I and my 2 daughters(14,24) will be arriving in Rome by train(from Orvieto). We have 2 nights to spend here before heading to Sicily to visit family.

Can anyone recommend a great, central location which will allow us to see as much as possible in our short time. Basically, we'd like to see the Coliseum and Forum, St Peter's Basilica, and the Pantheon. We are very energetic, and love to walk.

I'm thinking the area by the Pantheon might be best, but am not sure.

Would also appreciate recommendations for nice, charming hotels which won't break the bank!

Grazie a tutti!

P.S. We'll be in Rome July 9 and 10 ,2013

Albergo del Senato comes highly recommended and is on the same piazza as the Pantheon. It is very nice and we are planning to stay there on our next visit. This hotel had been recommended to us and we stopped in the lobby of it last week while we were there. We met a couple later in the week who have stayed there multiple times and love it.

You really need to define "won;t break the bank". Are you looking for a triple room? do you want 3 separate single beds or a double and a single?

For your dates a triple room is about 300 euros per night. Does that fall within "won;t break the bank"?

I am a recent convert to using the www.booking.com website for European bookings. The ease and speed of booking with clear cancellation policies was refreshing, fewer back and forth emails to the hotel. I booked through that website for my upcoming trip to Italy, reading all the reviews there in conjunction with tripadvisor reviews.

At any rate, after I performed this tedious process for myself for a one night stay in Rome, I found that Ron in Rome had already done it with nice pictures to boot. Maybe something will appeal to you, some do look like budget busters - I generally found b&b prices to be lower than hotel prices.

Here is his link with a map for Pantheon area:

http://www.roninrome.com/hotels-spas...-pantheon-area

Hi Lorijv, I was in Rome last month with my family and stayed in a nice little hotel called Re De Roma which is very close to the metro of same name. It is a new, clean and very economical hotel, 3 stations away from Termini (Rome's main station). Rome is not a big city, hence you need not stay in any central location to visit all tourist attractions. Just take a 3 day Roma Pass (16.5 euros) and you can travel as much as you can on all forms of local transport. All the best.

this would be my recommendation, no complaints of my stays, for me it was a great location http://www.albergodelsenato.it/

if you have a little tighter budget, i can recommend http://www.theoperahotel.it/ a little more walking but nice hotel and good value

I found staying at the Albergo del Senato noisy, because the piazza right out the window attracts a lot of revelers and noisy people and tour groups.

When I was there, the euro was a lot stronger, so the price was quite high. At today's prices, you might not find it a budget buster.

PS: Even though you are energetic and love to walk, you should use the metro if you plan to see the Colosseum and the Vatican museums in the same day. The metro is not hard to use, and you will get plenty of exercise walking through the Vatican.

Would someone please tell me how much the Roma Pass is and if we are only in Rome for 2 and 1/2 days would it be worth buying. I am new to Fodors and remember reading it included admission to 2 "ruins" and all public transport in Rome. That seems like it would make it worth it if admission to the Coloseum is 10 E. Thanks for imput.

ticadonnita...you will want to post your question as a new topic on the Italy thread. Fewer people will see it here since the subject of this post is not the subject you want info on.

ticadonnita - you'll perhaps want to see...

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-452674-2.cfm

Peter

Check Relais Maddalena - it is in central Rome and very close to the Pantheon. I have never been to this B&B but I had shortlisted it when I was interested in doing a short stop in Rome - it really has raving reviews on Tripadvisor.