Hi

After way too much time searching (far more time that I will actually spend in Rome lol ) I have pretty much settled on this apartment

http://idealrome.com/

Is there any reason that I should not ?

Its 520E for 4 nights in March next year.

I was tossing up with this one http://www.vrbo.com/138591 which is approximately the same price... I just really like the view from Ideal Rome.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Emerald

I wouldn't like the bed arrangement in the first apartment. You wouldn't even be able to stand up in that room.

Yes I did think of that but I am short and my husband said he would pretend he was camping....

Other than the bedroom is the area ok? It does not look too far on the map but having never been to Rome I am relying on google rather than experience

We stayed at Palazzo olivia. Perfect location, Clean, Quiet- You could not ask for any thing more. More expensive, but reasonable by Rome standards. You get what you pay for. I don't know what there off season rates are, but I expect that it is not that more expensive. Check it out.

Personally I would be fine with the location. You will be able to walk a lot of places, and if you want to take transit, you can do that too. I can't advise for sure on whether it will be noisy or not, but I think there's a strong likelihood, given that it has windows on via del Corso.

Probably the majority of posters here would prefer an apartment somewhere in the line between B and F on that map, but for me that is not at all necessary, particularly as it is typically more expensive.

Thanks Leuk, I had a look at Palazzo Olivia - they were only about 50 Euro more expensive for the one bedroom. I felt the living area looked a bit small for us. As our trip is 49 days in total - with an 11 yr old in tow - I am trying to make sure we are not under each others feet all the time. I will have another look though.

WillTravel - I live in Sydney and don't own a car so I am a public transport girl and walk everyone... not afraid of being a little off to the edge of the centre as long as it's not miles.. Is this closer than if we went to Trastevere?

It would depend which part of Trastevere, but this apartment is pretty close to a bunch of places. You can use Google Maps to help you get an idea. You can see from the map you are very close to Piazza del Parlamento. Say you wanted to walk from there to the Pantheon, which is at Piazza della Rotunda. According to Google Maps, that is a 6-minute walk. So allow yourself a generous five minutes to get out of your apartment and to Piazza del Parlamento, and you can see you are not far from the Pantheon.

Even the fastest walker will be slowed by hordes of tourists and traffic, so fully expect that you will need longer, certainly at first. But if you are an accustomed walker, I am sure you will be fine.

Actually, that much effort is probably not even necessary. The owner lists the distances on the profile. (He or she obviously follows the European practice of using the dot as a decimal separator.)

Trevi Fountain: approx. 400 meters
Piazza Venezia: approx. 500 meters
Pantheon: approx. 450 meters
Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps): approx. 300 meters
Piazza Navona: approx. 800 meters
Colosseum: approx. 1.200 meters
Campo de' Fiori: approx. 1.000 meters
Bocca della Verità: approx. 1.200 meters
Castel S. Angelo: approx. 1.200 meters
Saint Peter's and the Vatican: approx. 1.500 meters.

I'm not 100% sure these are walkable distances or straight-line distances, but the bottom line is that you are pretty well situated.

Sorry, got mixed up. The owner is using the dot as a thousands separator - so one thousand, two hundred meters to Castel S. Angelo, for example.

Thanks so much WillTravel I really appreciate your effort! I think I am going to book this apartment regardless of whether there is a noise factor - I live under a flight path and across the road from a pub so I probably wont notice a thing ;-)

Then I can try to forget about Rome (until March) and move on to my next city's accommodation hunt.... Sorrento - This is fun

I first wish to thank you for considering reserving the Ideal Rome apartment. Although there are large pictures on the website, I just wish to add some notes since some of the apartment’s qualities could not be appreciated without actually staying at the accommodation.
Upstairs, in the passage between the bed and the wall the roof is high 5.9 to 6.4 feet (180 to 195 cm). Even tall guests are most usually happy with this arrangement.
This apartment is pretty large (754 sq. feet), and the living room (441 sq. feet) is larger than many 2 bedrooms apartments. That’s why families of 4 or 5 people, who stay there very often, find the accommodation very comfortable (some of their comments are reported on the independently monitored guestbook).
Despite the upstairs bedroom is not separated, it is almost fully screened by a mirror glass.
The apartment is within walking distance (5 to 15-20 minutes) from nearly all Rome’s attractions. Even attractions a bit removed from the city historical center (Colosseum and St. Peter) are at about 30 minutes walking distance.
The apartment is also near to 2 metro stations (which are not present in many downtown neighborhoods), which are very convenient for getting quickly at the accommodation after a whole day of walk.
Quietness is a subjective aspect, but many guests reported that this accommodation is very quiet, much more than they expected in a downtown location: this apartment is facing via del Babuino, which is pretty calm during day (car access is limited), and very quiet at night. The apartment is also on a high floor location and it has double windowpanes, not so frequent even in much busier streets.
The price of the apartment is very competitive, and has been proposed considering non-panoramic accommodations by owner in other neighborhoods. This means that it would be quite difficult to find better rates for panoramic apartments.
Besides, the price is all-inclusive, so you will not pay extras such as payment commissions (4%), air conditioned (Euros 10 per day), final cleaning (up to Euros 65!), linen, other additional fees (rental prices up to Euros 50 per day higher for non-panoramic accommodations).
Customers have always rewarded this way of conducting business and recommended the accommodation to their friends, as also proves my guestbook (monitored by HomeAway) and good reviews elsewhere.
And this without renouncing at all to quality: this apartment is equipped with elevator, completely free Internet access, double air conditioning, quality furnishings, fully equipped kitchen with large refrigerator and microwave, DVD library, etc.

I have now booked the apartment everyone so I will let you know in my trip report next year how it goes. The view and the reviews on slow travel won me.

Well, I think for the location it is a REALLY good price, generally people ask around 250 per night for that location. So location wise you're perfectly set up. The bedroom for US standards well....Im curious about the covers over the sofas...that will have to be revealed other than that I can only say that the price is really good. I live in Rome and I work and have worked for rental agencies so I know what im talking about

The covers over the sofas and the beds are regularly changed.
The blankets are washed as well, and are placed in the wardrobe.
Besides bed linen and mattress covers, we also use zip enclosure for mattresses and pillows. Bed linen are washed with sanitizing detergent

Unfortunately the owner of the apartment has had to cancel my booking as the dates are no longer available. Does anyone know of another apartment with such an nice open aspect?

Hi emerald - We had success with finding a nice apartment (Monti di Pieta near Campo dei Fiori) through Sleep In Italy. Our criteria was location, good air conditioning and a price. It took me a long time to find exactly what we wanted - I'm hoping it meets our expectations when we arrive in Rome next week! I did a quick search specifying your March 2010 date and location of Spanish Steps. Here's their link giving a sample of their offerings:

http://www.sleepinitaly.com/ricerca_...on=show_result

Thanks Bowen

I had been looking at sleep in Italy so I will go back to that now.. Also liked some on Rental in Rome but was a little concerned over mixed reviews on that agency.

We had a very good experience renting through realrome.com. The owner, Tim Pearson, is very pleasant and helpful. The 2 BR apartment we rented was in the Jewish ghetto neighborhood. We liked it and the location, but it did not have the "open aspect" you are looking for.

Thanks Vttraveler... I am thinking of leaving it go for a month or so - we are not travelling until March - I think I have "planning" burnout! lol

That makes sense to me. When we went in late February/early March two years ago we were able to find a rental pretty easily.