We booked this hotel for our honeymoon visit to Rome. The majority of reviews have been really good but I was concerned about a couple of negative ones I had read just before my trip. However, I needn't have worried as our stay was excellent.
As it is important on honeymoon to keep the wife happy I had emailed the hotel beforehand about my concerns and was told that they took previous guests concerns seriously and had been addressing these. And I am glad to say my experience was they have been.
Firstly on arrival the Executive Director Massimo Mainella who had replied and I can see has also been replying to comments posted on here had also taken the time to pop down and welcome us to the hotel, which I personally felt showed they take feedback really seriously and act upon it.
They had kindly upgraded our room and a bottle of sparkling wine and biscuits were waiting in our room on arrival. Again this was a very nice gesture for our honeymoon and wasn't expected. We stayed in a luxury room which with a garden view. The room was large for the 2 of us and had a large bathroom with shower, bath, bidet, toilet, sink etc. Room had a good TV with a selection of international channels, not that we were watching much TV with so much to see in Rome.
The Goods
- Hotel was very clean and elegant.
- Breakfast was fantastic and really sets you up for a day of walking around Rome. I mean they even had bottles of sparkling wine in the buffet if you were that way enclined. Personally some nice Italian coffee was fine for me to start the day. Plus it is on until 11am so you don't need to get up too early.
- Checkout is 12pm which is good as some hotel make it earlier.
- Staff were very professional. Always smiling and keen to help if you wanted it. I didn't learn the Italian word for No as they never said it. "Prego" seems to be the new Italian word I learned :)
- Pool area was beautiful, but even though I am Scottish it was too cold even for me at this time of year :)
- The management (Massimo) showed they were keen to do all they can to make the hotel as good as possible.
Bads
- There was nothing bad about the hotel, however location seems to be the one thing that is mentioned and the other about not having free wifi. They do now have wifi in the rooms provided by Swisscom. If you have a wifi account with a Swisscom partner like BT Openzone or some others then I believe you can just login using your account. If not then it was €9 per 24 hours for my iphone. Not sure on other prices as I didn't take a laptop. In another post by the hotel they mentioned the Business Centre was free for people to use, but I didn't go in there so don't know what facilities there were like internet etc.
Location - Good or Bad?
This I think depends on what you want on your visit. If you want to be in the hustle and bustle in the evening till late then I can see why some may prefer a hotel in that hustle and bustle. If you will be doing most of your walking around Rome during the day and want a nice place to retreat to in the evening then the Aldrovandi is a great place. For us, we were up early in the morning and after being fed and watered at the fantastic buffet, we were out and about Rome until evening. One morning we walked through the park which took about 15mins. However, there is the minibus that can drop you at the Spanish steps every 30 mins and also pick you up for your return for free. But you also have 2 main bus and tram routes that stop at the bus/tram stop 5m from the front door (The hotel should maybe tell people more about this). No 19 and No 3 routes. The number 19 if you get it from the same side of the road as the hotel takes you all the way to the Vatican city with various places you can hop off before if you like. If you want to go to the Colleseum or various other stops then cross the road and get on the number 3 bus/tram and you can get off all the way along the route. These services seem very frequent and also run until late. It was better than the metro in some cases as you didn't need to change. Just get on at the hotel and off at the site. Tricky part was finding the route map.
So for location, once you are ready to go back to the hotel, you have various choices. One is the Free minibus from the Spanish steps. Second is a Tram or Bus no 3 or 19 from many places across the city or a taxi (Ours cost about £7.50 from the Spanish steps). And even if you do stay in another hotel in the centre, you will more than likely be using the metro or a tram/bus to get to some sites, so it is more about those times you might want to pop out of the hotel in the evening for a short time vs a very nice hotel a little further away.
So all in all, the hotel was excellent, the staff very professional, the buffet breakfast was first class and for me the location was fine. One thing they could consider though it to install a Spa suite as that would really make this hotel a great place to have a luxurious trip to Rome.
Hope the review was useful and have a great time in Rome, it's a lovely city with so much to see.