Rome

[svenof9]

To those of you who have been to Rome and know it pretty well, where should we stay when we go there in March? Where are the nicer parts of town? Are those the same parts of town that are near good things to see? Coliseum? Vatican

Comments

[kryscat]

Last time i was in Rome was '99 and I stayed in a hostel near the train station, so I'm no help there. I did find that dragging my rolly-bag around sucked in some areas, so I suppose that would generalize to stroller-pushing...

[threadwalker]

I don't recommend a stroller in rome if it can be avoided- the cobbles are everywhere. The hotels in the nicer areas get expensive, but I do have a recommendation for one in a quite neighborhood pretty close to everything if I can remember/find the name.

I highly recommend going to villa borgese (sp) in the park near the zoo. The park is extremely restful amid the general chaos of Rome, and the Apollo and Daphne sculpture is worth the trip by itself. Take the time to walk around it and watch it change.

[threadwalker]

(that park does actually have nicely smooth paths through it though, the zoo has great monkeys too. One thing- the museum itself requires a reservation. In off season you can probably bet on getting there an hour or two before you meant to see the museum (so go there, get your timed tickets, go for a walk or eat lunch or whatever), but if you want to be safe you get the ahead of time (see the museum's website).

[janviere]

The tourist center of Rome is small enough that you can circumnavigate it on foot in a day. Well, probably a bit slower if you're pushing a stroller. If you're staying within the city walls you're within walking distance of everything. (And there's the metro and buses if you decide otherwise.)

Probably the best combination of "nice" (= trees) and "close to everything" is around Spagna. I suspect it'll be ridiculously expensive. I think Quirinale was nice, too, and it has a cool name. I also enjoyed walking around Trastevere (lots of cobblestones, though) and the hills behind there, but that's much more of a walk to all the tourist-clogged sites.

My experience was that there were good things to see everywhere, whether they were reconstructed Roman ruins or not. I quickly got tired of feeling like I was being taken advantage of at the major tourist sites.