Going to Rome with my husband for 1 week to celebrate our anniversary. Looking for a beautiful hotel - price not a concern - leaving the children home! Also, any recommendations for day trips, private driver or bus tour, how to best see the Vatican, restaurants...
Thank you!

Many thanks to all the Fodorites for help in planning our trip, as per usual! We had a fantastic week. Noteworthy tips for Fodorites:
B&B Daphne Trevi--excellent, see reviews on Tripadvisor.com
Best neighborhood restaurants: "da Olimpia", Via degli Avignonesi, 37-38 and "Gioia Mia" Pisciapiano, Via degli Avignonesi, 34. Reservations are needed at the later, esp.
Tour guide: Micaela Pavoncello (€120/2 hrs, tel. 328-863-8128, www.jewishroma.com, [email protected]).
Tours: ICON http://www.icontours.com/
Side trip to Ostia Antica was very interesting.
In 6.5 days, decided another day trip was not necessary.

Hi Jed117 -

Hotel - Hotel Due Torri near Piazza Navona www.hotelduetorriroma.com Great location.
Tours - Scala Reale - I think the name has changed to Context Rome but if you go to www.scalareale.org it will connect you. Excellent tour of the Vatican and the Vatican Museum and I think they have other tours also.
Restaurants: Antica Taverna - via Monte Giordano 12 (near the Piazza Navona)
Da Francesco, Piazza Del Fico 20 (also near Piazza Navona) Pizza and SO much fun!! You will get to know your dining neighbors real quick because you are jammed in there.
You will have a wonderful time in a beautiful city.

Caesar House--VERY romantic. Only 6 rooms in an 18-century building just 1/2-block from The Forum & Palatine Hill, and 2 blocks from the Colosseum (we walked almost everywhere). Each room is decorated differently. Brand-new everything, including air conditioning you can actually control (not true in many other places no matter what they tell you), private bathrooms, small fridge, etc. Staff of 2-3 on duty at all times. Chilled wine and snacks waiting for you each day, fresh bakery delivered to your door each morning. We paid $170 Euro last August. Check out their web site: www.caesarhouse.com Best place we ever stayed.

How to see the Vatican & other sites: we were approached at the Vatican and Colosseum about joining English-speaking tours. We got to hear each tour guide a little before committing, which was great. Turned out to be better than most of the tours we planned ahead of time. Plus, at the Colosseum, we walked right by everyone else in the 2-hour line and went right in--worth every penny for this reason alone.

Restaurants: Just behind Caesar House is a tiny place called La Piazzeta--not expensive (60 Euro which included lots of wine), great salad and dessert buffets--I heard from a friend that it has been written up in New York Times. We also loved Passetto, which is near the Piazza Navona--a little more expensive, but fabulous meal (their abbacchio--lamb--is like nothing we have ever tasted).

I can't offer hotel suggestions since we stayed in an apartment, but I can highly recommend the private driver/tour guide that we used a couple of weeks ago. His name was Stefano Constantini with Rome Cabs and he was professional, courteous, prompt and a real gem overall.

We used him for airport transfers, a day tour into the countryside, a tour around Rome, and a night tour around the city.

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/romecabs/

My wife and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary last December in Rome for a week over New Years and had a great time. I would highly recommend a bus tour to Naples/Pompeii. You can find a tour at any hotel. I can't remember the name of the one we took. As I remember, the tour cost about 100 Euros apiece. The tour was for the whole day and was very worthwhile. The view of Naples was beautiful. Pompeii was better than I thought it would be. Looking up from the ruins to Mount Vesuvius takes you back in time to that fateful night. I wish I was going again soon! Have fun without the kids (we did and didn't feel guilty at all). Happy Anniversary in advance.

Make copies of your passports/credit cards/tkts. Wear a neck pouch and money belt. Don't carry anything....or the gypsies will get it..

If money is no object, I wouldn't go to a budget hotel. I would stay at the Hassler.
http://www.hotelhasslerroma.com

Or one of the other top hotels.