My husband and I had an 8-day Navigator of the Seas Royal Caribbean cruise planned out of Citavecchia, Italy so we thought we'd spend a night before in Rome and a night after the cruise in Rome (good idea, btw). We stayed both nights at this hotel. This was our first trip to Italy and we were being economical taking the train from the Termini to the port and back ~ which was fine. However, I would recommend you find a different hotel to stay-in. This hotel is a lot farther from the Termini than other reviews led me to believe. On top of that, it is at the very end of the neighborhood where most hotels are so you are walking a lot just to find one or two restaurant sor to enjoy any type of sightseeing and the area is not incredibly safe for nigh walking i.e. no late dinners out unless you take a taxi. And, if you have any luggage with you, it's just a big pain because the streets near this hotel are not made to pull rolled luggage on and I ended-up with a broken roller and ruined suitcase after walking to this hotel. Having said that, after we passed many other hotels we could have and should have booked, we finally found our hotel - many of these other hotels were hotels I had looked at on Expedia - which were less expensive - I would recommend the Venetia Palace as it is very, very close to the Termini and we walked past it many times wishing we had stayed there. So, we get to the hotel itself is not so great either - carpets are old and the staff didn't seem friendly pretty much ever. The elevators did not work while we were there - both times - and apparently, the elevator down or up to the 2nd floor NEVER works so you have to always carry your luggage up or down one big winding staircase, no matter what - not good for us since we overpacked for our cruise. Also, my husband smokes so we reserved a smoking room and upon check-in they said they had no record (Expedia has done this to us before so I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't true). Regardless, we had to have a non-smoking room which made the hubby very unhappy. On the way back, we did get a smoking room. As for the room itself - it's more than adequate - very, very clean - nice bathrooms - both very important to me - I don't like "old" places and our room seemed very modern. TV worked fine - there was CNN so hubby was happy. The outlets are all European and I had forgot a converter so they said they would hold "one of them" for me upon return - when we returned the next desk clerk said "it is already out with someone" so apparently, they only had one converter ~ so, no flat iron or Internet usage for me both stays. Which reminds me, they advertise wireless Internet but because I was never able to get a converter to plug-in our laptop, I have no clue if they have it available in the rooms - there is a small desk by the front entry with a computer but there is a sign by it saying "you must register with the front desk to use, blah blah blah" Breakfast at the restaurant was the best thing the hotel did - a big display of hot foods, cold cereals, juices, coffee, danishes, fruits, to-go foods, etc. Very nice and all free. As for the location, past the walking with suitcases, I just wouldn't recommend it if you want to be in the middle of lots of restaurant choices and/or hustle and bustle. We took our time to see a lot more of Rome and felt like we stayed in the absolute wrong area. I would recommend someone stay near Vatican City or the famous shopping street in Rome - where there are lots of shopping and eating options - and pay the $6 or $7 taxi fee to take you to the Termini and back, if you must. Also, we ignorantly paid 48 Euros to have the front desk arrange us a taxi to the airport on the morning we left. They told us we would have a "private driver/not a taxi" and the guy shows-up in an old station wagon marked taxi, drove like a maniac, then the car literally died on the highway, but we finally made it in one piece and the guy told us 48 Euros was not enough. We gave him our last change. This was a ripoff arranged by the hotel. We would definitely not stay here again.
