We stayed in Rome from Dec. 30 through New Years to Jan. 4/09.
All hotels in Rome seem expensive, so this one seemed reasonable at 325 euros per night - including a buffet breakfast and all taxes. In the end, we were only charged 225 euros per night, so we were relieved as we were not thrilled about the place.
The room was a large, superior double room with queen bed. The room just fit the bed with a small night stand on either side. When you opened the door, there was the bed! There was a desk with a television at the foot of the bed and a closet to the right of that. The window was a juliette balcony and was supposed to overlook the park, but we overlooked the street, the wall, then in the distance you could see a bit of the park.
The bathroom was fairly new and quite large with heated towel rails, good sized tub w/shower, ample counter space and the usual assortment of amenities.
The hotel staff were not of much help. We arrived late and they couldn't even direct us to an open restaurant, nor would they provide a corkscrew to open the bottle of wine that had been left in the room for our arrival! We ended up trotting into the bar with it and requesting the bartender to open it for us. He was helpful and it was merely an inconvenience for us.
We tried to obtain information from the front desk staff about subways, directions, etc, but the person we kept getting didn't speak very good english and our italian wasn't up to snuff, so we gave up.
Location wise, we were right at Bourghese Park and we could walk to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. We actually ended up walking all the way to the collesium and forum but caught the subway back. The subway stop was a block from the hotel.
The sites in Rome are endless. We couldn't possibly see it all in the 5 days we had. We didn't take any set tours on a bus or anything but used guide books and did our own walking tours. We did do the guided tour of the collesium and that was well worth it. Also of the catacombs, which was the only way you were allowed to see those. The roman baths were fasinating also. We did luck in on New Years Day when we went to the Vatican for a walk (yes, walking distance also, but again bus home). We weren't sure we would get in as the Pope gave his address to the nation that morning. We were there around 4 p.m and did get in and at 5 pm actually sat in a mass delivered by the Pope himself! We were close enough to reach out an touch him! That was a once in a lifetime event for sure.
There was a restaurant around the corner from the hotel called "il pomodorino" - quite large, casual, family type place. Great food, cheap, and the wait staff was wonderful. We ate there twice - once it was 30 euros for the two of us and the other time it was 32 euros for both - including wine.
New Year's Eve dinner at a nearby hotel was nothing to write home about. VERY VERY expensive for not much of anything. We ducked out early, changed into jeans and went to the park to watch the madness and fireworks. That was a wild street party and the fireworks must have gone on for 40 minutes! Then the party moved to the spanish steps and continued into the wee hours of the morning.
We will definitely return to Rome but not to this hotel.
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