Best location to stay in Rome
 

What is the best "central" location to stay in Rome. City Center? By the Vatican?
There were also quite a few near the Termini Train Station (which we will be taking several day trips by train) is that a decent area? Close to the city?

Neither of those would be a great location. Near the Vatican is only close to the Vatican and too far from everything else you will want to see, and Termini also isn't close. The best area is Piazza Navona/Campo de' Fiori/Pantheon. Close to most everything, you can walk almost everywhere, plenty of bus connections, lots of good restaurants and ambience.

Can anyone recommend a decent hotel Piazza Navona/Campo de' Fiori/Pantheon
no more than $150 per night:)?

Single or double?

double....and any recs. for apartment rentals. We typically use vbro.com for rentals...but they don't seem to have much in the area

Check out www.sleepinitaly.com. I used them in March, and they were a pleasure to deal with. They have a lot in that area.

Teatro Pace 33 is someplace you should check out, given your budget.

I'm going to disagree that staying near the Vatican is not sufficiently "central." I had an extremely pleasant and AFFORDABLE stay at Hotel La Rovere in Roma, and found that within 20 minutes I could walk to Piazza Navona or Campo dei Fiori or the heart of Trastevere. Not to mention that the Vatican is at your doorstep.

http://www.romeby.com/larovere/index.html

It is a challenge to find restaurants in the Vatican area, however, and for first time visitors to Roma, I would suggest the Pantheon/Piazza Navona area as optimal.

It really isn't worth it to stay by Termini. The area is a tad depressing, and even if you are doing a lot of day trips outside of Roma, it's much better to have accomodations in Roma that are in an enjoyable neighborhood.

PS: For apartment rentals, check out the Slow Travel website, which has many leads to Roman apartments.

We used Romeby.com last year and were happy with our hotels (EXCEPT for Hotel Tiziano in Rome our last few nights-bad location, noisy, dumpy) but the Hotel Daniels was great, just down from the Spanish Steps on Via Frattina-very helpful staff, nice spacious rooms. Also used Florenceby.com. and Italyby.com for Positano and Tuscany accomodations. Had a great meal near Hotel Daniels at Caffe Romano where we saw John Voight having his evening meal alone, reading his lines! Apparently he was there filming that TV special on the Pope (Oct 2005) where he played...Pope John Paul! He was our only celebrity sighting. Pick up a MapEasy's Guidemap To Rome city map here in the states at Border's-terrific maps for getting familiar with the layout (hotels, museums, dining)before your trip and great to use for walking once there. TIP: Leave the Vatican visit for your last excursion. See the Borghese first and other cathedrals, etc THEN go to the Vatican. I loved the Borghese but if we had seen it after the Vatican it would have diminished the effect. The Vatican is overwhelming to put it lightly! Have fun!

Hi

Inner Rome is not that big so staying near Termini is not such a bad location. My wife and I went to Rome last year and we stayed near the train station...it was easy to get to and from the airport by train and it was easy to get around town by bus or metro. We could also walk to Collosseum in like 15-20 minutes. I have posted a trip report with pictures and links on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm :-) Maybe you can find some useful information there.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures