Part of Expedia Flight/Hotel package and booked 2 trips from the website also.
We chose a 2 star quieter hotel away from the immediate city centre deliberately. We knew that everything would be walkable anyhow and these back and side streets of Rome are a delight.
This hotel is situated off the main road and is in a typical Italian building complete with large shuttered windows. It is a very strange set up as the building appears to have a different hotel on every floor, the Giollo being on the 2nd. Glass doors into a foyer and take the lift. A small reception but the greeting from the owner (?) was warm and welcoming. Our room was average size but had a big bed, large wardrobe, very small bathroom/shower but still adequate but had a ceiling fan and air conditioning which seemed far more important than the size of the bathroom anyhow. Also wall TV and fridge. Do not expect luxury, this is 2 star here but the room was clean and cool.
The breakfast room was long and narrow and the breakfasts nothing special. The juice was I am almost sure squash, there were carton yogurts, cellaphane wrapped croissants, rolls and usual jam/honey, cheese and meat.
The 2 guys who seem to own the hotel, were absolutely brilliant. They advised us on how the pickpockets operate, called our tour operater when they failed to pick us up and sorted it for us, and offered general advice we found very helpful.
Certainly we were able to walk to and from the sights etc easily from here. Although it obviously took us a bit longer in the heat, even a taxi wouldn't cost more than a few euro. We caught the shuttle bus direct to the hotel from the airport so I can't advise on the distance from the main train terminal, but probably not far although pulling a suitcase in the hot sun may not be advisable.
The other good thing about this hotel is that there are 4 street cafes all within 50 metres and all a bit cheaper than those around the inner city. One does amazing pastries and we had evening meals at 2 others and these were both well recommended and reasonable given the current £/euro rate.
There is also a local supermarket and delicatessan where we were able to buy snack bits for the room.
If I went back to Rome, I would definetely use this hotel again. I does what it says on the can. 2stars, no frills, clean, budget, not far to the city, good local eateries. We had a great time.
