Question: if you were going to Rome for the first time would you stay in a boutique hotel or a cool apartment with a view?
Assuming more than 2 nights, apartment is far far better, in my opinion! For me not even close.
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What month?
I’d want to shop at Mercato Testaccio and Salumeria Volpetti, so I’d get an apartment somewhere in the Testaccio neighborhood.
Apartment with a view, make sure there’s an elevator or be ready to climb a lot of stairs. A great view is not that common a thing as the buildings tend to be all the same height and close to each other. Often a view will come with traffic noise.
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May
In that case, you don’t have to avoid places near the Tevere. Be prepared for rain, though.
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More expensive too. Dear husband is pretty adamant about me seeing Rome first. I get it. But out of curiosity, why more hours?
P.S. I never thought I’d say this but I don’t mind rain. I live in dry ass L.A. Plus, I want to avoid a lot of tourists.
This makes it clearer:
Rain does not affect tourism. If you want to avoid tourists, stay in a less touristy neighborhood with a good streetcar line.
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Oh, also, there aren’t many tourists about in the Centro Storico early in the morning. Some of the churches with great art open as early as 7 am.
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il motivo per cui?
Yuck
Is this advice for staying or just a day visit?
Personally I wouldn’t stay in the Centro Storico again. Way too many tourists.
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Okay, it’s pretty though. We’ll just visit early morning.
Rome is one of the places I’ll never return to because of the tourists. We did a tour of the Sistine Chapel and the docent commented on how lucky we were cause it wasn’t so busy. And this was in the off season. As we stood shoulder to shoulder with maybe 1000 of our closest friend. But we did have a little apt. in a quiet nabe and took buses just about everywhere.
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I would go back for a couple days . Only in the outskirts. I’ve seen all of the popular places last time . Just food and wine next time around and espresso.
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Hi @catholiver -
Not sure which direction to go in - center of everything or quieter outside of Rome near a metro station.
My Roman friend gave me these recs for a first-timer.
”Find an Airbnb near the center of Rome.
Piazza di Spagna or even near Il Colloseo.
Piazza that places you near the train - easy to go on day trips that way! Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Venezia, Circo Massimo, Area Fontana di Trevi, area Fori Imperiali… Also Piramide (close to Colosseo) Aventino…they are all in the historical center of Rome…well connected with metro and bus.“
But idk, this area seems interesting too and kind of off the beaten path.
Staying near Piazza di Spagna or anywhere in the Centro Storico, you’d be a relatively short walk to many of the places you might want to see, and it’s wonderful to step outside and be surrounded by buildings that are hundreds of years old. The downside, all the other tourists will be there. But for a first-time visitor that might be a sound tradeoff.
Testaccio’s a great real neighborhood where real Romans live. I’ll probably stay there next time we visit Rome. Lots of buses, 3 line streetcar (note that the 3B is a relatively unreliable bus even though it shows up on maps as a streetcar line), modest walk to the Pyramide metro station. The covered market is one of the best in town. Volpetti is a fantastic deli.
The other place I’d consider staying is the Gianicolense. It’s not touristy at all, but the modern, fast, reliable 8 streetcar will get you downtown fast. There’s a great market and since it’s a pretty upper-middle-class neighborhood lots of excellent restaurants.
Seems like it’s 6 in one hand, half a dozen in the other. I do like the idea of going to the markets, but maybe as first time visitors we’ll stay in the center of activity. That will also be convenient for taking day trips. I’d like to see Florence.