My husband and I (both early 30's) will be in Rome for 5 days at the beginning of July. I have done so much reading about hotels and locations that I feel like I'm at wits end about what area would be best. We really want to be able to walk to as many places as possible. I'm not a big Metro person in foreign countries. We also want to be in an area where there are plenty of restaurants to choose from in the evenings without having to travel too much. My mom was recently in Rome and had a wonderful hotel, but she had a hard time with the location and lack of restaurants. She was with my elderly uncle so too much walking was problematic. So, I guess I'm primarily looking for a good hotel area or a hotel recommendation ($300 or so per night is okay) that would give us a lot of options for meals and allow us to see much of the city by foot. Thank you!

Albergo del Senato is about as central to everything as you can get. We're in our 60's and walked just about everywhere - except Vatican City and Borghese Gardens which are do-able if so inclined. Restaurants and shops are around every corner. But the very most important aspect of a stay there is that it's right next to - literally - the Pantheon! It's one of those "Wow" moments when the taxi drops you off at the entrance to the hotel or you open the curtains in your room.

If not the Senato, look for a place nearby; it really makes discovering Rome so easy.

Hi jcepk,

Here's a suggestion, I do know this process can be really overwhelming and eye crossing.

Start at hotels.com select Rome, your exact dates and find by Landmark, here select Piazza Navona or Pantheon. These two areas sound like they would be best for what you described you wanted.

Barely looking I found two wonderful ones hotels; Hotel Delle Nazioni and Hotel Raphael - both in your price range and these are in wonderful locations.

If you find other hotels on the list that sound good to you at least you have a name and you can search for reviews here or on Trip Advisor.

Hope this helps ; )

I have booked Albergo del Senato for late June, bsed on recs here and on Tripadvisor. I wanted to be central, and near the Pantheon. BOOK EARLY!

I know how you feel about too many options and feeling overwhelmed.

So I went the scientific route and did basically what ecat suggested.

I used Hotels.com and Expedia.com to begin my search. I decided I wanted at least a three star hotel in the middle of it all so I could walk to most places, especially at meal times.- Learned that this was Piazza Navona and Pantheon area.

Then I read the reviews on Expedia from fellow travelers and decided I didn't want to stay anywhere with less than a 4 rating.

I used Trip Advisor and Several Guide Books to see what other people were saying. I didn't know about this site or would have searched it as well.

Anyway, after all that, we booked our trip through Expedia (cheapest way I found at the time) and we're staying at the Albergo del Senato as suggested above.

We will be there June 30 to July 5th.

Good Luck.

Booking a city I am not familiar with for the first time, I get a good city map to figure out the general neighborhoods. After a bit of research I pick one area, and only look at hotels there.

Looking at ALL the hotels in Paris or Rome or whatever is an exercise in frustration and not likely to give the best results.

My family and I stayed at the Grand Hotel De La Minerve in Nov.2004. It was recommended by other people on this site. What a gem of a hotel! This hotel is just steps from the Pantheon. We were able to walk to everything. There are many restaurants and the sights of Rome are within walking distance to the hotel. We loved being able to walk around the city. The only day we took a cab was to the Vatican Museum,because it was raining. This hotel is a 5 star hotel. There website is : www.hotel-invest.com
phone (39) 0669520.1 www.grandhoteldelaminerve.com

Rome is one of the easiest cities to narrowed down a hotel choice; pick a criteria and list out top 5-6 hotels filling up the criteria. If you think about it too much, you will be overwhelmed.

The top hotels that fill all the requirements you listed (Centro Historico/ restaurants/ <$300/night/ nice) are: Hotel Nazionale, Rinascimiento, Sole al Pantheon, Albergo de Senato, Cesari, and Santa Chiara. There, pick one.

I highly recommed Albergo Del Senato. It has a very central location, near many good shops, restaurants, and sites. During our stay we walked EVERYWHERE we went - ancient Rome, Vatican, Trevi, Via del Corso, etc. The location allowed us to stay out late strolling the streets around the Pantheon. We loved the staff - very helpful and memorable. The breakfast at Albergo is also very good.

Here is a link to some pics of our view and the exterior of the hotel.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...Lk&notag=1

~Emma

Also - I forgot to mention that we booked our stay through Expedia and e-mailed the hotel for confirmation a few days before our stay. They responded almost immediately to confirm. Hope this helps!

~Emma

One of the problems with expedia: they tend to offer you pre-paid rates with cancellation penalties. You're probably better off booking directly with the hotel via email.

Thank you so much for all of your replies. I have sent an email to the Albergo del Senato to check on their availability. There was a small issue with their online reservations. Even though I clicked on their calendars for the check in/out dates, it thought I was looking for a room from January 7th through May 1st... It didn't enter the dates correctly and I couldn't fix it. Hopefully, they will have availability. However, I will check with hotels.com and see what else I can find as backups. Thanks again!