips.
http://www.romaturismo.it/v2/romain4...in4896ore.html

The Albergo del Senato has a fabulous view of the Pantheon and is often recommended by Fodor folks, which is why we stayed there in May 2007. We enjoyed our stay and would recommend it highly even though the hotel is in need of some updating. The roof top bar is a relaxing way to start the evening.

Armando's Restaurant is across the the plaza from the hotel and is not to be missed; wonderful food --- and the chef came out and happily smiled for a photo -- I did not ask him to do so, the waiter did simply because I raved about the quality of the gnocchi!

We ate there 3 times during our 4 days in Rome and by our third visit the staff treated us like family!

The del Senato is $430 a night for those dates.

All of your suggestions/replies are greatly appreciated. Have been researching my favorite site "Fodor's" but still feel overwhelmed! Any thoughts on Hotel Dei Mellini? Location? What do you suggest we do before going in terms of purchasing tickets or making reservations?

I'm not wild about the location of Hotel dei Mellini, but it is certainly much better than staying near Roma Termini. And I even think it's better than staying near Via Veneto. It's pretty close to the Piazza Navona area--just walk across a bridge. If you've found a reasonable rate for such a busy time, it's probably a good choice.

We rented an apartment this past January not too far from the location of Hotel dei Mellini (we were closer to Ponte Cavour), and the location is fine. It is a short walk to Piazza Navona, and a number of buses go across Ponte Cavour. Also, you can walk to Piazza del Populo and catch buses there, too.