I stayed at the Amalia Hotel in July 2008 for the third time. I thought I posted a review then but it doesn't seem to have made it onto the review section, this also has happened with Naples review that I wrote in Oct, I must be doing something wrong.

For my third visit, the Amalia did not disappoint and I would recommend anyone to stay there.

I always stay in a Superior room and have never found fault with them.

The breakfast is a continental buffet serving brioche, bread rolls, cereal, juice, coffee etc and this was perfectly adequate for me.

I plan to return to Rome again in Sep 2009 and will be booking the Amalia again.

We were delighted with this hotel.

We booked 4 nights for £228 via hotelconnect.co.uk ( they had a promotion on for 4 nights for the price for 3) - which is excellent value for a good location in Rome.

When we arrived there was some big maintenance works going on in the small reception area, but we were greeted by a very friendly woman who spoke good English.

We checked into room 404 which we were very happy with the size of. Very clean, and the twin beds put together were large and comfortable ( the beds are quite hard, but we didnt mind that at all). It had a good view of the hustle and bustle of the street from the window.

I see what people mean about the showers being hard work ( it is a tiny cubicle) , but once you get used to it and you arent too big a person, its OK and shoots water out very powerfully.

Breakfast was for the sweet toothed with a lot of cake, some cheese and break and had excellent coffee and orange juice.

Not to sound too much like Alan Partridge describing the Travel Tavern he used to stay in, but the Genius of this hotel is in its location. It is 2 blocks away from a metro station ( Ottaviano S. Pietro, only 5 stops from Termini), and a little over a 5 minute walk to the Vatican. Brilliant.
The neighbourhood is very nice, with lots of restaurants in the area offering good lunch time deals ( pick up some fliers near the Vatican Museums).

Only word of caution is DO NOT GET A TAXI from Termini station to the hotel. A woman that we met shortly after checking in got stung for 45 Euros to get her elderly father and herself a taxi to the hotel. Unbelievable, especially considering that taxi's directly from Ciampiano airport to City Centre hotels cost a fixed rate of 30 Euros.
My wife and I got the metro directly from Termini to the hotel for 1 Euro each.

And one tip - for those interested in good "gelateria" - visit the parlour directly opposite the hotel entrance on the corner ( it will have a massive multi coloured plastic ice cream cone outside). Excellent ice cream, and the very friendly man that runs the place makes your day. He speaks excellent English and is a bit of a character.

This hotel is a bit out of the way. It's also a bit of a trip from the train station. (pretty much every hotel is a trip from the airport) it is also easy to miss but our taxi had no problem finding it. I think it cost 15 euro to get there from the train station.

The metro line is two blocks away. very convenient. use it.

within a stones throw of the vatican and the papal apartments.

I could see st peters dome from the hotel room window.

the street below is loud

the room is very clean and almost elegant looking

the staff is nice, but some dont speak much of anything but italian. not a negative, just an observation. i had to check out at 4 am and get a taxi. my italian wasnt all that good and his english was even worse. we both made it work though.

breakfast is pasties, cereal, tea, burnt coffee (if you get there late) the pastries were good though. good restaurants nearby so i would never have eaten in the hotel restaurant. lots of gelaterias too. very out of the way for things like trevi fountain, colosseum, etc, but easy to get to using the subway.

hotel seems to be in what is an apartment complex. there is a wire elevator cage. it was never an issue though.

Subway is clean and efficient. sometimes crowded. but better than NYC

I was in Rome for one week for work reasons and chose this hotel for no particular reason. The hotel shares the building with private apartments and offices. At first they put me in a ground floor room which had no natural light, stank of cigarettes, had bad air conditioning and mites in the bed. I got bitten the first night I was there and kept awake by the sound of people going in and out (you need to use a buzzer to come in). I complained and then got moved to a deluxe room which was way better - great windows, clean furniture, spacious and cooler. But it still cost E125 a night (this was in September). The room is ok, it's fine. It's about 45 seconds to St Peter's Square, it's within three or four minutes walk of two different subway stations, there are lots of places to catch taxis and eat food. So in location terms it's amazing. If you're a walker, like I am, you can get to Piazza Navona/Coliseum/Trevi Fountain in about 20 minutes max. But if you're working it's the little things that stress you out - like how there's no wifi even though it's advertised on the hotel website. The shower has a deeply unpleasant corrugated plastic door that is plain cheap, there is no laundry or room service, the breakfast sucks. I heard good things about the Atlante Star and the Hotel Torre Argentina though.