we have had 2 stays in this hotel which is ideally located we thought.
its not far from the spannish steps about a 10 min walk away. its across from a small gallery. sant maria maggiore a beautiful church is a short walk away.
the hotel is 3 star its a small hotel it doesnt have a bar. the small breakfast eating area is in the lower floor i.e in basement but is pleasant. the breakfast is continental style and is adequate to set you up for the day. the staff are friendly . if you are going in the months when it is hot if you have a room over looking onto the buisy street there will be traffic noise if you open the window but they have air conditioning. our first stay over looked the buisy street and with the windows closed we had no prob sleeping the room was a good size and the bathroom was adequate size.
the second stay we were given a room which was at the back and it would be fair to say that the rooms view was a dark outlook onto a dark walled alley but to be honest it didnt bother us at all as we spent most of the day walking and seeing the city ,
if you are reasonably fit i am 51 and my husband is 55 i would say the best way to see rome is on foot. the hotel gave us a little map and we navigated succesfully on foot all round rome and we saw a lot more this way.
every wednesday morning the pope will give a genral audience which either takes place in st peters square or in the audience room in the vatican. to get tickets you write to the prefettura della casa pontificia citta del vaticano. rome italy.
you just give the date of the wed you are in rome for and request tickets to attend the papal audience . you let them know how many tickets you require. the vatican will send you a letter pretty quickly. and you are given instructions where to collect them from. unfortunately you do need a lenghty queue to pick the tickets up as you need to go through security at vatican but once you have picked up your tickets you can then walk round into the duomo. the tickets are free!!!!!!i me and my husband are not catholic but i will say its the most memorable event i have ever attending and i will never forget it.
if you are going to the vatican museums look on the trip advisor for advice re queues. one person who lived across from the ticket office gave good advice as to the best times to go in and we walked straight in only 1 minute queue yes one minute at the ticket counter but we took the advice of the trip advisor.
we went the end of march.
we also found the villa bourguesse gardens and this is a lovley park if you want to get into the bourguesse gallery it is best to get tickets before you travel online as entry is limited. the first trip to rome in october we didnt get in the second trip in march we turned up without booking and we got in as sometimes they have some cancellations.
we got our tickets for palatine hill colesuem and roman forum all in one at the forum ticket office(where the entrance is to the forum)
the queues for the colloseum are humungous but a person on trip advsior sed get in the shortest queue as the long one was for the ticket office and if you had your combined ticket you could go striaght in. the short queue took us about 10 mins to get in and this tiem was cos they had to security screen you. but the person on trip advisor was right and i am greatful for that advice as i would have been put off by the long queue.
tip there are roman soldires(men dressed up in old costumes) they allow folk to have photos taken with them but beware they expect to be paid for this. trip advisor warned of this.
also lots of beggars that look like old women some prostrate on pavement in the head down kneeling positon word of caution you never see there faces . look at there hands they are mostly young folk using this scam to play on poeples consiences.
also beware of fraud police . apparently trip advisor warned that they target tourists (who are easy to spot they usually have a map in hand the tourists that is) they ask to see your passport then threaten with a fine on the spot cos if you are sensible your passport is in a safe in hotle. they may then ask to see wallet to look for counterfiet bills and thats when they dash off with oyur wallet!!!! if approached ask to meet them at a locla police station. these fake police will flash an id but so quicj you cant see it they dont have uniforms . there are plenty off police around(real ones in uniform) if in doubt ask for them to accompany you to one of these visible officers.
read trip advisor about pick pockets and poeple using distraction tactics to riffle your wears like bunping into you with an ice cream or ruffling a newspaper in your face.
we were aware of all of these and we never had any problem with any but its best to be aware then you will probably like us be ok.
back to rome.
we went in the keates musuem which is on the corner at bottom of the spannish steps.
its a small house and the lady there gives a good talk on keates. we walked to the cemetary which is by the pyramide where he is buried it was a lovley walk.
we also visited st paulo a most beautiful church which is in this area well worth a visit. its a fair walk about 3 km from coloseum but well worth it/ there is transport to this church but the walk is where you actually see rome.
we would definatley go back to the same hotel its good value for money and down the road from hotel is a shop which sells paniinis and for 3 euro each panini we had a lovley picnic in rome each day.
in the evenings we went to a local supermarket and got a few cans of beer etc and we enjoyed these back in the hotel with our feet up but tip dont buy from the little shop a few doors down from hotel as we were cheated a couple of times they overcharged and short changed us and when you are not used to euros one is a bit slow to suss. also they didnt never give us a reciept from till and this is illegal in italy.

we enjoyed a visit to castle st angelo and along the river tiber you can see some sellars selling wears but beware you will see the dancing mickey mouses seemingly dancing to the boom box music they dance without strings!!!!i dunno how its done but its a scam dont buy them cos when you get home you cant get em to dance . i looked it up after on internet and they warned you not to buy. luckily i only spent 2 euros the original asking price was 5 for the 2 mickey mouses

We started our honeymoon and first trip to Europe with 4 nights at the Quattro Fontane, an 18th restored mansion. We were very worried about staying here after reading the reviews on this site however our travel agent assured us it would be OK as she'd stayed there herself. At first we were taken aback by rude nonchelance of the concierge, but quickly realised it wasn’t just him: he was typical of many people we met in Italy. A lot of them are just over tourists.

We made an effort to greet the staff in Italian and were always rewarded by smiles. We really enjoyed the humour of Fabrizio and Stephan, who recommended a good restaurant to us near the Presidential Palace. We even managed to engage with the breakfast staff and found them very friendly after we made the effort.

We found the location excellent, although walking up the hill from Barbarini Square was a challenge after walking around Rome for up to 10 hours a day! We spent our first 4 nights in a room with a loft with very steep stairs, however it was clean and quiet.

The breakfasts were typical of those we'd experienced throughout Italy - cold meat, cheese and breadrolls with croissants and cordial and coffee. The 18th Century renovated Hotel is situated within easy walking distance to the Trevi Fountain, the Forum and the Pantheon. There's a small deli/takeaway store located just a few doors away where you can buy food, a bottle of wine or an ice cream. The Red tourist buses stop at the bottom of the street, so it's in a handy location for sightseeing.

After doing an Amalfi coast tour, we returned for our last night in Rome in a very spacious room on the top floor with views over Rome to St Peters (yes, we heard the barking dog in the apartment adjacent to the Hotel).

We didn't have any problems with overbooking and enjoyed our stay. I'm sure there are more fabulous places in Rome, however this Hotel is 3 star and you get what you pay for. I'd be quite happy to stay at the Quattro Fontane again.

Hotel location is good although it's on a noisy "cobbled" road so traffic noise woke us up at night. The air conditioning didn't work. The room was dark and dingy but clean. Breakfast was bad. Brewed bitter coffee, only sweet sugared croissants, cheese, meats and yesterday's frozen hard boiled eggs, watery and crunchy with ice in the middle!. Nothing hot on offer. Rolls were fine so all I had was a cheese roll. Orange squash from the machine, no fresh orange juice.

It was easy to get to all the sites in any case and we used the all day metro ticket so to avoid spending too much time working out where everything was.

Rome is really expensive so would suggest you don't sit down in a cafe and have a drink. We had half pint of beer and a tiny glass of wine which cost 12 euros. Restaurants ripping off tourists in the centre with poor value and overpriced food.

The hotel suggested a restaurant and we had the worst pizza. The Chicago Town ones from Iceland are better!

But we spent so little time in the room because we were sight seeing all day. Would not recommend this hotel and would not be going back.

Location is great but would recommend staying elsewhere if you don't like to turn up to the hotel after confirming 3 times to be told your room has been double booked and you are being shipped to another cheaper hotel when you've paid premium for the accommodation. Also warning to asthma sufferers- I found the flowers in the main foyer area to affect my asthma because of the pollen during my stay and was very sick with continuous coughing . Hotel was neat, but would recommend elsewhere as its left my husband & I with a very negative view of Rome for our first visit there.