We had gotten a recommendation for this hotel from a friend who had stayed there with his wife within the last 3 - 4 months. We stayed here for over half of our trip, so we had time to get a good feel for the place.
The hotel is located on a main street running roughly between the main train terminal and the central historic sites (Forum, etc.). Though the street was busy, the room was fairly quiet. You would hear police or ambulance sirens occasionally, but you are in the middle of the city and the windows did a good job of dampening the noise. For reference, it took us about 15 minutes to walk to the train station and just over 20 minutes to walk to the Colosseum.
We arrived via a shuttle van from the airport. We had originally planned to take a train in, but the ticket seller at the airport recommended the shuttle as it was almost exactly the same price and saved us the walk. It was nice in that we did not have to find our way to the hotel the first time while jet-lagged.
The staff was very professional and helpful upon arrival. They provided a map and a lot of information, probably more than I could absorb given my post-flight condition. Though it was just after 11 a.m., they did have a room ready for us (we had expected to have to check our bags for a few hours first). It was great to be able to at least minimally unpack and relax briefly before having to seek out lunch.
The room was described as a junior suite, which was a complimentary upgrade from whatever I'd booked (a 3-person room). It had one main bed with a partition wall, and translucent pocket door type panels on either side so that you could sort of make it 2 separate rooms. The other room contained the couch that folded out to a bed, a refrigerator, and a couple of small tables and chairs. There were also 3 small closets / cabinets. If I were laying out the space myself, I'd have traded one of the cabinets for a bit more floor space in which to lay out suitcases. The room was not huge, but it had enough space to access open suitcases. I understand that floor space is at a premium downtown, and I'm sure other hotels here are sized similarly. Also, to make use of the lights, you have to put one of your room keys in a slot near the door. I had seen this feature in other hotels occasionally. We thought it was odd that, as we left and extracted the key, that they lights they stayed on.
They did have a fitness room and (I think) some sort of small 'business center'. The room for breakfast (included in our room rate) was on the primary floor towards the rear of the building. Breakfast was served starting at 7 a.m. each day and was *the* stand out feature of the hotel for us (though we liked a lot of other things too). The buffet was amazing. They had fresh juices (orange, pear, etc.), multiple varieties of coffee served by table, sausage and bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, a few types of bread, and many more dessert-type pastries than I usually associate with breakfast. I'm sure I'm leaving some things out too. I will probably be vaguely sad at subsequent hotel breakfasts in the U.S. going forward...
The layout of the hotel had a quirk that we discovered late in our stay. There were apparently two separate towers, buildings (4 - 5 floors each). The hotel has a restaurant, but it is on top of the other tower (not the one in which we stayed) so we had to find the 2nd elevator (near the breakfast room) to access that.
At the reception desk as you enter, you can either access rooms via the elevator to your left or via the stairs to the right. In the stairwell there was an older (original?) cage-type elevator. We decided to try it out one day. However, after entering, we could not get it to re-open. We had to descend back to the ground level and eventually press the alarm button to request help. It turned out you had to keep pushing the floor button repeatedly to make fine adjustments to position the cage at the proper height, at which point the door's auto-lock would disengage. If it is that hard to operate, maybe they should either shut it down or provide instructions inside the cage. This was sort of a running joke with us for the rest of our stay.
The only issue we really had was with the 3rd bed. I have stayed in a number of hotels with couches that convert to beds and have never had an issue with operating one of these. Until this trip. We had to get assistance with it initially.
In contrast to post-pandemic hotels in the U.S., here they actually clean up your room nightly and provide fresh towels.
We were very satisfied with our stay here and would consider staying here again. read more