We picked Hotel Giardino because of its great location in the heart of historic Rome. It's a walk up one story with no elevator, but that wasn't a big deal. You ring their doorbell outside (look for Giardino on the list of building occupants) and they buzz you in.

The young staff (they seemed like college students) were friendly, helpful, and they speak great English. The rooms were clean but tiny, the bathrooms were clean though showers were tiny. Towels are the thin linen kind, not the thick ones we're used to in America, but they work fine and new ones were provided daily. The air conditioning worked fine but I suspect it's only available after June 1. In late may you may wish you had a fan with you.

Our little group took three rooms and nobody had any complaints. Breakfast was fine and they happily gave one of our group three cappuccinos with every breakfast, no questions asked!

They made excellent area restaurant recommendations and were always happy to call us with a taxi when we needed one. TV in the rooms had no English language channels, but they had BBC World News always playing in the lounge. The place was small enough that the staff and even other guests got to know us. That was nice.

My room was on the noisy street side, but when I closed and locked the thick, well-built "Swedish-style" windows, 95% of the street noise disappeared. No noise problem at all, really. The place has a pleasant balcony for breakfast overlooking a drab but peaceful inner courtyard. I would indeed use this place again.

Pros:

This hotel is a clean place to lay your head when sight seeing in Rome. The location was awesome. You are in walking distance to every major attraction with the exception of the Vatican. The staff spoke English very well and was always willing to give advice, recommendations and directions. Breakfast was basic but great (juice, coffee, tea, bread, cereal and Nutella).

Cons:
The beds were not very comfortable. However, we stayed in 4 hotels on our trip and that was a con across the board. It can be loud in your room due to the traffic outside and people coming to the front desk.

This is an excellent place to stay in Rome. Even though my wife has some problem with walking, she was able to easily manage the steps up to the hotel. And with the central location of the hotel and it being just a few yards from the bus stop, this was the perfect location for our first trip to Rome.

Kate and her staff made this a very special stay. Their recommendations for reasonably priced restaurants were outstanding. Kate went out of her way getting several bids for us for car service to Positano, Italy. We really enjoyed our stay in Rome due to the hospitality of the staff and their superb recommendations.

Stayed here a couple weeks ago. Room was clean and nice, air conditioning worked great which was nice since it was in the 80's that week. This is a perfect location, a short 5-10 minute walk to just about everything. Staff was very helpful, great dinner recommendations. Breakfast was basic and same as all the places we stayed, but good. I would definitley recommend this place to anybody. They gave us a good map of the city also wich was very helpful.