I picked the Hotel Derby because it is close to where my aunt lives in Rome and I wanted to be able to get back to the hotel quickly and easily, on foot, with three kids after spending the evenings with her. I also wanted to be close to a metro station so we could easily get in to the center of Rome. Hotel Derby is close to the Garbatella metro station on Linea B which is very convenient for getting downtown.
We stayed in Room 208 which is what they call a Stanza Quadrupla. We had two single beds on one side of the room with an end table in between and a "letto matrimoniale" which was actually two twin beds put together to look like one big bed. I slept in this bed with my 6 ft 5in (I meter, 90 cm) husband and my 4 year old daughter and we slept very comfortably (although my husband's feet hung off the end but what else is new)
There was a large wardrobe with lots of hangers and two drawers at the bottom. There was a desk and two other end tables and a TV. The TV had 2 English channels - mostly BBC news, and other channels in Italian, Spanish and German. At different times of day, the kids could watch shows in Italian like Strawberry Shortcake, Dora the Explorer, Zach and Cody and even Hannah Montana. Of course we did not come to Rome to watch TV but it was great for the short times we were in the hotel.
We had a large bathroom with a shower with hot water every day, a sink, mirror, toilet, and bidet. The towels were big and fluffy. The hotel provided shower caps, soap, shampoo and a shoe shine buffing kit, and sewing kit.
The room was nice and warm and we opened the balcony door if it got too warm. The balcony had a table and two chairs outside and a beautiful view of the neighborhood.
The breakfast at the Derby was amazing. Annette was VERY pleasant and although she does not speak English she did her best to understand my husband who speaks no Italian. There were fresh croissants with a sugary glaze called cornetti. Coffee how you like it - espresso, capuccino, caffe macchiato, etc.. Yogurt in lots of different flavors, apples, corn flakes, cold milk, toasted sliced bread if you ask for it = and it was served from 7:30 to 9:30.
The people at the front desk were very nice. One man in particular named Giorgio spoke excellent English and was very accomoating. Some nights the people on staff did not speak much English, though. Since I speak Italian I would not know how it would be to try and communicate with them.
The hotel loaned us umbrellas on the rainy days and answered questions about where things were. They have a great big map of the neighborhood in the lobby and of a big pad of tear off maps of the historic downtown area ( i took a new one every day)
The street was quiet and the neighborhood safe. There is a GREAT little pizza place immediately to the left of the hotel when you exit down the hill. They had wonderful pizza a taglio which is pizza by the slice but actually sold by weight. This kind of pizza is often not that good, but this was wonderful.
I cannot say enough about this hotel. It is not in the historic district so not close enough to stop and take a nap in the afternoon but other than that I would recommend it to anyone!!
The other thing is that the S.Paolo neghborhood is also very close and there is a little amusement park for small kids - my 8 and 4 year olds loved it. It is on Viale Giustiniano Imperatore and you bought tokens based on how many rides your kids wanted to do. Great place to spend half an hour after lunch or before dinner.
