kwren

Well, I've been having fun looking for the "perfect" apartment in Rome for my husband and me along with a 17 year old boy and girl and have (sort of) settled on the Campo de Fiori/Navona area. It seems to be a fun area near the daily CDF daily market and equally located between the Colisseum, Vatican, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Are there negatives to this area that I should be considering? For example, there are no subways in the area. That doesn't matter so much to us since we plan on walking a lot, but what other things would people consider to be negatives? Are there a lot of restaurants here or is it more of a "downtown" working area? Are there a lot of busses in case we walk too much one day and want to ride home? One place's description said that the nearest grocery store is 15 minutes away.

Should we consider other areas too? Sometimes I toy with the idea of Trastevere or the Spanish Steps areas. Are there major negatives to those areas or am I wrongfully excluding them?

What has anyone found that I might be overlooking?

Grazie!

marty

I have been to Rome many times and stayed in different neighborhoods. I can think of no negatives for the Fiori/Navoan area. There are plenty of buses right out on Victor Emmanuel just a couple of blocks from either area. There are many, many good restaurants, and even a good Irish pub on Governo Vecchio, if you get tired of trying to deal in Italian and need a break! There is lots of shopping the area, and everything, including Tratavere, walkable. Trastevere is lovely, but it is a hike to some of the other areas of Rome to which you could easily walk from Navona. The Spanish Steps is out of the way, also.

elaine

I love the Fiori/Navona area, it is as central as it gets, and I always want my hotel to be there. You don't say how long your stay will be. One week? One month? In an apartment, as opposed to a hotel, with lots of time to spare, Trastevere is more quiet and charming,and with more residential areas. You might feel more like a local for your time there. But for the historic center's main sightseeing you'll just have to do a bit more walking, that's all. There is more than one excellent area to stay in, you needn't be making a mistake to choose one over the other.

Zerlina

It is not a "downtown" working area; it's the historic center.
There are bus connections to anywhere you might want to go at Largo di Torre Argentina. There are abundant grocery stores in the area. The historic center is chock-a-block with restaurants, cafes and bars in every price range. The negatives are that the area is very popular and hence higher priced than some others and that many of the restaurants are touristy.

Trastevere is less well connected, but restaurants are by and large cheaper (and mostly of lower quality); the Spanish Steps are also less well connected and generally pricier, for both apartments and restaurants.

kwren

Thanks Marty and Elaine - It sounds like I am on track with my original plan!

I'll be booking for 5, maybe 6, nights - we're deciding on whether to go to Pompeii first and spend a night there so as to get an early (and hopefully cooler) start or go straight to Rome and do Pompeii as a day trip. (Feel free to comment on that too - I may make that another post later on).

How long does it take to walk from Piazza Navona to Campo de Fiori - just so I have an idea of the scale of the area. If I could only narrow down my apt choices now - they all sound nice!

Zerlina

It is about 400 yards from Piazza Navona to Campo dei Fiori, and it will take four minutes to walk.

kwren

That's a lot closer than I had imagined! Good to know

marty

When you get to Rome, you will realized that everything is a lot closer than it appears on the map!

jelopez33

kwren:
I agree every roman atraction is relatively close to the Navona -C. di Fiori area; at least for us,great walkers!!!.
We were there for 6 days last september you can read the report at http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...1-to-oct-3.cfm
I think also that Pompeii is a perfect day trip from Rome.
Enjoy your stay!!!

kwren

Thanks for your link - I actually read it yesterday!

We're leaning towards going from Tuscany directly to Pompeii for a day, then going to Rome. I just hope it's not raining!

annhig

hi kwren,

we stayed west of the piazza navona in February, and found it to be a pretty well perfect location. you can walk to most places, and those you can't, you can catch buses to from the corso vittorio emanuale [which you have to cross to get from the piazza navona to campo dei fiori] in either direction and there are loads of restaurants and other useful shops and bars.

click on my screen -name and you can find my screen report too, which you might find useful as we had our son [19] with us.

have a great trip!

daveesl

Go to my website and you'll find lots and lots of free info. Check out the Google maps, the Library area and favorite bus routes.

www.passagetoroma.com

Also, until we finalize all 6 tours for the DVD, you can watch them on our Vimeo HD video site for free. There are 4 on there now.

http://www.vimeo.com/user2049789/videos


Dave