I was so glad to stay at the Diplomatic.
Walking in Rome is the way to see the city - unexpected encounters with history all the time.
It is close to the river and the wonderful recently restored Ara Pacis.
Staff were great, room a refuge after tramping about!

I don't know how it all works but we were on the top floor and as such, had a balcony looking out onto the street. From what I could work out, only about half the rooms have these balconies. So that was a definite plus. However, because of various factors, you can only actually see anything if you are standing up so no sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine, enjoying the view. Also, even from up on the 5th floor with the windows and shutters shut, there was still plenty of noise from the traffic below during the night. Nothing that bothered me but I imagine if you were lower down, it might be more of a problem.

No, what bothered me more was the extremely thin walls. If there was someone in the room next to you, you knew about it. I think it was perhaps the air conditioning system too, all the rooms connected, meaning that if someone spoke in the room next to you, you could hear it pretty clearly where you were. Again, not normally a problem but on our first night our neighbours were up way into the small hours and not overly concerned with how or if their fellow neighbours were sleeping after a long day of travel. Not the hotel's fault per se, but in a different hotel it wouldn't have been such an issue. And if our stay had more overlapped with the same people it may have been a more serious issue for us. It does remain hypothetical because they weren't there for the rest of our stay and did enjoy our stay overall.

To get on a more positive note....the complimentary breakfast was pretty good, the patio as I mentioned is great if you get one, the staff were fairly friendly, the rooms were kept spotless, *all* the main attractions were within 30 minutes walking distance tops (most of them less), great value for money and the Rome 110Open tourist bus stops literally outside the front door.

Nothing particularly fancy about the hotel but for the price and location, there can't be many better out there in Rome.

Great hotel in a perfect location.

All sights were well within walking distance, the furthest we had to walk was the colosseum which was a 30 minute slow walk.

Would highly recommend this hotel for anyone travelling to Rome. Rooms were clean and the staff were more then helpful and spoke very good English.

Can't fault my stay at the Diplomatic, especially at the cheap price as I booked at the very last second through expedia. Very happy with my room, it was clean and modern, the air con did the job in days of 32c+ temperatures and the shower was excellent. There is a minibar in the room - handy during hot weather, the bed was firm and no problems with noise from outside or internal so no interrupted sleep. I was on the 2nd floor facing Vittoria Colonna and had no complaints.

Ok there were no english channels on the tv nor was there a desk in the room in case you wanted to write some postcards or something, but I didn't visit Rome to watch tv and I can live without a desk, especially as I had a single.

The internet is available for €4 per hour, their computer is a touch slow but it suffices. Breakfast is standard buffet euro fare, ham, salami and cheese slices, bread and a toaster, rolls and various croissants, yoghurts, jams etc. The OJ is from concentrate but thats the only downside.

The location is great, but don't repeat my mistake - get the bus from Lepanto metro and dont walk there in the middle of the day in August. The bus stops outside for both directions, 87 takes you to the Colosseum, and other routes in the opposite direction take you near to the Vatican. An air conditioned bus is a joy on a hot summers day and beats the pants off walking around.

In my opinion avoid the restaurant just next to the hotel, the better option is just around the corner on the right towards the river, just be patient with the old guy who is the waiter :)