We stayed at the Eurostars International Palace hotel in Rome at the end of Feb 09 for 4 nights. We were very happy with the hotel. It is centrally located within 15 minutes walk of the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum and the Santa Maria Maggiore Church (well worth a visit for the shear opulance displayed there). Our room was a standard triple, quite a good size with comfortable beds, mini bar, nice bathroom. A word of caution, if you end up staying at the front of the hotel, we would imagine it would be noisy as there is a lot of traffic right outside the hotel (bring earplugs). Our room was at the back and was very quiet. We did not eat at the hotel as we thought they were expensive 16 euro for breakfast. However, there is a cafe straight across the road from the hotel where you can get food all day. There is a mini market, again across the road from hotel, which proved to be very useful for stocking up on water etc.
The Colosseum is easly accessed from the hotel. Turn left on exiting and take the second or the third street to the left and it is down at the end of that road.
Equally the Trevi fountain can be reached by turning left on exiting the hotel. Keep walking until you see a tunnel across the road. Use the tunnel to take a shortcut to the fountain. Turn left on exiting the tunnel and it is but a short walk from there. The tunnel is noisy with traffiic, but a handy shortcut.
The Santa Maria Maggiore Church is again nearby. Turn right on exiting the hotel. Take the first street to the right, by the Max Mara shop and keep walking on this street until you reach the church. Your reach the back of it first. Well worth a visit.
We used the Viator green hop on hop off bus service, which we found very useful. You can get a pass for 24 or 48 hours. A good idea on the first morning is to use this service, as it gives you a good idea of where everything is. Stay on the bus for the 2.5hrs round trip and use it afterwards to hop or or off at the various attractions. The nearest bus stop for this is across the road from the Termini which is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel - turn right on exiting the hotel.
There are some nice restaurants near the hotel. Turn left as you leave the hotel and take the first left, There are three good restaurants on this street, which is very handy after a long day spent walking. They are Est Est Est, which serves pizzas and pastas, very reasonable and delicious. Beware that it may be full, but if you ask they will reserve a table for you later. Another restaurant on this street is New Mary Meeting which serves a wider variety of food including steaks etc. Again we found the food there to be tasty and the staff were lovely. There is also a chinese across the road from Est Est Est, which we also enjoyed. Another good restaurant we tried was nearby. Turn right on leaving the hotel and take first right. It is on the right hand side of the road, just past the rectangular fountain (cant remember the name of it).
There is also an Irish bar serving food on the Via Nazionelle, which we did not get a chance to try, but it did good business.
With regard to getting to the hotel from the airport, we used a service called Rome Shuttle Limousine Services, which we found to be excellent. Booked on the internet, we paid 40euro from airport to hotel and 35 euro from hotel to airport. Excellent service and well worth it. If you are more adventurous you can get the train or bus from the airport to the Termini (station) for 11 euro per person each way, but you then have to find your own way to the hotel (10 minute walk).
There are local busses running just outside the hotel, but we did not use them as they always were very full and can be an easy target for pickpockets.
The beauty of staying around the Via Nazionelle is that you are very central and can walk most places.
A tip for the Vatican - If you intend going there and not doing an organised tour, go around 12.30-1.00p.m. as it is a quiet time. Earlier in the day the queues are long.
Rome is a fantastic city and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We hope to return and would stay in the same hotel again.
Jim, Mary Moloney
Cork