When in Rome...Where to Stay?

ROME — “City of the soul” is how the poet Byron described the Italian capital, which he celebrated in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” For many, this is what it remains today, a spiritual home.

Next year, as the Catholic Church celebrates the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus with a grand Jubilee year--the 26th in a series of Holy Years decreed by popes since 1300--Rome is expected to host 30 million visitors. The pilgrims among them will come to see the city’s shrines of Christianity, and to walk the streets trod by St. Peter and St. Paul.

To prepare for the millennium Jubilee, which officially begins on Christmas Eve this year and ends on Jan. 6, 2001, the city and the Vatican together are spending $6 billion to refurbish 700 historic sites, widen streets, add tourist information kiosks, buses and signs, set up emergency medical stations and enlist thousands of volunteers to welcome travelers. And, like the weary pilgrims of old, these visitors will need a place to stay.

According to Rome tourism officials, the city currently has 38,100 hotel rooms, with 640 more due soon. The Vatican agency that oversees the Jubilee is arranging accommodations in convents and monasteries for 4,000 more pilgrims of modest means. Meanwhile, city officials have encouraged Romans to turn their homes into bed-and-breakfasts, and the locals have already made room for about 2,000 more visitors. But it’s expected that most Americans will prefer hotels, particularly in the three- and four-star categories. (The Italian government rates hotels using one to five stars, a system based largely on such amenities as elevators, TV or air-conditioning, and not necessarily on such intangibles as charm and decor.) So travelers are faced with the eternal question in the Eternal City: Where to stay?

Several weeks ago I went to find out. Rome’s peak tourist season runs from April to September, when visitors can expect to pay top prices for accommodations and are wise to book well in advance. But during the Jubilee, rooms may be hard to find all year, and especially on Christmas, Easter and World Youth Day (Aug. 20, 2000). Nevertheless, on my August visit I was surprised to learn that there were still plenty of vacancies around Christmas Eve this year, when Pope John Paul II officially launches the Jubilee by opening a special holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

During my weeklong visit, I stayed in five hotels and inspected about 50 more. My research underscored yet again how hard it is to find a nice place to stay in Rome for a reasonable price. In numerous trips over the last decade, I’ve stayed in convents, budget pensions and apartments--with their hard, low beds, ugly art, claustrophobic showers and ‘70s-era furniture.

Happily, with the advent of the Jubilee, things are changing a bit as hoteliers seize the opportunity to renovate and expand. Some places I loved in the past, like the budget Bramante Hotel near the Vatican, have been closed and gutted, while others have added amenities (and consequently jacked up prices).

Still, I came up with a list of 10 favorites in the moderate price range, roughly $100 to $200 per night, with one exception. (For less than $100, you generally get a room in a one- or two-star pension, sparely--perhaps shabbily--furnished.) My 10 favorites offer rooms with private baths (though some have cheaper rooms if you don’t mind sharing facilities). In most cases breakfast is included in the price, and rooms are equipped with mini-bars. But none of my favorites has a restaurant, which means that room service is generally limited to beverages. Prices quoted below are for double rooms and usually include tax.

In addition to price, my selection criteria included location and ambience--though the latter admittedly can be a matter of personal taste. And I left larger chain hotels and religious hostels off the list. All things considered, then, here are the Rome hotels I liked best, listed alphabetically:

Albergo del Sole. Within hailing distance of the Campo de’ Fiori, this 60-room, two-star hotel, in a building that dates from the 15th century, has long been known for its clean rooms with tile floors, high ceilings, armoires and pretty floral fabrics. There are rooms available from November onward. The hotel’s charms include several pleasant parlors, a patio garden, a penthouse apartment accommodating four and a parking garage (rare in Rome; about $25 per day). 76 Via del Biscione, tel. 011-39-06-6880-6873, fax 011-39-06-689- 3787. Rates: $93 to $115 with private bath, $76 to $82 without, excluding breakfast, no credit cards.

Hotel Celio. Owned by a pair of personable brothers, the Celio has 20 rooms on two floors, each named for a painter and decorated in a florid, operatic way, with carpets, drapes, bedspreads and pillows in bold prints and stripes, gold tassels, Baroque mirrors and pictures of angels wherever you turn. There are thoughtful amenities, like a little library of VCR tapes in the lobby, and the inn is located in an area with a real neighborhood feel. It is a 30-minute walk to favored tourist spots such as the Piazza Navona, but as close as anyone could want to the Forum, the Colosseum and the newly opened Domus Aurea, Nero’s pleasure palace on the Esquiline Hill. 35/C Via dei Santi Quattro, tel. 011-39-06-7049-5333, fax 011-39-06-709-6377. Rates: $120 to $208, with private bath and breakfast.

Hotel Due Torri. On a winding alley near the Piazza Navona, the 26-room hotel was undergoing renovation when I stayed there in August. But the lobby, a long series of chambers with gold-framed mirrors and sconces, looked stylish even amid the construction rubble (now cleared, I’m told). Its most prized rooms, new and well equipped, are on the fourth floor and have private terraces with glorious views. Baths are minuscule, but there are antique armoires, regal-looking curtains and bedspreads and contemporary prints on the walls. The staff is friendly. 23 Vicolo del Leonetto, tel. 011-39-06-6880-6956, fax 011-39-06-686-5442. Rate: $175, with private bath and breakfast. Hotel Fontana. The view from the smashing roof garden that overlooks the fabled Trevi Fountain, where Marcello Mastroianni watched Anita Ekberg take a revealing dip in “La Dolce Vita,” says it all. Its 25 rooms are small (except for No. 302 and No. 303 on the fourth floor, which have big sunken bathrooms, polished wood floors and exposed beams), but they are clean and tasteful, with high ceilings, crisp white sheets and handsome vintage furniture. Because it’s such a tourist draw, the piazza out front tends to be a zoo at all hours, but the three-star hotel is a surprisingly homey refuge, charming in an idiosyncratic way. (I didn’t stay here, so I can’t vouch for its quietness at night.) 96 Piazza di Trevi, tel. 011-39-06-678-6113, fax 011-39-06-679-0024. Rates: $213 with view, $191 without, including breakfast (all rooms have private bath).

Hotel Locarno. In a cantaloupe-colored building with brown shutters and lush vines around the front door, this family-owned hotel near the Piazza del Popolo has a Belle Epoque air. There’s a beautiful wood bar across the hall from the reception desk, a sweeping marble staircase, an old cage elevator and a first-floor breakfast patio shaded by umbrellas. My room was small but had unusual amenities for Rome: a computer modem plug and a safe. Some of the Locarno’s 48 handsomely decorated rooms have striped fabric walls, old prints and marble-topped desks. The staff is exceptionally efficient, which together with the decor creates a feeling of Old World civility. 22 Via della Penna, tel. 011-39-06-361-0841, fax 011-39-06-321-5249, Internet https://www.hotellocarno.com. Rates: $180 to $197, with private bath and breakfast.

Hotel Nerva. A small inn on a serpentine street just east of the Forum, the Hotel Nerva is within walking distance of almost all the important sites of central Rome. Its tiny lobby is manned by a staff who aren’t fluent in English, and the rooms are simple, with white walls, exposed beams and comfortable but unremarkable furnishings. Still, it has a quiet, homey feeling and several big chambers that would work nicely for families. 3 Via Tor de’ Conti, tel. 011-39-06-678-1835, fax 011-39-06-6992-2204. Rates: $126 to $197, with private bath and breakfast.

San Anselmo, Villa San Pio, Aventino. Lately I’ve been hearing negative things about these three sister hotels on the quiet, residential Aventine Hill, south of the Circo Massimo--in particular, that the management is temperamental and refuses to let you specify which hotel of the three you want to stay in when you make a reservation. This is significant because the San Anselmo is far and away the best of the three, with gorgeous, airy, Baroque rooms and the occasional balcony.

But I’d be remiss if I failed to include these three because they are so special, long favored by Rome aficionados who are looking for peace and quiet. Besides, although the Villa San Pio and Aventino have smaller, darker rooms, they share the lovely garden atmosphere of the San Anselmo. Nearby, explorers can visit early churches like the Basilica di Santa Sabina and dine in the up-and-coming Testaccio neighborhood. 2 Piazza San Anselmo, tel. 011-39-06574-5231, fax 011-39-06-578-3604, Internet https://www.aventinohotels.com. Rates: $158 with private bath and breakfast at the San Anselmo and Villa San Pio; $126 with private bath and breakfast at the Aventino.

Hotel Scalinata. In 1985, when former Times travel editor Jerry Hulse found this place, the Scalinata’s 15 double rooms, sharing the top of the Spanish Steps with the Hotel Hassler and overlooking all of Rome, were priced at $47. They cost three to five times that now--but what a view! And what an aristocratic ambience, with too many textures and patterns in the rooms and a rather nose-elevated atmosphere. Still, if I had the funds and wanted to sleep near the Spanish Steps, I’d stay at this place in a flash. Of the rooms I inspected, Room 15 looked nice with its private terrace. 17 Piazza Trinita dei Monti, tel. 011-39-06-679-3006, fax 011-39-06-6994-0598. Rates: $137 to $273, private baths and breakfast.

Hotel Teatro di Pompeo. This 12-room hotel is another excellent choice in the Campo de’ Fiori area, built on the ruins of the Pompeius Theater. Its cellars and foundations, visible in the lounge and breakfast room, date from 55 BC. The relatively large rooms are spotless, simply furnished and a tad rustic, with slanting beamed ceilings and terra cotta tile floors. 8 Largo del Pallaro, tel. 011-39-06-687-2812, fax 011-39-06-6880-5531. Rate: $191, with private bath and breakfast. (Next door on the little piazza, there’s the Ristorante der Pallaro, a friendly trattoria.)

Hotel Trastevere. The Trastevere received a floor-to-ceiling renovation last year and is now a perfect plum. Most of its nine simple but pretty chambers and four apartments overlook the endearing Piazza di San Cosimato market. You really can’t beat it for the price, given the fact that all the rooms have private baths (and hair dryers). Above all, it’s in the thick of Trastevere, Rome’s Greenwich Village, home of Ivo’s nonpareil pizzas, Bernini’s statue of Beata Lodovica Albertoni in Ecstasy in the church of San Francesco a Ripa, and the beautiful church of Santa Maria in Trastevere with its 12th century mosaic facade, a little bit of Constantinople in Rome. 24a-25 Via Luciano Manara, tel. 011-39-06-581-4713, fax 011-39- 06-588-1016. Rate: $83 with breakfast, but no air-conditioning or TV.

More Rome Lodging

* Casa di Santa Brigida, a comfortable religious guest house, L7.

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Got Bucks? On a Pilgrim’s Budget? There Are Other Choices . . .

Rome hotel rates can be heart-stopping, but if you’re on an expense account or loaded, the Hotel Hassler at the summit of the Spanish Steps (6 Trinita dei Monti, telephone 011-39-06-699-340, fax 011-39-06-678-9991, Internet https://hotelhasslerroma.com, e-mail [email protected], $400-$475); the luxurious Hotel Eden nearby (49 Via Ludovisi, tel. 011-39-06-478-121, fax 011-39-06-482-1584, Internet https://www.hotel-eden.it, $470-$580 plus tax), the Albergo del Sole a Pantheon, in a building that has served as a hotel since 1467 (63 Piazza della Rotonda, tel. 011-39-06-678-0441, fax 011-39-06-6994-0689, e-mail [email protected], $300), or the pretty and intimate Raphael just off the Piazza Navona (2 Largo Febo, tel. 011-39-6-682-831, fax 011-39-06-687-8993, Internet https://www.raphaelhotel.com, e-mail [email protected], $270-$380), will do nicely, thank you. But why do these high-end hotels persist in that heavy, funereal Roman style, while Milan sends its chic, contemporary designs to hotels in London and New York?

At the other end of the market, you can find spartan rooms (sometimes without phones, TVs, air-conditioning or private bath) in one- and two-star hotels, generally in the vicinity of the train station, a 30-minute walk to the Forum and an hour to the Vatican) closer to the $100-a-night range. My favorite centrally located budget hotels are: the Coronet, with a marble staircase and old-fashioned cage elevator, on the third floor of the 17th century Palazzo Doria Pamphili (5 Piazza Grazioli, tel. 011-39-06-679-0653, fax 011-39-06-6992-2705, $143); the Hotel Marcus, halfway between the Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps, with 22 rooms, some with high ceilings, marble fireplaces and big windows (94 Via del Clementino, tel. 011-39-06-6830-0320, fax 011-39-06-687-3679, $127); the Hotel Navona, in a recently renovated building near the piazza of the same name (8 Via dei Sediari, tel. 011-39-06-686-4203, fax 011-39-06-6880-3802, $88); and the Hotel Parlamento, an excellent value just off the Via Condotti, with a roof garden and 22 nicely maintained rooms (5 Via delle Convertite, tel. 011-39-06-679-2082, fax 011-39-06-6992-1000, $66).

If stay you must near the unlovely Termini train station, choose a place in the quieter neighborhood east of the station: the Hotel Alpi, newly renovated (84a Via Castelfidardo, tel. 011-39-06-444-1235, fax 011-39-06-444-1257, [email protected], $110); or the Hotel Venezia, with chandeliers in some rooms and the biggest buffet breakfast I’ve seen in Rome (18 Via Varese, tel. 011-39-06-445-7101, Internet https://www.hotelvenezia.com, [email protected], $190).

Another rather difficult part of the city is the area around Vatican City, desirable for religious pilgrims, but way across the Tiber River from the historic heart of Rome. There, where hotels are relatively scarce, my top choices: Hotel Giuggioli, a very basic, safe and clean five-room pension run by an Italian grandmother (198 Via Germanico, tel. 011-39-06-324-3697, $83); Hotel Alimandi, a modern facility steps away from the Vatican Museums (8 Via Tunisi, tel. 011-39-06-3972-3948, fax 011-39-06-3972-3943, e-mail [email protected], $116); Hotel La Rovere, on the flank of the Janiculum Hill (4-5 Vicolo Sant’ Onofrio, tel. 011-39-06-6880-6880-6739, fax 011-39-06-6880-7062, $155); and the pretty Hotel S. Anna, a five-minute stroll to St. Peter’s (133 Borgo Pio, tel. 011-39-06-6880-1602, fax 011-39-06-6830-8717, e-mail [email protected], $176).

(Note: prices above are winter rates for a double room including tax, except where noted.)

GUIDEBOOK

Off to Rome

Getting there: There are no nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Rome, but Alitalia, Delta and TWA all have direct service (one stop, no plane change), and Continental, British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM and US Airways have connecting fights. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $678. Commuter trains link Leonardo da Vinci Airport to Termini Station, Rome’s main train hub, for about $8.

For more information: There are tourist kiosks all over Rome, but the main office of the Rome tourist office is located at 5 Via Parigi near the Piazza della Repubblica. Or contact the Italian Government Tourist Board, 12400 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Los Angeles, CA 90025; telephone (310) 820-9807, fax (310) 820-6357, Internet https:// www.piuitalia2000.it.