Italy - Rome

One of the problems with the modern age is that we’ve seen too much. We’ve become way too desensitized. The effect that the Sistine chapel is going to have on my grandmother is going to far outweigh the effect it will have on me. Maybe I’m just jaded, but I (along with anyone else my age or younger) has already seen every sight the world has to offer, in an even more brilliant color structure than real life, in countless movies, commercials, and internet pics. I’m not saying that standing in that room and looking up at a work by Michelangelo isn’t cool, I’m just asking how cool can it be when you’ve already seen it so many times. The effect and experience may be fantastic, but it’s nowhere near as fantastic as you want it to be. St. Peters basilica is huge, but lots of buildings are huge now. It’s ornate as hell, but what it immediately made me think of was how many homeless people could of been saved if it had never been built. The museum was filled with items that the church expressly forced people to donate. Oh shit, you found something cool, now it’s mine. I mean, it really is a monument of excess.

Anyway, for such a big city you can see an awful lot in a short period of time. The streets are all super close together and admittedly they are all super lively. I kind of love cities where every restaurant has a patio. And here, every business seems like it was carved into something ancient…cool, even if it is just for show.

Italians are wearing on me though. They are super nice to each other, but without an “in” they don’t seem very interested in the seemingly millions of tourists that are walking around. The sites are cool, but man I need something modern.

Lastly, the dick face train station cabbie tried to palm a twenty and tell me that I only handed him 5. I asked him if he felt comfortable stealing like that…and he quickly left. Douche.

On our most recent trip our hotel was right next to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Can someone please explain to me why these are “sights”?!?! The Spanish steps are literally just steps…and Rome has a lot of old steps. The Trevi Fountain looks like it belongs at Disneyland. I’m all for history and I am a humongous fan of ancient Greece and Rome, but let’s not get carried away. The emperor has no clothes!

In addition to the things I already mentioned below, we also really really liked Campo Dei Fiori Square. Cool place to hang out. I would say the same thing about Navona square.

On our most recent trip in 2019 we discovered a couple new things… 1. Eataly is stupid as shit and should not be visited. 2. Trastavere neighborhood is a must do. Get dropped off just on the other side of the river. There is a square there and you can wander in any direction and just get lost a love it. Feels like Greenwich, or maybe Greenwich feels like it. Just perfect.

Most recent trip September 2024:

Hotel Navona Rome
They try, but this hotel is not good enough to stay in. Good location is what get. Next to the Pantheon is always good for me.

Antico Forno Roscioli - delicious and sold by weight, but the case was kind of small for pizza. Mostly it’s a bakery

Salumeria Roscioli - The antico sister restaurant. Mostly a store for meats and cheese but they do a full service dinner too.

Forno Campo de Fiori - Quite unassuming. In a great square and not so dissimilar to Roscioli. Delicious but simple. They fold single pieces cut in half on top of each other to go into the bag.

Bonci Pizzarium - Oh man delicious. Not in the center of things but worth the trip! Their Panificio Bonci sister restaurant is near by (though they close on different days so be careful) and is just as delicious (the cotto sandwich was just about perfect).

Trapizzino - Gimmicky pizza cones. Almost like an upright calzone. Delicious don’t get me wrong, but just fun with eating, rather than holy shit.

Ivo a Trastevere - We loved it. Sat outside for delicious pizza and cacio e pepe.

Trionfale (sp) market - biggest onen rome but local and classic. Not gonna jump out at you. Had a great porchetta here but the bread was meh. Just perfect meat and bread.

Mercato Central Roma - oh man this place actually crushes. Real chefs with fast casual fun concepts. Loved it. P.I.E was the perfect pizza set up. Panzerrotto was like an awesome ham and cheese empanada. Gimmicky like the trappazino.

Notes to self:

-Dining/drinking in a cafe at the Pantheon at night is pretty damn memorable. Do it again.
-There are no crosswalks or streetlights at most intersections. The drivers are quite well trained so just close your eyes and walk into oncoming traffic.
-Ancient Rome is amazingly cool. Everywhere you look in the old city you have something to gawk at…it never ends. I couldn’t get enough.
-The lights for the ruins come on way after dark. Best to go after some drinks.
-The Colosseum self walking tour was…adequate. Better get a human guide next time.
-The guided Vatican tour was pretty sweet. Those dudes go to college to be a tour guide!
-Hotels man…this city is old and grand.
-We did the 48 hour bus tour on our most recent trip…well worth it! The first day was perfect because our room wasn’t ready and we were absolutely exhausted so we just sat on the bus and sort of dozed/sort of listened. The next day we did it proper and used it as a taxi to our Vatican tour, and the last day we had enough time left on the ticket to use it as a cab to the train station. Not bad.
-Our Vatican tour in 2016 through sightseeing tours was fucking bullshit. We bought our entire tickets in advance, but they never mentioned that the entire rest of the group may not of done this. Thus we waited for the group to form, then we walked half a mile with the group to the ticket office, then we waited for the group to buy their tickets, then we went to the entrance line. Absolutely ridiculous. We waited for longer than the length of the tour. You guys suck, and the tour sucked too. My previous Vatican tour (by “rome by dark” I think) was way better.

*On our 2019 Vatican tour we did “faster than skip the line” and it was killer. So worth the money. Not even an option to do anything else. It’s still a crazy madhouse bananas shit show getting in and moving around, but this is the easiest crazy madhouse bananas shit show option.

-We did have a nice meal outside of the Vatican (on a side street) that was comically affected by an American couple sitting next to us that took issue with the “Italians” not knowing what was “Italian”. They were the worst, and I loved watching the “movie”

See Trastevere above!

-We took a cruise from Civitavecchia in August of 2022. Private car from there to Rome one way cost us $180 bones for 4 people, but it was a nice car :) Mostly I just mean it aint exactly close to Rome. It was another port style city with some, but limited charm. The Ship was the Norwegian Epic for 7 nights. We got the 2 bedroom suite in the Haven and it served us quite well. If we didn’t have the Haven with it’s private pools, bars, restaurants, and skip the line services then we may have hated this cruise. It’s an older ship but we had fun. Tough to stop in a port every single day!

We went to naples (see Naples), Livorno (J rented a car to go to PortoVenere so what does that tell you), Cannes (see Cannes), Majorca - Old town area was cool. Big bus tour seemed decent and shopping was actually fun. Even though it was hot, those winding thin streets were quite cool. El Camino looked rad but we got there at the wrong time. The samaisos were just fine. I could see people really enjoying this place. The passeig Des Born main road is a relaxing walk and the Old Town neighborhood coming off of Placa Major is a huge winding area of fun shops and restaurants, Barcelona (see Barcelona), Ajaccio Corsica - Nah. It's not a bad town but no reason to go back. Much prettier places than this.

W Rome - Aug 2022

Oh man this W was so promising! The descriptions. The pictures. Place looked cool! Nope. Sorry. It’s fine but this is not a W hotel. It’s worse than the DC W was and that one tried really hard in a tough city.
The “mega suite” was really just a regular room. It had a rad balcony but there was no suite in this suite. I’m still quite astonished. The Spectacular room had a great balcony too but it was tiny. These are just not W rooms. The brand has gotten Marriotted somehow and I can’t even believe it.
The pool is small but pretty cool as a lounge pool. The lobbylounge bar is pretty rad and Giano restaurant and their outdoor patio are great. The food is a bit pretentious for what we wanted that night, but had it just been the 2 of us I think we would have loved it.

We did walk quite a bit from this location. Pretty accessible to many sights and the main shopping street. It’s nowhere near the cooler neighborhoods like Travestere though. We did a bit of a pizza tour and loved the bakery pizzeria Antico Forno Roscioli. Its salumeria is pretty cool too. Forno Campo De Fiori is close by and cool too.

Walked to Casa Alberto, a renowned restaurant…it was fine.

Palazzo Naiadi Rome - Jul 2019

Now this is a nice hotel. A very nice hotel. But overall it just didn’t do it for me. It started with them not really giving a shit about platinum status. That’s not so rare in Europe but to be so dismissive was weird. No early check in, though they may say they gave us 45 minutes early which is douchey. No talk of points or welcome stuff. No talk of late check out or upgrades (we had used suite upgrade nights on one of the rooms and it was fantastic). It just was a bad way to start.

The area in Republica Square is not so interesting. It is near all the things if you like walking really far. We actually enjoy that but on this occasion we had a grandma with us and so it was cab city each time. Nothing is walkable if you don’t like walking.

The pool area on the roof is also a little misleading. It is quite small and it is freezing, even when it’s a thousand degrees outside. For the most part the servers working the pool may as well have been working in Paris, because they were snooooooTY. Drinks were fine and they have snacks and little lay out areas, but the pictures make it seem much much different than how it actually is.

Room service is 24 hours. They have adult packages but for Europe it seemed kind of lame. The mini bar was fine. The hotel bar is fine and the restaurant is nice. The breakfast was a little pricey if you don’t get it for free (free with our first room because of status, discounted to 20 a person for the next room because of status which is cheap and bullshit, but 35 a person if you don’t get anything). It was good don’t get me wrong, but they offer this a la carte portion where you get to order a couple things but each thing says you have to wait 20 minutes for it…not exactly what you are hoping for!

Though the superior rooms are actually kind of big and their style and giant king beds could turn on any couple visiting Europe, we also had a loft suite and it was pretty sweet. Huge with great views and everything you would need.

The bell/valet area was stellar and we took cabs to pretty much everywhere and then walked extensively from those spots. Can’t say enough positive things about these folks.

Pantheon Iconic Hotel - Jul 2019

I mean first of all, you cannot go wrong with any sort of view of the Pantheon. I think this building is too magnificent to describe, so to be right next door is just glorious in and of itself.

This hotel was not killer, but it did not disappoint. We got booked into an upgraded square view, but then they decided to upgrade us even more to a luxury suite. Now this room was great, with a fantastic bed and a huge bathroom and generally the great things you’d expect, but it was not very big overall, and it came with hardly any view. So I think overall I would’ve chosen the room with the better view.

The mini bars in the rooms were very good, room service was plentiful and 24 hours BUT EXPENSIVE, like 30 bucks for a sandwich expensive, and the TV was big but not much other than regular channel TV.

The bar upstairs was nice and had a huge patio where you could overlook the Pantheon. This is also where the breakfast was, which was fine, but if it wasn’t free you wouldn’t want to pay for it…

Rome Marriott Park - Aug 2019

We stayed here to be close to the airport because we had a butt ass early flight out of Rome…and also cause it looked like it had a great pool for the kid.

No. No.

No.

Don’t stay here. Don’t ever stay here.

Terrible.

This is a conference hotel. Conference food, conference bar, conference service. It’s kind of a travesty that anyone would stay here. Hurts my feelings that it exists in a city like Rome.

It’s near nothing first of all, so they’ve got your ass for eating and drinking.

It looks like a bad casino from the 70’s in the rooms and hallways. The balconies are stupid and terrible. This place sucks.

And to top it off, that pool is like a municipal pool from it’s always sunny in Philadelphia. It’s gross. Amoebas and hair and nasty people and gross.

Stay away. Damn.

Rome Style Hotel - Jun 2016

The lobby here is small as all get out, and it’s not exactly easy to see even when literally right in front of it, but overall this is a pretty sweet spot.
Fantastic location and like a 5 minute walk from the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps (why anyone feels the need to go to those “sights” is beyond me, but nevertheless, they are right there. You can also walk pretty much anywhere else from this locale, except for maybe the Vatican (though we did that too).
The free internet was good, the free mini bar was good, and the free breakfast wasn’t bad.

This hotel was kind of a modern oasis in a sea of grand dames. Our room was loft style with glass staircases and hard wood floors. The bathroom was on the first/foyer level and the bed and everything else was on the second (down a flight) level. Pretty damn perfect for any couple. The bathroom itself was small but it had a nice rainfall shower. There was no pay per view but it had a nice tv and bed, there was no view, and room service is available for dinner…but we saw no menu.
$300 a night.

Notes

-I would definitely stay again.

Radisson Blu Roma - Jun 2016

Fucking hated it. At one point it was probably badass but now is very dated and a little dirty. Location is next to the train station, but nowhere near the train station entrance. It’s comically far for something you thought was right next door. The rooms are small and our executive room (100 more a night) had the shower in the room with the toilet right next to that. It was the opposite of private. If you’re alone maybe it’s great but man we were up in each others grills! Didn’t make the breakfast but it was free. Mini bar was free and fine. Room service looked fine. No pay per view. Bathroom reeked of piss.

The rooftop area is pretty nice with a nice pool, and there is a neat ancient archeological sight in the lobby which was cool, but this business traveler hotel was more annoying than anything else for us.
Plus! The staff hardly knew shit, like painfully unaware of their surroundings. The bar they directed us to for the ITALY quarterfinal soccer (yup, it’s soccer) match was a million miles away from the hotel, through some not so fun parts! Ugh.
$300 a night

Notes

-Ugh

St. George Roma - Oct 2013

Decent location but I wouldn’t call it great. Though it is in the old part of the city and right next to the river, it’s still about 15 minutes from everything.

This hotel is the perfect example of what goes wrong with accommodations in a purely tourist society. This hotel was fine. Decent street but not much activity on it. Decent sized room with fine amenities…desk, nice bed, TV, decent bathroom. All for 500 bucks a night. Are you kidding me. A hotel like this would go for 200 a night in New York City. But, in historic cities they get whatever the market will bare, and we can bare a lot apparently. So, after spending a night there, I had to move. I at least needed to be much closer to the action and sites if I am going to be spending that per night.

The hotel did have one very, very nice quality. On the basement level they had a semi-sweet spa for a hotel like this. It’s not a knock your socks off experience, but man it really hit the spot. Turkish style pool, plus a small hammam, and a pretty standard sauna. Nice little hour spent relaxing…and it was empty, which is hard to beat.

My problem is that every “swanky” hotel in places like this are exactly not that, they’re regal, they’re royal, they’re elegant and stately. If I was 30 years older I’d probably be in heaven.

Hotel Le Clarisse al Pantheon - Oct 2013

Fantastic location but maybe not the best possible. Walking up the street I did notice some similar looking hotels that overlooked much more happening streets than this one. In any case though, it’s 1 block from the Pantheon, which is not only a great historic site, but it’s also a cool restaurant and nightlife area.

Hotel itself is a bit of an afterthought. Curiously built into an apartment building so when you go up the elevator you choose the entrance door that goes to the hotel rooms…rather than the tenants area. Now that I’m writing this it no longer seems very secure, but you know, “when in whatever”.

Room itself is as good as most European hotel rooms that were built a couple decades ago…but they do have an updated bathroom…and a minibar, yah! My room looks out onto an inner courtyard complete with laundry and yelling. Rome.