Roondanini Apartment - Rome -- How as it?
 

Neopolitan,

I read a while ago that you were renting this apartment in Rome, and I have since rented it for October.

Do you have any comments on it?

Thank you!!

Make that Rondanini!

Ah, sorry I haven't posted about that yet.

OK, here's the lowdown. We arrived and were met by a very nice young man who showed us how everything works, etc.
I was a bit taken back when we entered, as the downstairs "entry" looks like a dump. There are bare wires hanging, lots of chipped plaster, garbage cans sitting around, etc. The building divides into two, and I noticed that there were a lot of bags of plaster and stacks of tiles around the corner, and the other stairway looks like it has been newly remodeled, so maybe that is being done to this one too.

The apartment is as it appears on the website. It is indeed uniquely decorated and someone went to a lot of expense in doing it -- the custom doors with metal sculpturing between two layers of glass must have cost a fortune. It was probably done about 20 or 30 years ago, so it is not all new and fresh, but still makes quite an impact.

We loved the huge long set of cabinets in the hall which provided a ton of clothes hanging and shelf space.

The worst problem was an obvious smell in the bathroom. Have you ever smelled that odd "sewer gas" that backs up into bathrooms? I've experienced it before in Venice. There were a number of "stickups" on the surfaces of the bathroom so obviously the owners are aware of it. I suspect it comes from the shower which may not have a proper trap. Anyway, we sprayed several times a day and it would sort of disappear. In the mornings it was pretty bad until we took a shower. Finally I found a bottle of a sort of liquid plumber stuff, poured it into the drain and viola, it never reappeared for the remaining three days or so. I'd suggest you look for the stuff and pour it in daily.

Rome was delightfully pleasant, sometimes even cool the first week of June, so we never used the air conditioning. I turned it on one day just to make sure it works -- it does!

There is no view. Although there are two windows in the living room, they are very high. You need to step up onto a platform to see out of them into the little square which has several restaurants, but mainly serves as a local parking lot of both cars and motorcycles. There are no windows (except the faux painted one) in the bedroom, which is fine. That means the bedroom is particularly quiet -- not that there is much noise at all from the living ones. The bed was very comfortable and the linens were nice.

Overall we liked it, but we weren't as "wowed" as we hoped to be. Would we stay there again? Probably not, considering the abundance of other possibilities. And of course we loved the location.

Any more specific questions?

Here's the website so other's can know what we're talking about:

http://tinyurl.com/hlqd5

By the way, at 110 euro per night complete for this apartment, we certainly won't complain about the value. In fact, I'm not sure that we could do any better for the price.

hi Neopolitan,
did you find it dark and dungeony at all with so few windows? did the bathroom smell leak into any other of the rooms?

The bathroom smell did not leak into other rooms -- not even into the hall outside it.
No, not particularly dark -- there were two windows in the living room. The bedroom could be regarded as dark and dungeony, except for the pretty paintings on the wall -- but that doesn't bother me. It was just that you can't look out at all while sitting in the living room. Not sure if that would bother you or not.

Neopolitan,

Thank you!! I am a little disappointed in what you report, especially the odor problem, as I (unfortunately!) have a very keen sense of smell. But, I would rather know in advance so our expectations are lower, and we won't be surprised.

I will definitely take your advice about the liquid plumber. We will be traveling through Tuscany, etc., before arriving in Rome, so I will check for it in supermarkets along the way.

Re the price. I checked on other websites, and I saw the same apartment for as much as 160 Euro/day... So, I am very happy with the 110 Euro also.

Just one question. Was it clean?

Thanks again for the information.

I've booked this apartment for a week in October, so I am really pleased to have a review - so thanks to Neopolitan, and thanks celiaanne for asking!

I'm a little disappointed to hear about the smell, but as 110 euros is incredibly reasonable I'm not too worried - and I've found many bathrooms to be a bit whiffy in Italy, Spain and France. I'll just pack a small can of room spray and get some drain cleaner when I get there. (Unless you leave any leftovers for me, celiaanne!)

No view from the windows - well I don't plan to be spending too many waking hours in the apartment anyway so while it would be nice that doesn't bother me either.

Thank you again for the review.

hey julia_t,
what week in october do you have it booked for? i was thinking of booking it for our stay of 3 nights in october as well. hopefully our dates don't conflict!

About that smell. As I mentioned there were a bunch of "stick-up" things in the bathroom, but all were dried out and needed refills. That didn't bother me though as I'm not big on smell coverups, and would prefer to get rid of the smell itself.

Was it clean? Yes. Maybe not "razor-blade" clean, like a real scrubbing around the baseboards, or cleaning out the tracks of the sliding doors to the kitchen, but overall it was quite clean.

And yes, I too saw the same apartment on another site at considerably more money.

Neopolitan,

Thanks. That sounds good enough for me!

Julia, glad you saw this! We'll be there October 3 - 8. When are your dates? I'll be sure to leave any leftover Draino!

BTW, does anyone know the Italian term for drain cleaner?

I'm going to be in residence 15-22 October. Really looking forward to it too!

Yes, the Italian words for drain cleaner/bleach could well be helpful!

We were hoping for October 21-24 but I guess we're out of luck...unless julia_t wouldn't mind us crashing on the sofa bed for a night! :P

Could anyone suggest another apartment in the same area and around the same price?

Here's the other one I was considering before renting the Rondanini one:

http://www.sleepinitaly.com/files/apt_eustacchio.html

By the way, not that this should make any difference, but the Rondanini one is listed as "first floor with lift". This is really not true. The lift goes to the second floors and above -- there is no landing at the first floor. So if anyone needed that lift (like for handicapped reasons) it isn't going to happen. The walk up is, of course, nothing though.

Neopolitan,

Hate to pester, but.... Does the Rondanini have a hair dryer? I don't see anything mentioned on their site.

Thanks,

Hmm. That's a good question since we didn't need one. There were several things in the hall cupboard -- maybe, but I've got about 6 recent rentals all mixed up in my head right now.

pliant...

I'm actually at the Rondanini apartment 15-21 October.

I've just got back from a holiday booked 15-22 July, so had the dates 15-22 in my head, but I actually leave Rome on Saturday 21st, so the apartment might well be available for you after all for those dates.

If you email sleepinitaly with your request, they will come up with all the available apartments for your dates, and it's a good idea to specify your preferred area too.

And Neopolitan, did you feel the apartment was a safe place to leave your passport, spare credit cards etc?

Yes, but I've never been obsessive about safety. We left all that and my laptop in the apartment as well.
The locks are amazing. As I recall you turn the key four times to fully lock the thing. Of course, someone could have a key, but otherwise it would be like breaking into Ft. Knox.