Having never been to Rome before, I spent many hours on the Internet over several months researching hotels and areas. Using TripAdvisor and some other sites, I finally ended up choosing the Hotel Victoria Roma and could not have made a better choice for our nine night stay.

This is a terrific hotel in a quiet area at the top of Via Veneto. Most of the rooms have been recently remodeled and are first rate. I suspect that some recent negative reviews were due to a room that hadn’t yet been remodeled. Make sure you get one that has been and you won’t be disappointed.

As with most European hotels in older buildings, the rooms vary in size. We had a superior double room and it was plenty big enough, with a very generous size bathroom.

The full breakfast was outstanding with eggs, hot and cold meats, cheeses, pastries, cereal, fresh fruit, and, of course, coffee any way you want it. We rarely ate lunch while sightseeing after having their breakfast.

The hotel is just the right size. Not too large and not too small. The public spaces are very nicely decorated and inviting. The two elevators are fast and you never have to wait more than a few seconds.

But, the best part is the staff. There are four or five people who rotate at the front desk and they are all very friendly and helpful. They are fluent in English as well as several other languages. Being a mid sized hotel, there is no concierge, per se. The front desk people provide that function and do it exceedingly well.

We ate in the hotel restaurant our last night and the food was excellent. It’s a little pricey, but still not as much as the restaurants on Via Veneto. Most nights we ate in little neighborhood restaurant on the next street called La Bruschetta and the food was outstanding as well as reasonably priced.

There is one caveat with this hotel. The rooms along the back are on a street with a club that seems to stay open very late. People were out on the street until 2 or 3 am and they were very loud. Apparently, this is not unusual in Rome.

On our first few nights we had trouble sleeping due to the noise. In the winter this may not be a problem, because you can shut the windows. It in the summer it may also be alright when the air conditioning is running. But, we were there at the end of April and they hadn’t started running the air conditioning yet, so we wanted to leave the windows open.

The hotel management was very understanding and moved us to a front room on the fifth floor. It was a great room with a view of Borghese Park. There is a major highway that runs near the front of the hotel, so there is some traffic noise, but that didn’t keep us up at all.

The Hotel Victoria is a terrific hotel and a wonderful oasis, if that is what you want.

The toughest part of picking a hotel in Rome is knowing what part of the city you want to sleep in. If you are not familiar with Rome, you need to know that it is crowded, fast, and chaotic. Traffic moves at an incredible pace, stoplights and pedestrian are essentially ignored, and the sidewalks, such as they are, are crowded with tourist and natives.

If you don’t’ mind the crowds and commotion and want to be where the “action” is, then you probably want to stay around the Piazza Navona or some other high activity area.

But if you want to get away from it all at the end of the day and have a pleasant, friendly home away from home, then by all means stay at the Hotel Victoria.

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.

My family and I first travelled to Milan and came to Rome via air. We booked the hotel at the airport itself! Always keep in mind that the rates at the stations and airports are always the cheapest. The regular prices are about E300 for a room but we got the room at a "take-it-or-leave-it" rate of E170! The sweet woman at the counter reccomended it to us.

It is a four star hotel housed in a beautiful building in one of the posh areas of Rome so all the shops, restaurants, etc. around are a little overpriced but the area is beautiful, very safe and overlooks the Gate of Rome which we could see just outside our room window. It is walking distance from many of the tourist sights, the main road (one of the most important in Rome) Via Veneto and very close to Spagna and Barberini Paizzas and Metro Stations. It is also surrounded by lovely shops, cafes and restuarants.

When in Rome try your best to use public transport or whenever possible WALK because you see something beautiful on every steet corner and always carry a map! The weather was great when we went there so you don't get tired walking. Plus it's healthy for you!

The staff at the hotel were very warm like most Italians are! They were very helpful and told us some nice local places to visit and also helped us learn a few Italian words for easier communication with the locals. Most locals DON'T speak English well so it becomes a bit of a problem but they're wonderful people so you figure things out eventually!

The breakfast was quite good and if you request something special a day or two in advance, they will readily get it for you. if you ask nicely enough they could pack a wholesome breakfast incase you have an early morning tour. There was an old, grumpy maitre'd in the restaurant but we didn't mind him since he was an old-timer and was always adorably grumpy with everyone!

The amenities, quality etc. of the hotel was of five star status. The rooms were large and comfy and the bathroom was lovely.

The beautiful city with it's wonderful people and this really great hotel makes Rome a perfect spot to visit.

I read several reviews before booking this hotel and was very excited to stay here. I can't tell you how disappointed we were. Not only did the hotel smell bad but only the bathrooms were renovated. The floor , beds , linens were so old they were faded. The bed was about as comforable as the floor as well as the pillows. The shower only had extremly hot or cold water and the bath tub was stained and gross. The hotel is not near anything and is a far walk to most restaurants and shops. I would NOT recommend staying here, especially for the price it should have been about 1/4 of what we paid for this night.