I have just returned from 3 nights in Rome staying at the Hotel Marc Aurelio. I feel that other reviews posted on this site do not do the hotel justice, or maybe the hotel has improved greatly since they were written.

To be fair, the hotel is not in the centre of Rome. It is about a 20 minute journey, between walking and the metro, to get to the town centre. However, the hotel sits about 5-10 minutes walk from the closest metro station - Cornelia - and is 5 stops from the centre of the city. The service on the metro is reliable and fast and we didnt get pick-pocketed at all (although I hear it is quite common). The hotel is on metro line A which stops at the Vatican, Spanish steps, Trevi fountain and Pantheon, with most other attractions - Colosseum etc, within a comfortable walking distance. In general, it is pretty easy to get to all the attractions of Rome as long as you have a map (a good tourist map is provided by the hotel on check-in) and are wearing comfortable shoes! (A mistake I made on the first day!)


The staff are friendly and speak very good English. They were more than happy to help whenever we had questions, and whilst the breakfast was simple and could have been fresher, it was definitely edible and provided much needed fuel for a long days sightseeing!!!

The room itself was clean and spacious enough, with a reasonable mini-bar and ok views, and there were always clean towels and hot water (in contrary to what other travellers have written on this site!!) In our experience, the air conditioning was definitely not too noisy and very efficient!! The bathroom was equipped with both a shower and bath as well as a bidet which we definitely werent expecting!

One thing that was a bit annoying was that the metro stops at 10pm most nights, but bus number 46 stops at the end of the road, as does night bus number 5 (depending on what time you decide to go home!!!) You can buy a 3 day metrebus (metro/bus) ticket for 11euros and then enjoy exploring the wonders of this gorgeous city!!!


In general, I think that the hotel has been a bit under sold on this site and that really it was better than we had expected. The fact that it is a little way from town shouldn't put you off staying here, as long as you are able to walk a bit and have a bit of sense of adventure, its a pretty cool hotel. And much better than anything you could find in the centre of Rome for the same money!!!


P.S. its not on any of the '10 must-visit places' but I would recommend that you go to the church San Marco, near the Monumento a Vittorio Emmanuelle, because it was beautiful and quiet and really cool inside and there weren't crowds of tourists destroying the atmosphere!!!


Enjoy your holiday!

This hotel stated that they are situated near to the Vatican city, this is not so, it is a 10-15min walk from the hotel to Via Boccea where the number 46 bus stops, a three day Roma pass bus ticket can be bought across the road from the hotel for 11euros, the bus service is very good. Once you arrive at the bus stop, buses are frequent, it is about a 10min journey, then you must change to a number 49 bus, to be able to get off opposite the Vatican Museum entrance, this journey can take about 40mins might take longer depending on traffic. The restaurant, in the hotel, which only serves breakfast, has the same variety every day, namely very poor quality cornflakes, croiassants, and a kind of choux pastry roll, butter, small tubs of jam,tea and coffee.
The room was spacious and clean, on the fifth floor facing the road which was very noisy about 6.00a.m., the air conditioning switches off about 1.30 in the morning. Other hotel users can be heard talking, coughing, laughing etc, well into the early hours. There are no tea/coffee making facilities in the room and you cannot get a fresh cup of tea/coffee until 08.00a.m. when the breakfast room/restaurant opens unless you pay at a machine in the lobby, but no tea. The 2ft 6ins wide mattresses are on a sort of box and very hard, I put my mattress on the floor the second night with two folded blankets under to enable me to sleep I did ask at reception for a second mattress but they did not understand, they spoke very little english. The sheets were very clean and the thin tea towel linen type towels bath/face were changed every day, the sheets are not, the swimming pool was empty. If I were advising anyone where to stay I would suggest a hotel in the Cavour or Venezia area, then you are near to all the attractions but the Vatican making only one journey necessary and less expensive to travel, we had a taxi back to the vatican entrance one day, during rush hour, about three miles and it cost €18.97, as we had walked a long way and were exhausted, you need very comfortable footwear. There is litter and cigarette butts everywhere. We saw all the usual attractions which were awesome and incredibly beautiful, we joined a guide in a party of about 20 for the Vatican and Colessium which were excellant. We would not go back to Rome as it is very expensive and the restaurants do not cater for vegetarians only mundane/bland spaghetti.

The Hotel is situated in a very calm neighbourhood in the west of Rome, about 500 meters from Cornelia Metro Station. It is definetely NOT close to St.Peter as stated on the homepage, but bus and metro connections are good and frequent.
Our double room was relatively newly decorated and clean. There were traces of mould in the bathroom due to a very poor ventilation. The clothes rail in the wardrobe was broken and there was a lack of coat-hangers.
We witnessed a shortage of hot water on our last day when two buses of Spanish tourists left in the early morning and all passengers took a shower simultanously, this shouldn't happen in a three-star hotel, I know youth hostels who do better. The breakfast is simple but better than Italian standard, staff is friendly and helpful. Towels are changed daily and we found our room always tidy and well ranged on our return from the city.
The minibar offers soft drinks, local Peroni beer and two varieties of wine on very reasonable prices, satellite TV has RAI 1 to 3, all Berlusconi-Mediasat channels, TVE 1 (spanish), BBC World and Sat 1 (german).
Restaurant was closed during our stay so we couldn't check it out. Avoid the "Bar Gregory" across the street, they have no pricelist and seem to charge the double from tourists. Supermarkets, Bars and Pizza-to-take-away-shops are on Boccea street close to the Hotel.
There may be better three-star-hotels in Rome, but this one has some advantages as the calm surrounding, a free parking in the yard, a relatively rich breakfast and resonable prices (official prices are around 150 € per night but most seem to pay less than 100 € per room per night when booking in advance).

Fairly speaking, it is confortable enough (I stayed there for 5 nights). Most staffs are nice. I got a large two-bed room although I booked a single one. The room is very clean.

This hotel is a bit old, the air condition works but a bit noisy, and the room has poor sound insulation between adjacent rooms. The breakfast is ok. There is some little odor of tabacco or cigarette in the corridor and when you opening your room door, but tolerable (I guess the odor was attached on the carpet or wall).

The light is dim everywhere. I highly suggest, if the manager see this review, that you should brighten your illumination in your room and your dining hall and your lobby, and renew all your carpets and wallpapers to remove the ordor and refresh the style.

It is a 10-to-15-miniute walk to the metro, to the second from the last station of the line A, namely 'Cornelia'. The road where the hotel situated "via Gregorian XI" is in fact not a main line, so it is a dark walk when you come back from metro station to the hotel in the late night. But I think it is ok since it is in the resident region. At least I walk back safely every night.

So the hotel is ok and I should give it 3 stars. But the following scene did happen one morning and reduced my rating of the hotel greatly. Here I cite verbatim:

I, to the reception desk staff: "Can you do me a favor, to confirm the flight for me since the operators are all speaking italian?"

The reply of the staff (impatiently): "No, you can do it yourself."

As it is, he continued refusing to help. I was very surprised. Finally I tried to do it with the help of some others. I just dont know that, for a staff of a 3-star hotel, in Italy, is it a sin or shame to confirm the flights for your customer? Or in Italy the desk staff never did so? It should not happen in any hotel costing you 100 Euro per night, and should not happen in any staff of any hotel.