Anyone have any personal experience -- good and/or bad with the following hotels: Del Senato vs. Albergo Cesari. The Senato is about 40E more and both have fairly good reviews on the venere.com website.

I am accompanying my elderly mother on her first trip to Italy and do want hotel issues to detract from the trip. 200E/night is my absolute limit if there are other hotel/apt/B&B suggestions in that area.

Thanks in advance.

There are some reviews of both hotels on the SlowTrav.com website right here:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/hotels...lCountry=Italy

--Marv

If you put <Cesari Rome> and <Senato Rome> into the search box, you will find dozens, if not hundreds, of reviews.

And if you put <hotel Pantheon> into the search box, you will find dozens of references to other hotels in the area.

No <> signs, of course.

HI
the del Senato I believe was renovated a couple of years ago, and I've never read a bad comment about it.

Is 200 E per night a per room budget?
I think my own favorite the nearby Santa Chiara might make it into that budget. Just a 5 minute walk from the del Senato, and when I stayed there a few years ago I loved it. Great breakfast provided in the morning as well.

On my next trip to Rome I expect to choose between the above two hotels myself.

Fodors and Slowtrav are good resources, but don't miss www.tripadvisor.com.
For what its worth, my mother (58) and I (34) are staying at the Caeser House B&B (also called Caeser Residence). Since I travel so much for business I'm pretty picky about where I stay for pleasure - we felt this place will give us the best bang for our buck.

I have stayed at the Del Senato twice and loved it! It is a wonderful location and our room had a view directly over the Pantheon - breathtaking!

The rooms are small but very well appointed and the staff accomodating.

I have been inside the Cesari and it is a nice hotel. You do not get the view but the location is quite good and if a view is not important, it would be a good choice.

My mom and brother stayed at the Santa Chiara two years ago and were pleased. But, I have read mixed reviews and do not have any personal experience.

You will be hard pressed to book the Del Senato for 200Euro a night. We are booked in Jnaury for 3 nights at a discounted rate and it is 225/nt. This is the very off season.

For B&Bs in the general area (closer to Piazza Navona) check out Domus Julia and Relias Bachi Vecchi. www.romeby.com has good information.

HI--I can second Elaine about the Santa Chiara. We stayed there in 2000 and had a spacious room w/a king size bed. The room was very modern European style and not what I would call charming, but very comfortable. The lobby, on the other hand was all marble and mahogany furniture and a lovely place to sit and relax. Elaine is also right about breakfast being very good, and they always very politely honored my request for espresso w/o any extra charge--something I would not have expected in the "included" breakfast.

Del Senato is great, as described above. It's best feature is the rooftop bar, which provides a wonderful vier of the ome skyline, and the Piazza Rotonda below. If you have a room with a view of the Pantheon, it's like you are living amongst the ancients.

In Rome, location is important, and the Pantheon area puts you within walking distance of most of the city.

^^^you just picked out the couple of negative reviews posted on venere.com

I stayed at the Pantheon View B&B last year and am returning again next month. I found it to be a charming experience. It was not only affordable in a great location, but the owners were very accomodating and gracious and communicative as to my requests. Yes the shower is a bit small, but then again most showers are in Italy.

Back to the question at hand. We just stayed in the Albergo Cesari last week. We are now in Florence. The Cesari has an excellent location. We walked almost everywhere, unless we had an early tour appointment.

We stayed in the quad room as we are travelling with our 2 kids. It was quite spacious as well as the bathroom. The front desk was always very helpful. There is a fairly good size elevator (for Rome standards). The breakfast room is a bit small but we only had to wait one morning to get a table and then only for a short time.

We definitely did not have a view though. The buildings are very close so we could only really see across to the other building. I don't think any of the rooms would have any sort of view.


The windows do a great job of keeping out any street noise if that is an issue for you. We found it very quiet. Sometimes we opened the window just to enjoy hearing people talking down below.

This was our first trip to Rome and we were very happy with our choice of the Albergo Cesari.

The Due Torri always gets excellent reviews. It's also a Karen Brown recommendation, and those tend to be reliable. I walked past it once, it's on a small quiet street. Should be about 185E

Attn jgg,

Thanks for the reply on the Cesari...

I currently hold a reservation for $162e for a double, single occupancy.

After spending several days at this hotel, do you think it is worth that price? Most other hotels nearby -- Santa Chiara (182e) and Del Senato (200e+).

Maybe you didn't need a/c, but was it available?

You said spacious room & bathroom ... did it have a tub?

Is there a decent sitting area with comfortable furniture?

Lastly, how was the breakfast (i.e. type of food?).

I'm also considering Hotel San Francesco in the Trastevere area but they want 198e...it would have to be tremendously better to justify an additional 36e/night than the Cesari.

Thanks in advance.

rah1425: Yes, after our six night stay we would definitely go back.

Our bathroom did have a tub. We were in a quad room though, and never saw what the double rooms were like. They do have air conditioning.

Regarding the sitting area, I'm not sure if you mean in the room or in the lobby. Our room did have a desk with a chair and I believe another sitting chair, but I'm not sure how comfortable it would have been.

In the lobby there are actually two sitting areas. One with a small bar and another without. There also is a computer with free internet access, which we found very helpful. Not just for personal stuff, but also to find information on the internet.

The breakfast is nice. Cereals, yogurt, meats and cheese, pastries, and fruit. Although most of the fruit when we were there was canned. Nothing particularly special and unique but good.

I would definitely say it is worth the price. It has an excellent location. Close to everything and easy to walk everywhere. If you are still planning on travelling with your elderly mother I would not consider staying in Trastevere as it is not centrally located, and you may find yourself unable to walk to many places.

I hope this helps. Sorry for the delay in responding but my internet connection was down!! Yikes!!

I couldn't have been happier with the Cesari. GREAT location; excellent breakfast; helpful staff; nice (but smallish) room; very large bathroom. I'd definitely stay there again.

I highly recommend the Del Senato!! My husband and I took our parents to Rome and stayed there - PERFECTION!!! You can't go wrong with Del Senato!

I've never stayed at Del Senato, but was extremely happy with my stay at the Cesari. I didn't see any of the other rooms, but the one my mother and I had was quite large, as were the beds and bathroom (yes to there being a tub.) As already mentioned by jgg and Songdoc, the location is fantastic and we found the staff very helpful. However, from everything I've read about the Del Senato, I don't think you can go wrong with either!