I am a new member so bear with me if I don't do this right.

If I were to make my first trip to Rome, which Hotels would you recommend to stay at that would be convient to Vatican and the other must sees in Rome, such as old famous ruins, fountains, etc.

I am writing this from my hotel in rome. My family of four (two couples) is currently staying at the Navona Gallery Suites and it is AMAZING! go to tripadvisor and look it up. the pics and descriptions are spot on. I highly recommend this place if you are staying more than a day or two (we are hear for 8 days).

dcm58, hope you are enjoying the trip. I'm hoping you can help me with some info on the hotel, how close is it to all the sights? Are you in the Garden Suites, if not have you seen them? And are they air conditioned? I am looking at a trip next Aug so want to make sure the a/c works well! Thanks.

I'd highly recommend ALBERGO DEL SENATO, which is on the same rotunda as the Pantheon. It's an easy walk from the hotel to The Trevi Fountain (10 min), Colosseum ( 20+ minutes), Vatican (about half an hour) etc. The hotel has some upper floor rooms with tiny balconies facing the Pantheon. Also has a lovely roof terrace which is open for drinks and light snacks in the summer months. The rooms are not huge, but very comfortable with good AC, which can be hard to find in Rome!

It's been three years, but I still have a fondness for Hotel Alimandi. It's across the street from the Vatican Museum entrance. It's about a two block walk to St. Peter's and about the same distance to the subway. Wonderful rooftop breakfast. It's quiet, so if you like nightlife it might not be for you. Price was less and room was larger than a hotel I first stayed at near Termini.

Rome is a large city and the sights are not all near each other.

The Vatican is on the other side of the Tiber from both the historic center (Piazza Navona and Pantheon) or the center of Roman antiquities (Colosseum, Forum etc). You can walk between - but it is a couple of miles.

If you give a budget range people can make more useful recos.

My budget would be between 150-200 euros per night but that would be for four of us. That's why I think an apt or suite might work better, even though we would not be doing much cooking. I am sure my kids would like a relatively lively area so they could go out at night on their own - as long as it's not noisy enough to disturb our sleep.

Excited_confused,

if you are a family of four (with two children), you might prefer the Michealangelo suite. We have not been inside that suite, but considering our suite is EXACTLY as depicted on the website and tripadvisor pics, i'm sure the M suite will be the same. the suites I am staying in our two separate rooms - one big enough to function as a living room complete with couch and chairs - and a long hallway with a fully stocked kitchen. I believe the M. Suite is more set up for families.

As for your remaining questions:
1. it is VERY close to the sites. you are basically one half block off of Piazza navona. if you look at a map of rome, you see that you can pretty much walk everywhere from Piazza Navona (except the Termini train station) in under half an hour. my husband and I are here with my parents and my mum recently twisted her knee. Needless to say, she is not walking too quickly and we walked to the Coliseum in half an hour. everywhere else is a shorter distance still! the only thing not close to our apartment (that we can tell) is a metro stop. I honestly think you can walk anywhere anyway, so we haven't found we needed the metro. there are, however, several bus stops nearby (including stops for the "hop on hop off" buses.

2. I have not seen the Garden Suites. My family is staying in the Gallery suites (the borromini and bernini suites). they have a separate entrance from the street and are located in a lovely courtyard. you have to walk up one flight of stairs to reach the actual suites, but the M. Suites are on a bottom floor.

3. they are well air conditioned. each room has a separate air conditioner unit that runs VERY well and doesn't time off. you can run it all day and change the temp for each room with individual remote controls. of course, this isn't the central air most Americans have, but it is the best I have found in Italy!

I honestly cannot recommend this place enough. the kitchen is fully equipped and stocked daily. the place is nicely decorated with antiques (or imitation antiques! the owner owns a separate antique shop two doors down). There are many, many lovely restaurants within a 30 second stroll. it is quiet because of the courtyard, but you are still in the middle of the city!

feel free to ask more questions!

nytraveller,
I do believe that the entire city center of Rome is less than two miles. While I do not recommend walking from the Vatican to Coliseum, unless you just enjoy the hike!, we can walk to any site from Piazza Navona in under half an hour. It makes our location excellent and even with my mother's injury, we have only relied on taxis to get to and from Termini train station and the catacombs.

Excited_Confused,
the suites my family rented (borromini and bernini) were about 300 Euro per night. however, the rooms can be rented singly which would lower the cost. technically, you could put the entire family in the larger suite - as it has stow away beds - but I don't know how comfortable that would be! of course, then you would have to share the kitchen with strangers.

Thank you so much for the quick information, I think the Navona Garden Suites would be more in my budget and they do accommodate four as well. Since my son is not sure about coming, I do not want to commit to 2 separate rooms. I believe the Garden suites are more in my budget, the Michelangelo is 1000 euros for 4 nights. I will check if the location of the Garden Suites is similar, I am guessing you did not see the Garden Suites at all.