My husband & I and my parents recently spend 6 nights at an old villa on the Aurelian Wall at Porto Metronia in Rome. The apartments are about 6 blocks from the Coliseum & very close to the Bath’s of Caracole and St John Lateran. Rome is a very expensive city & I really wanted to rent an apartment so we could cook some meals on our own plus be part of a neighborhood. I also wanted a place where we could gather in private & have lots of room as well. This apartment met all those criteria & then some.

The apartments consist of several units all owned by a private party who is quite knowledgeable and helpful though she does not live on the premises. The apartments are situated on one of the glorious Seven Hills of Rome and overlook much of the city. These apartments were once part of a great estate and there is still a large garden and manicured green lawn. Something you will not find in the rest of Rome. The ancient Aurelian wall forms the garden wall & walk way up to the apartments. We rented the Piano Nobile Apartment which consisted of 3 big bedrooms, a large dining/living room, two bathrooms, 3 balconies, and a large fully equipped kitchen. We truly felt like we had a home in Rome, not just a hotel room. The apartment was old by American standards but clean and full of antique furniture. For the first hour we were there we wandered around in disbelief everything was so lovely and truly unique. We found a major grocery store nearby but the local morning market was more fun & an excellent bakery and fruit stand were also about 2 blocks away. Though the apartments seem isolated, they are actually in a very vibrant part of Rome. We quickly discovered the ambulance route is nearby and like always, we were glad we had our earplugs.

Valley Castle arranged for a driver to pick us up at Castel Gandolfo to take us to Rome. Not only did he drive us into the city but took us in & explained the apartment to us. This cost us only 60 Euro. We had easy access to the bus system which dropped us off near our gate and the subway stop was at the Coliseum. We walked a lot too but I was surprised at how easily we negotiated the Roman transportation system. We rented a car at Termini Train station to leave Rome & I expected to get hopelessly lost in the city. Our landlady emailed easy to follow instructions and we simply followed the signs to the airport which is on the GRA (Rome circular road). We zipped out of the city, a real Roman miracle.

We have been to Rome 3 times and these were by far our best accommodations. I dream of bringing my family back and renting the entire villa. It certainly would be suitable for a family reunion or great place for friends to gather and stay in Rome. I will say it was a pain to make the payment. You cannot just call in the credit card number. I had to go down to our bank and send off a bank draft in British Sterling to pay for the entire stay. There is also no cancellation policy, you would be totally out of your money if you cannot utilize the apartment. So I got trip insurance at the same time. The owner will send you detailed instructions via email and slow mail. Read them and take them along. They were very very helpful.

I know that we were very fortunate to be able to stay in this unique and beautiful place while we were in Rome. I could not find a review on tripadvisor so I really took a chance. Our week in Rome was wonderful. I am so glad I made the extra effort to thoughtfully plan our accommodations. This was a big part of a successful trip. If you plan on going to Rome I would definitely search the web to find out how to make reservations for and stay at Porto Metronia in the valley castle apartments