Charming hotel in Rome
 

We will be in Rome in early August for 3 nights. I would like to stay in a smaller property. Looking for great charm and a nice location. We prefer a hotel with a small bar but we don't necessarily need a restaurant in the hotel itself. Rooms with a balcony or a rooftop bar would be nice.We certainly enjoy walking and will also be using the metro. I need 2 rooms and would like to pay around $300 to $350 US per night.
If you have a favorite small hotel I would love to hear about it.
Thank you 1jan1

<< I need 2 rooms and would like to pay around $300 to $350 US per night. >>

For each room? or for the two, together? If the latter, you might have to provide your own charm, at that price...

Best wishes,

Rex

Oh! sorry I didn't make that clear. I plan to pay $300 to $350 or up to $400 per room per night.
Thanks
1jan1

Not a personal recommendation as I haven't stayed there, but I bookmarked this hotel because of its roof terrace. It might fit your needs:
http://www.hotelsanfrancesco.net/index.html

I've also bookmarked this one, at a bit higher price: www.hotelmorgana.com

Maybe someday I'll get back to Rome...if Paris lets me go.

We stayed at the Hotel San Francesco last July. We really liked it, esp. the roofop bar and the excellent breakfast. If I recall it was near a tram stop.

We're staying at ALBERGO DEL SENATO this July. It's just across a tiny street from the Pantheon, and within about a 20-30 minute walk from the Colisseum, less from the Trevi Fountain.

The hotel should be within your price range. It's got a rooftop bar, and some rooms have small terraces facing the Piazza della Rotunda. The only problem is going to be availability. The hotel is very popular these days!

Good luck!

We always stay at the Forum in Rome.

http://www.hotelforumrome.com/

As the name implies, it overlooks the Forum and Coliseum. Has a lovely roof top restaurant (I've only had breakfast, though)and a charming rooftop bar from which you can see sunset over the forum.

I've never had a balcony room but I believe they exist. Many rooms have views.

Friendly and convenient both for walking and metro. Plenty of really, really good restaurants nearby.

I'm going to Paris next week but just looking at the Forum website makes me wish I were going to Rome instead. :)

Hotel Ponte Sisto

http://www.hotelpontesisto.it/web/

A wonderful location but doesn't feel like it's in the middle of a million tourists.

Jan:

I bookmarked many small luxury hotels in Rome, though I knew we wouldn't spend that much.

Can you narrow down what "nice location" means? Do you require being in the historic center or is location secondary to quality of accommodations?

Forget charm-if you are going to be in Rome in August your number one priority for a hotel should be air conditioning. Trust me!

dutyfree, do you have any recommendations for Rome hotels that have great A/C?

I have some but not handy at the moment since I am leaving early for London tomorrow and just was doing one last internet check of email,etc. I will be back on Wednesday so will come up with some for you then. I will talk to some of my flying buddies to see if they have some to add to the A/C list for you-okay?

take a look at the Inn at the Spanish Steps. they have a lovely rooftop where they serve breakfast and an evening snack. i never tried the evening snack. i had an interior room which was small but nice. i think the exterior rooms are probably nicer. the hotel is in a good location and you are right at the metro stop. it is a very crowded location though.

Dutyfree, thanks. I'm not in any hurry, but it would be nice to have a list of these, because I agree with you that A/C is an extremely important consideration in the summer.

JeanneB - We will only be in Rome for 4 nights. Plan on using the metro, walking, cabs, etc - as far as location goes - I would like to be able to walk to nice restaurants and be in a safe neighborhood. I am not yet sure of the sights we plan to visit - I would more like to just enjoy Rome. As we will be there in August and I do not enjoy the heat I will probably plan on absorbing the joy of Rome and not try to do a helter skelter visit.
And yes, as Dutyfree reminded me I definitely am interested in air conditioning.
Thank you for all of your good ideas...I plan to do some searching this evening.
1jan1

1jan1, I have to agree with the poster marmot and recommend Hotel Forum. We did have a room with a balcony and it was wonderful. If you are looking for old world charm this place has it. Good location too, although a walk to St. Peter's is pretty agressive, we did it anyway and loved getting lost on all the small and wandering streets. I really loved this hotel, even the old elevator had charm!

A word of caution though, if you take a taxi from the airport make sure they drive you to the front. It is on a small road that is not easy to access. Our taxi driver ripped us off--basically charged us double rate but stayed about a block away from the hotel, telling us he could not drive up there. We later learned that they do this so that you don't ask the hotel about the taxi rate from the airport. It was so outrageous we sorta knew we were being ripped off but we didn't care all that much after a 15 hour travel day. We cared a lot more the next day, mainly out of principle!