Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Tedgale trip report: Rome

Okay: here, as promised, is more on the Rome-Tuscany trip.

Rome Accomodation:

We rented from sleepinitaly.com, as advocated by some posters here. The apartment was San Salvatore in Lauro, very near P.za Navona.

Location was perfect and from now on, never would I rent other than in Navona or Campo dei fiori areas. Trastevere? too scuzzy. Trevi/ Spanish steps? too smoggy and too frenetic. Vatican? Celio/ Colosseum? Well, maybe.

Our apartment, one street from the Tiber, looked out onto via dei Coronari, a major street of antiques stores. Narrow enough street that it was mostly for pedestrians (and those noxious scooters).

We were one flight up, hence subject to street noise. But it was pretty near silent from 11 pm to 8 am.

The apartment is as photographed on the website though the paint-job is a just a tad battered. Beware, too: the owners are addicted to the colour blue.

But hey, it's a pad for the owners, who live in Milan.

And it was QUITE spacious for 2 -- I actually planned to give a drinks party for a number of colleagues who were in town at the FAO, though that did not come off in the end.

Antiques in the large living room. Large, well equipped, windowed, Ikea kitchen. Ample, clean if slightly tired bathroom. Good bed, abundant hanging storage. And the essential to light packing: A washing machine! All for 110 euros per night.

The city garbageman rang the bell to see if we had any garbage. The concierge was in her booth each morning, though we hade no problems requiring attention. We exchanged keys with the owner's agent with no problems. The owner called a couple of times from Milan to see how we were doing. Payment arrangement was "Just leave cash in the bedside drawer". Owner left cellphone for us, guidebooks, a telephone card for international calls on his land-line -- and a copy of a novel he has written, which I perused.

Just the easy-going style I prefer, in short.

Rome museum recommendations are so abundant that I will not bother -- except to record that the Capitoline museum is just the perfect size for a gallery and mixes the quirky with the exquisite (Roman sculpture, Rubens, Caravaggio) in the right proportions. And the buildings (and roof garden) are stunning. And it's relatively unvisited.

Now, restaurants: Though picky diners, we never had to go more than 5 minutes on foot to get a fine dinner. So all the following are neighbourhood places just west of P.za Navona:

Cantina del Vecchio, v. dei Coronari 30
www.cantinadelvecchio.it

Absolutely first rate in its class. Dined there twice -- we REALLY wanted to go back, which is something we seldom indulge for fear of disappointments.

No disappointement here. Service is really personable. Obviously a neighbourhood favourite. Smart-casual dress, clientele ditto. Lazio cuisine; "serious-about-the-food" but folks were having fun too.

Around the corner: simpler but still very good Osteria del Pegno, vicolo di Montevecchio 8
Tel/fax: 06 68 80 70 25

Finally: Ristorante Montevecchio, Piazza di Montevecchio 22a
Tel. 06 68 61 319
Well-known and well-loved by guidebooks (see Frommers). We expected full house and lots of tourists but quite the contrary. Very simple room on a tiny square.

Excellent food: I cannot quite describe this but...You know how you can TELL when a chef or owner has absolute confidence in the menu and the food and generally just KNOWS what he is doing? That is Montevecchio. Plus, when there was a negligible delay in getting us our bill, we were offered our choice of liqueur on the house (we had said nothing -- it was just a grace note)

Also noted in the neighbourhood but we did not get around to sampling them. So based on close scrutiny of the menu and the room I would say these "merit you attention/investigation":

Santa Lucia: largo Febo
www.santalucia-bartolo.com
Just west of P.za Navona; beautiful rooms

Pierluigi: Piazza de'Ricci, 144
www.pierluigi.it
Recommended with urgency and conviction by a nice lady in our building; it is on Via Monserrato near P.za Farnese.

Stay away from:
Il desiderio preso per la coda, north of P.za Navona.

Breathlessly endorsed on one travel site: charm, warmth, attentive service, yadda, yadda. Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 -- but only one poster had rated it.

Food was actually quite fine but if I told you the unilingual waiter literally tossed menus onto the table and stared into space when answering my questions (I do speak Italian) you get my drift.

BTW: We rented a car from Hertz via Autoeurope, as recommended on this board. We rented in central Rome, with drop off at Fiumicino.

The Hertz "St Peter" office is on via Gregorio VII -- we could actually have walked there from our apartment if we had not had luggage. Gregorio VII leads straight to Aurelia and thus to the ring road -- a snap, despite crazy Roman drivers.

Getting out of Rome (noon Saturday) was thus far easier than I expected, even with the massive road works on the raccordo anulare/ ring road between Aurelia and Flaminio.

And we escaped the surcharge for airpot pick-up, BTW. Only glitch was the high deductible and the price of the additional insurance. I am inexpert in cars and insurance and thought from other advocates of Autoeurope that their big plus was the quite full insurance coverage offered with their packages.

Anyway we declined. They also gave us the promised upgrade to a four door Ford hatchback with, as requested, diesel engine. Gas costs were quite low in consequence.