I'm trying to decide between staying near Piazza Navona or Piazza di Spagna. Will be visiting the typical Rome sites--how are the two areas different and why would you choose one over the other. Many thanks.

Piazza Navona !
More convenient, but so is the Pantheon area.

Pizza di Spagna!

I'd never stayed near Piazza Navona, but I stayed in a convent near Piazza Spagna in 2006 and I loved hanging out there at night after a long day of sightseeing.

I loved the piazza Novona,the wonderful resturants,buildings ,and the water fountains make this easy for me.Piazza di Spagna tend to draw younger crowd especially at night.Novona had a variety of things to do from shopping for jewelry going to the church accross from the Main fountain to plenty of spots to drink your favorite beverage and people watch. good luck.

Thanks for the feedback...still can't decide since it's two for Navona and two for Spagna. Anyone else??

Navona

For me, the Spagna area is all about high-end shopping, which doesn't really interest me. And the streets aren't as charming as in the Navona area.

Agree that I prefer the Navona/Pantheon area, aesthetically. It's also more central to most of the sights people visit in Rome.

I also think of high end shopping when I think of Spagna. I prefer Navona (like Ellen, I'm not a high end shopper). If you do like designer stores (Gucci and that kind of thing), than you may prefer Spagna.

Both are convenient enough, and not all that far from each other.