I stumbled upon this little hotel that is what it is - a safe, clean, basic hotel of 9 rooms located in a convenient non-touristy part of town. It is run by a family who takes special care of you, from the moment you arrive. Neither speaks English, but they communicate very well. Their son speaks many languages, and conducts much of the business part, offering assistance even before you get there.

Each morning you are greeted by breakfast in the lower level common room. You have a rolls, a slice of cheese, slice of salumi, butter, jams, a small sweet roll if you wish, and freshly made coffee and steamed milk. Mama holds court, and seats you with people who speak your language if possible. Nice start to the day. If you ask about a certain site, you'll get a map with drawn directions, including bus or tram numbers. You are equidistant between Vittorio Emanuele and Manzoni stops on the metro, just a 4 minute ride from Termini. It is described to be in the Termini area, and I guess it is, but not close to the main entrance. It's within walking distance to the Colloseum, San Giovanni Laterno, and really near all kinds of transportation.

My room was small and spartan, but I had all I needed, including a TV with local channels. I had a private bath, dresser, closet, phone, and a place for luggage. I also had the only room with a small balcony which was nice to keep wine and soda on in Feb. The rooms are cleaned every day, and the sheets were clean and crisp. If you are of the school that believes you spend most of your time in your room with your eyes closed, this is place could be for you. I booked first on Venere.com, then found a better price on Priceline. Finally, the best price was on their website, and they promptly verified that rate by email. The only caution is that you should check the floor you are on. The building has three rooms on each of three floors, and you should be in good shape if you have a top floor room (and don't forget anything you have to go back for).

Over breakfast conversation, other guests and I noted the neighborhood looks dicier than it actually is. I walked around the area on my own every evening, and had absolutely no problems. It is an area in change, and now many asian stores and signs. It is very close to the Vittorio Emanuele market, which has moved from the park to 2 covered buildings a block away. Talk about a trip around the world!

As you leave the hotel, you turn in your heavy key and fob, and you get it back when you return and ring the bell. And what a treat I had every night, taking the metro to Vittorio Emanuele stop and on the way back finding the famous gelateria "Fassi" literally right around the corner from home! The gelato is great, and try the truffle! "Papa" usually has night duty, and when opening the door for me was concerned when he did not see the usual cone (and it wasn't Monday, when Fassi is closed). I pulled the cup of truffle from my bag, and all was right with the world.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Lussemburgo. The family that owns the hotel is wonderful. So very kind, friendly and inviting. The son was very helpful and speaks very good English. The mom and dad speak very little, but are still able to communicate and get the point across. The son gave us a map to the city and circled all of the wonderful places to see, which also included an explanation on the best and easiest way to get there. We brought the incorrect adapter for the plugs, and the family provided us with the right one. They went out of their way to make sure our stay was a good one. Check out was at 11 am, and our flight didn't leave until 10 pm that night. It was not a problem for us to keep our luggage in the lobby. They even made sure it was taken care of while we were out. The rooms are small and basic, but that is to be expected when traveling in Europe. We didn't travel to Rome to stay inside all day anyway, so the rooms were just fine for us. The hotel does not have a lift, but 3 flights of stairs get you to the top. The location is great. A 15 minute walk gets you to the Colosseum and surrounding monuments. You are about two blocks away from the Line A Metro stop and about a 10-15 minute walk from the main train station, Termini. If you take line A from Termini to Manzoni, it's easier on the feet to get to the hotel. Overall, Rome was fantastic and our stay couldn't have been any better. We truly believe that our trip was so great partly due to the fact that we felt as if we had been invited to stay in someone's home. We weren't worried one bit about anything being stolen and felt very safe. We're already planning to go back Summer 2006 and will definitely being staying at the Lussemburgo!

Stayed at this hotel for a week and really enjoyed our stay! Rooms were very basic and quite small, but had ample space for the trip and also everything we needed. Hotel and rooms were very clean, cleaned daily with fresh towels. Breakfast was great; buns, cold cooked meats, cheese, coissants, jams, juice, tea, coffee, fruit, etc. Plenty to set you up for the day. About 3minute walk to nearest metro station, lots of buses nearby and only a 15 minute walk (max) to the colusseum and many restaurants around it. We walked to everywhere within the city, even the Vatican! Streets around are well lit and we felt perfectly safe. What really made the stay was the owners, an old Italien couple. They didn't speak English but were very helpful, understanding most requests (they lent us glasses, corkscrew, extra towels, etc) and provided help on getting to places around Rome. Anything too complex and you could ask their son, who is in during the day and speaks good English. All in all they were wonderful, happy and friendly people who couldn't help enough! A perfect hotel for a good price!