I have to make a decision soon on a hotel for the surprise trip to Rome for my husband. Can anyone tell me anything about the following hotels? - Visconti, Stendahl, Dei Mellini, Mascagni or Cicerone. Has anyone stayed at any of these and which one would you recommend? Time is getting short and I need to choose.

Type "Cicerone" in the search block and you will see my comments

I stayed at the Visconti Palace. We were upgraded at no extra charge from a regular room to a jr. suite. There were three of us and maybe that's why we got the jr. suite + they may not have had full occupancy so we were lucky. The room was decorated simply and it was spacious as was the full bathroom. Nice bath amenities and there was a speaker in the bath so you could listen to your program if you wanted to.
The staff were efficient and polite. The b'fast was the typical full continental type.
The only drawback was that our room faced the street and the windows were single paned.

Of course, this was in 2001, so there may have been changes since.

The Hotel dei Mellini was acquired after we left and now the Visconti and dei Mellini are related. I would love to have stayed at the dei Mellini instead as it looked like a boutique hotel, small, intimate. It's only a few short blocks away from the Visconti Palace also. Nice area which is called Prati. Close to the Vatican and also not a bad walk over the Tiber River to the hot spots: Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, etc.

Coincidentally my relatives stayed at the Cicerone which is just a few blocks away from the Visconti Palace. They loved the Cicerone and in short, think it's first-rate. They would stay there again.

Have you read the reviews on Tripadvisor.com? I'd check there.

Trip Advisor has numerous reviews of Hotel Dei Mellini and Hotel Mascagni. The Stendhal, Visconti and Cicerone are reviewed but not as extensively. I'll be staying at the Dei Mellini for 6 nights next week, so I'd also be interested in hearing any feedback from fodorites.

Suggesting as politely as I know how - - and this is chiefly for the benefit of other newbies readig this - - that it would have been much mor considerate to all, if your message header had mentioned &quot;hotels <i><b>in Rome</b></i>.

And maybe &quot;would appreciate&quot; is a better verb choice than &quot;need&quot;?

I regret that I do not know any of these hotels.

Have a great trip. We'll appreciate your coming back here to report on your experiences in Rome.

Best wishes,

Rex

Thank you for the input. I was in a hurry when I placed the original message. I would greatly appreciate any help on hotels in Rome. I am also interested in the Capo D'Africa since it has gotten great reviews at Trip Advisor. Has anyone stayed there?

May I also suggest that you check out the reviews of Italian hotels (including Rome) on SlowTrav.com here:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/hotels/index.htm

--Marv

chritty: To clarify what Rex meant (just to help you w/ later posts) -- it would be a huge help if you put &quot;Rome&quot; and perhaps even the hotel names in the TITLE of your thread, not just somewhere in the body.

All threads are lumped together in one Europe Forum so &quot;I need some feedback on hotels&quot; could be asking about anywhere in Europe. Better titles would ensure that Rome experts would see/read your question.

You have been lucky this time and got some decent response . . . . . . .