corinnem

Do you recommend the Hotel Santa Maria in Travestere?

franco

Corinne, I don't recommend any hotels or apartments since I don't know them... all of my last Rome visits have been spent in apartments not available to the broad public for booking, sorry.

Conlet

bookmarking

tbell

bkmk

Peteralan

franco or anyone, can you tell me whether via luciano manara or via san francesco are in the desirable parts of Trastevere? Many thanks.

franco

Via Luciano Manara is precisely on the border between the busy part to the north and the "real life" part to the south; and Via S. Francesco a Ripa (supposing this is what you mean by Via S. Francesco) is cutting through both parts, and proceeding south of Viale Trastevere into the really unspoiled, "Roman" part of Trastevere.

Peteralan

Thank you franco. Do you recommend one area over the other?

franco

Peter, if you have a look on the map, you'll see that it's the very same area, just that one of the two lanes is going west-east, and the other north-south (more or less); they're even crossing each other. There is actually not enough distance to prefer one lane over the other. Perhaps, if the accomodation is located on the southern tip of Via S. Francesco a Ripa, on the other side of Viale Trastevere, that would be the preferable location within the range of these two lanes.

Peteralan

Thank you Franco. I can proceed from that.

romana

“Another district to avoid is the one between the Colosseum and the Lateran – that's the one and only part of historic Rome where safety is a problem (everyone advises not to go there at night, so I wouldn't want to have my apartment/hotel there!).”

This really made me laugh. This area, called Celio, has been my home for the past ten years and is absolutely one of the nicest parts of Rome, surrounded by all of Ancient Rome’s most beautiful monuments. Take a look at any of the parks around the area and you will see it is a neighborhood popular with young families, apparently they have not yet been clued in by “everyone” about how dangerous it is at night. I will have to translate this “advice” to provide a little chuckle to our neighborhood newsletter. There are lovely hotels in the area, so I can only recommend that travellers be wary when they read “everyone says” by someone who clearly doesn’t know the locations first-hand.

franco

Thank you for the nice contribution. If you had read more than the first few postings on this thread, you'd have noticed that the question has been broadly discussed, and that I have corrected this outdated information quite many postings above yours.

butnotrmpt

I returned 2 weeks ago from my Italy trip. In Rome we stayed just off the Piazza Navona, which was certainly a central location. But if we ever return, I think we would choose to stay in Trastevere. It was just a more peaceful area - less crowded, less traffic, yet not too far out of the way. Franco is definitely right in his recommendation of this area.

Greg_W

Great thread, very helpful in getting a sense of locations.

I'm looking at an apartment (for myself & 16 yo son) in Trastevere for a 2 week stay over Xmas. The location is Via della Gensola.

From what I've read it would seem this is a good location, namely a "quiet" area but close enough to the "lively" areas of Trastevere as well as the historical centre across the river.

Am I on the right track ? Thanks for any feedback

franco

Greg, you've hit the nail on the head. Rent and enjoy!

goldtwins

Franco -

As promised here are the streets for the apts I'm looking at for our 4 days in Rome in August.I'm trying to paste the map link here. If it doesn't work the streets are two in Campo Fiori area:
Via Monserrato
Largo Dei Librari

http://maps.google.com/?q=Via+Monser...amp;iwloc=addr
http://maps.google.com/?q=Largo+dei+...p;t=h&z=16

This one in Trastevere may not be too bad either - at viale di Trastevere 114.

From all the posters, I've gotten mixed advice on whether to stay in Trastevere or Campo Fiori/Piazza Novanna. It's my husband & I and the twin 14 yr old boys for 4 days. We're NYers so we're used to walking and public transportation. I just worry that if we're in Trastevere we give up the option to return to the apt midday and the back and forth over the bridge will get tiring.

I'm also getting very frustrated with the rental agents and owners - I haven't received a response from Sleepinitaly.com for a couple of days. And, I had been emailing back and forth to Christian at Accommodation Service.it and when I committed to an apt he stopped responding.That was a few weeks ago. The apt is on Corso V. Emanuele & Via Sora, I think. Is it worth pursuing?

Thanks again for your help.

goldtwins

Here's one more - Via Boccaccio.

Vttraveler

goldtwins
I think there is some general information about public transit from Trastevere in this thread and others but here are a few more specific details. tram #8 runs up Viale di Trastevere over the Ponte Garibaldi, up Via Arenula to Largo di Torre Argentina which is a central transit stop. The #23 buses that run along the Tiber (opposite side going north, Trastevere side going south) are easy to take to/from the Vatican area

The bus fares are reasonable and there are different pass options if you are going to take multiple trips per day.

I think with public transit you could get back to Trastevere mid-day quite easily if you want.

franco

Of the four apartments you are currently considering, the one on Viale Trastevere is in my favourite district, and is very convenient as far as public transport, BUT it also has considerably more traffic than the others, so I wouldn't prefer it. Via del Boccaccio and Via Monserrato are both in particularly nice neighbourhoods, Largo dei Librari somewhat less so, but has better traffic connections than all three others. Via del Boccaccio also is in a good position as far as busses, Via Monserrato is the loser of the four in this respect.
As Vttraveler already told you, it's definitely a misinterpretation that it would take more time to go to Trastevere for a lunch break - the tram from Largo Argentina to Viale Trastevere is the very best public transport in all of Rome and carries you to Trastevere in a heartbeat, and Largo Argentina is THE central bus hub and easily reachable from everywhere. BUT it's also a misapprehension that you'd go home regularly for lunch - Rome is far too large for that! This is by no means a compact historic center, and if you want to see more than just the immediate surroundings of your apartment (wherever you rent), you'll most certainly not lunch at home, or at least not more often than once or twice during a one-week-stay - it would be too time-consuming, never mind if you stay in Trastevere or near Campo dei Fiori/Piazza Navona. (By the way, if you allow me to take the opportunity, I'll never understand who introduced that additional "n" to Piazza NAVONA that's so common on Fodor's, and why - all I know is that if you really pronounce it like NAVONNA, no Roman will understand you.)
As far as communicating with Italy by email, don't be surprised if they don't answer in reasonable time (or never) - on the contrary, I'm always very surprised if they do! Italians don't love email, and have a very uneasy attitude towards it. Never email Italians first; always call by phone (the numbers are on "your" agencies' websites), and only email afterwards, to make a definite reservation.

goldtwins

Franco -
Thank you for your suggestions. I am going to try calling the agents before I decide on one of these apts. What do you think of this area - Corso V. Emanuele & Via Sora? This is the apt I really liked first. I want the neighborhood to be safe and interesting for walking around, especially in the evening for dinner so we don't have to go too far if we don't want to after a busy day of touring. I want to have a grocery near by. I don't want to be too far from transportation that we need to get elsewhere in the city. I'd love to experience a really interesting neighborhood. But I can't have everything and the size of the apt/bedrooms/kitchen is really important, too.

Also, thank you for correcting the spelling of Piazza Novona - now I hope I have the pronunciation right, too.

Look for more posts from me in the next few days as I try to get thru to the agents by phone. Thanks again.

franco

goldtwins, sorry, I forgot to comment on that one. Difficult... you'd need the precise street address, and look it up on google maps or viamichelin. If it's immediately on Corso V. Emanuele, forget about it, that's the worst car & bus traffic hell in the whole center of Rome. If it's on Via Sora, a block away of the Corso, towards Via del Governo Vecchio, go for it if you like the apartment. It's one of Rome's most beautiful and most elegant neighbourhoods, just Corso V. Emanuele cutting through it with an awful amount of noise and smell and dust. Traffic connections are very good, though not as good as in Trastevere and on Largo dei Librari. A grocery, not likely. That's really an upscale area, and you'd rather find ten antique dealers than one grocer. But Campo dei Fiori is in easy walking distance, and while there are no grocers on Campo dei Fiori as well, there are fine market stalls every morning (except Sundays, of course).
Btw, NAvona, not NOvona...