Boutique hotels in Rome
 

My 2 girlfriends and I will be spending 3 nights in Rome in mid-May. We wanted to see if any of you travelers had recommendations for hotels. We are really looking for a little hidden treasure that may be "undiscovered" by most travelers. We don't want a big, establishment hotel, but something that would give us the flavor of a great Italian neighborhood location. We are good walkers and are willing to walk a distance to all the main sites. We are mainly interested in the art museums and the Vatican. Not planning on going to the ruins this trip.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your help!
Marcia

We just booked here:

http://www.relaisbadoerinrome.com/en/

We haven't been yet but are excited about it :)

We stayed at Mario de Fiori and were happy there. It was clean, modern, and close to everything. We still managed to do an awful lot of walking. I think it might be better to stay in a more central location and get your exercise elsewhere? We are a couple so I'm not sure what other types of accommodations they offer, but they do have sister properties, Margutta 54 and Babuino 181. Happy hunting.

La Lunetta is a fairly new old hotel. I used to stay there when it was a backpacker hotel, but it's now out of my price range. It's what would be called a boutique hotel, in a nice little square near Campo de'Fiori. From here, you can walk to nearly everything in central Rome.

The most unusual hotel I know in Rome is on the Janiculum Hill. It's called the Villa Magnolia, and I see that it's now become a Relais hotel. When we were there, it was run by a very nice young couple; I don't know if they've sold it, or are just operating under the Relais umbrella.

The Villa Magnolia has an atmosphere that's almost rural; in fact, we heard a rooster crow in the morning. Our room had a little patio outside, with tables and chairs, facing a bamboo grove. It was really very charming. In one direction you can walk downhill to the Vatican, and in the other direction to Trastevere. For most art museums, you'd have to use a bus. In Trastevere, I can highly recommend the Villa Farnesina and the Corsini Gallery, which are right across the street from each other. There are a few restaurants nearby.

One thing that I found disconcerting about the Villa Magnolia is that it's on a narrow street with no sidewalk and no shoulder for at least 50 feet. Heading to the Vatican, there is a sidewalk in a fairly short distance, and in the other direction, you come to the end of the road fairly soon, and the other roads in the vicinity have sidewalks. This narrow road seems to be a shortcut for savvy Roman commuters, and at some times of day the traffic is fairly intense and very fast.

You can see the road, Via delle Fornaci, 437, on Google Maps street view to decide whether you can deal with it. After the first day, we got used to it.

We stayed at Dekorome, a new place on a floor in a non-hotel building near the Villa Borghese. The rooms are very modern and small. Price very reasonable. Young couple who started it very eager to help. Found it because highly rated on trip advisor then (June 2012).