Just come back from a brilliant 5 nights in Rome, staying at the Hotel Oxford.

The hotel itself is relatively small, but plenty big enough, if you know what I mean. The rooms are average sized and very clean and comfortable. The bathrooms were well equipped, and again kept very clean every day, and the shower was invigoratingly powerful if you wanted it to be! The double bed was of a good large size and comfortable and the room generally had nice ambience.

The only downside was, at least in our first floor room, the traffic noise at night/early morning was audible from buses etc. Although not a busy or noisy area and not really noticeable in the day, in the dead of night when you're trying to sleep I was awakended by passing large traffic occassionally. A set of 4 euro ear plugs put paid to this though and we slept soundly after this. Maybe I'm just a light sleeper.

The hotel food was excellent, and the restaurant was far better value than any nearby restaurants, particularly wine, which was half the price. We had a couple of evening meals there and these were lovely, excellent value for money and standard. A beer is 3.50 euros and wine 12 euros a bottle. Pasta dishes were around 8 euros typical.

Breakfast was typical choice, nice selection of cereals, croissants, rolls, ham and cheeses and fruit. Choice of coffee or teas. Certainly good enough for us.

The staff are very friendly and helpful. The hotel is run by the same small group of hard working people every day. The barman was friendly and the atmosphere was that of a family environment. The bar was a nice place to relax in the evenings after dinner with a wide selection of drinks, nice ambience, and like I said, good value for money.

Location

You need to turn right out of the hotel to walk towards central Rome and its atttractions. On our first exploration to get our bearings we mistakenly turned left and walked for ages without finding anything nice or significant!

Via Veneto is 5 minutes walk and this has some nice pavement restaurants and a Hard rock cafe. We eat in Il Peperone twice and Ciao Bella, which is at the bottome of Via Veneto. Both were nice meals, but the drinks were very pricey, particulay compared to the hotel bar. 25 euros typical for a bottle wine, and 8 euros for a small beer. Needless to say we drank water in the restaurants and saved our alcohol for the hotel bar! No meal cost more than 40 euros for the two of us, that was generally two courses.

To reach the main attractions of Rome you need to turn right out the hotel, and walk along Via Boncompagni which becomes Via Ludovisi (after crossing Via Veneto). A left at the end of the road followed by the next right will bring you to the top of the Spanish Steps. This all takes about 15 minutes. This is the fastest and shortest route to the rest of the main attractions, the Pantheon and Trevi fountain are within 10 minutes from here.

We walked to the Coliseum from the Hotel in around 40 minutes (along Via XX Settembre), and walked to the Vatican from the hotel in under an hour, which we did twice.

The walking made the holiday because it was a great way to see the city, and there is so much to see as you go. I guess to start with I thought we were further away than I was expecting, but this ended up a blessing. If you want to be right on the doorstep of everything though then you may find it a little far out due to the 15 minutes to reach the Spanish steps.

Warning - Taxis. The hotel is only a 15-20 minute walk from Termini train station, whilst carrying a case. This didn't stop the taxi costing 30 euros when we arrived, and this was apparently on the meter! My guess is he took us the long way, but if you're game, the hotel is easily walkable from Termini, and we walked on our return journey in 20 mins - well worth saving 30 euros. I might have got unlucky with the driver though, but it's impossible to agree a price up front as they say its on the meter - which was meant to be reassuring!

Rome itself was brilliant, the attractions were all they were cracked up to be and more. Inside the Vatican was probably the highlight, particulary going up to the top of St Peters Basilca, incredible views, plus while your there you can see inside the top of the cupola. If you can, walk everywhere, far cheaper and you get to see and experience so much more.

All in all a great break in a great hotel. Just remember those earplugs if you sleep light!