Rethinking my Rome hotel choice
 

For our December visit to Rome, I've booked Teatro di Pompeo for the neighborhood. Now I've been sending e-mails to 4* hotels and others that are similarly well-located and highly rated. Here's a list of the ones I've heard back from with reasonable offers:

Hotel Barocco
La Residenza
Residenza Farnese
Albergo Cesari

I'm waiting to hear from the Raphael, Sole al Pantheon, Boscolo Aleph, and Ponte Sisto. I haven't yet written to a couple of interest.

Thoughts?

The Ponte Sisto just replied with an offer a bit higher than the others--230 Euros for a double, 160 per single (we need 3 rooms). Is it worth it?

re the Aleph. it is located about one block from the Plaza Barberini at the foot of the Via Veneto. I stayed there after it first opened a couple of years ago.

Unless it has changed the interior design could be described as very "moderne" and the rooms are somewhat "design" oriented. Some people call this sort of hotel "hip" and "chic" however one wishes to define that term.

Staff were uniformly young and very friendly/competent; housekieeping was good. If you like bathrooms with square acrylic basins this is your knid of place.

Some people don't like ANY location in Rome other than the Piazza Navona or ANY hotel which doesn't overlook a temple; if you are one of those, look elsewhere.

I found it convenient to the Barberini Metro stop and not a bad walk from the places I wanted to see; others mnight disagree as to proxoimity but it was close to places I wanted to be.

I stayed at La Residenza (if this is the one on Emelia Street) for one night just before leaving for home and at the recommendation of my sister who had stayed there for a week. It was a lovely hotel with beautifully-decorated common rooms. We had a very large (if rather plainly decorated) room and large bathroom with nice amenitites including robes. A small fruit basket and bottles of water were in the room on our arrival. Service was good and the hotel was spotlessly clean. The breakfast was the biggest selection we'd had in three weeks.

The location was fine for us -- right near shops and restaurants and a short walk to the top of the Spanish Steps. I'd certainly consider going back and staying there for a longer time.

Thank you both for your replies.

I was considering Piazza Navona or Campo di Fiore. We're young at heart middle-aged and want to be in a lively area. December is not the height of the tourist season, so we don't have to worry much about noisy throngs.

Still looking. Originally booked the very popular Lancelot because we were planning to be there over Christmas and they have a restaurant. Canceled when we changed our dates and I thought that the Colosseum area wasn't most central.

Judy, those are all good choices. Make a call and stick to it---my wife loves Cesari.

<b>Residenza Farnese</b> has a killer location and looks very nice (I was in an apt. down the block on Via Giulia and walked past it constantly). I believe Bill Murray stayed there a few years ago when he was involved with a film being shot in Rome.

We've stayed at the Farnese, but after that I decided it wasn't worth spending that much on a hotel that we weren't in very much. It was ok but nothing special. We stay in a 3 star now and get better treatment and pay 1/2 of what the Farnese is.

Just to muddy the waters, we were in Rome recently, and passed by, I think Teatro di Pompeo (which I remembered, as I considered it for our stay). It's a central-enough location, but I'd pick the Piazza Navona area over Campo de'Fiori area. Granted, they are less than 10 minutes away from each other, but any time I'm in Campo de'Fiori in the evening/night, it seems to be very populated by the 20-something somewhat-rowdy crowd. When we walked through one evening (we're in our early 40s), I told DH that I thought we were the oldest people there.

Piazza Navona seems to me to have more of a cross-section of people, age-wise and both tourists and locals. Also, it's a bit closer to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Every evening, we would visit both Piazza Navona and the Pantheon, primarily for people-watching, and usuallly the Trevi Fountain as well. We're not much into shopping, so the Spanish Steps/via Veneto area wasn't as suitable for us.

We walked everywhere from the Sofitel Roma, near Borghese Gallery, Trevi fountain etc. but a little off the busy streets. Beautiful hotel.

Why do my posts end up in Europe instead of Italy? No wonder I couldn't find them!

Thank you all for your descriptive comments.

Lexma90, you didn't muddy the waters at all. In fact, you helped clear the murkiness for me. I don't want to be around the 20-something crowd. I'll focus on Pantheon/Navona instead of Campo di Fiore. Or Piazza Barberini, or?

Back to the drawing board! I'm still waiting to hear from the Albergo del Senato. Wish I'd written to them sooner.

I love Bobthenavigator's advice to &quot;make a call and stick to it.&quot; I'd have saved many hours and a sore neck if I'd followed that.

&quot;Why do my posts end up in Europe instead of Italy? &quot;

If you will look to the left of your screen and click on &quot;Change Forum, &quot; you will see there is no Italy forum, just Europe,US, Asia,Solo Traveler, etc.

sal

Have you thought about renting an apartment? It would probably be less expensive than three hotel rooms and give you more space. There are several rental agencies who deal with short term rental. &quot;Rental in Rome&quot; is one of them but there are several others.

Hi judybarens, to find your posts just click on your name next to the Welcome sign at the top left of your screen and all of your post will appear on the left of the screen.

LoveItaly, what a neat trick! Thanks.
Charlotte, it's nice to have a private refuge to retreat to, even if just at bedtime. Also, I like my own bathroom. If we were staying longer than 3 nights per location, I would consider an apartment. I even sent for the Untour (I think that's the name of the agency) brochure. Maybe some day.

When you say you want your own bathroom, do you mean that you and your sister are taking two rooms at a hotel?

I'm at the Teatro di Pompeo the first week of November. I'll let you know how it went upon my return, if you'd like. Regards, Jocund

Do not stay at the Albergo Del Senato--they are very rude and the rooms are horrible. It is a good location but you can do better.

My husband and I stayed at Albergo Cesari during our honeymoon and loved it! Great location (a 2 minute walk to the Pantheon), comfortable rooms and a very nice hotel staff.

Kakiebell:

The rooms at the Albergo del Senato aren't horrible, I stayed there and loved it, the rooms are lovely and I found the staff to be very friendly. Maybe you had a bad experience but that's not most people's opinion .