The Secret Hotels of Rome
20 exceptional hotels in the Eternal City for under $80 a night.
True budgeteers will appreciate the irony: The only Rome hotel to rival the five-star Hassler (atop the Spanish Steps) for "Best Room with a View" is Albergo Abruzzi, a backpacker's haven overlooking the incredible 1,800-year-old Pantheon. Few cheap sleeps are so well situated, but among the best of the best, each has its own charms. I recently toured more than 70 Roman inns where doubles cost under $80 before choosing 20 that offer some combination of a good location, solid comfort, a modicum of amenities, and helpful management that strives to make each guest's stay a memorable one.
These Little Wonder Hotels run the gamut from spare hospices managed by nuns to a pensione serving kosher breakfasts, from international backpacker pads to classy joints where you'll have to snatch a room away from traveling Italian businessmen. Whether your dream address is a block from the Spanish Steps or from the ancient Forum, whether you want to crash around the corner from the train station or from the Armani showroom, you'll find the perfect room at one of these budget inns.
The hotels are found in four well-known neighborhoods: Centro Storico, Termini, Prati, and Trastevere.
The centro storico (historic center) is where most people want to be: Along the boutique-lined streets radiating from the Spanish Steps, or tucked into the knot of cobblestone alleys and antiques shops surrounding Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and Campo de' Fiori with its morning market and nighttime bar scene.
Rome's best bargains are clustered amid the Termini train station's nineteenth- century grid of bus boulevards, budget shops, and recent immigrants trying to scrape a living. Though central enough, this is Rome's least interesting neighborhood-dreary, dirty, and slightly disreputable (especially just south of the station), and a half-hour hike from the centro storico. I've pinpointed the shining gems of hospitality and stylish frugality amid Termini's sea of seedy flophouses and tour-bus chain hotels.
Across the Tiber River are Prati, a great, non-touristy neighborhood that surrounds the Vatican; and, to the south, the restaurant- and pub-filled alley-ways of a gorgeous medieval artisans' quarter called Trastevere.
Unless otherwise specified, all rooms come with private bathroom and telephone, credit cards are accepted, and the range of rates is seasonal; you pay top dollar roughly from Easter to October (but excluding August and sometimes July; rates used here based on E1=94¢). To call Rome from the United States, dial 011-39 before the numbers listed below.
Centro Storico
Pensione Panda Via della Croce 35, tel. 06-678-0179, fax 06-6994-2151, www. hotelpandaparadise.com. 20 rooms, 12 with bath. Double room E62 ($58) without bath, E83ÐE93 ($78Ð$87) with bath. 10 percent discount for paying cash. No breakfast. For the best balance of comfort, style, and price in the very heart of Rome, the Panda wins hands-down. The washboard-vaulted ceilings are frescoed (second floor) or trimmed in stuccoes (first floor) over terrazzo flooring, wrought-iron wall sconces, and firm new bedsprings. Even rooms without private bath have sinks surrounded by antiqued stone tiles. That cash discount keeps it under $80. All that and it's just two fashionista-teeming blocks from the Spanish Steps amid Rome's toniest shops.
Hotel Smeraldo Vicolo dei Chiodaroli 9, tel. 06-687-5929, fax 06-6880-5495, www.hotelsmeraldoroma.com. 50 rooms, 44 with bath. Double room E68ÐE78 ($64Ð$73) without bath, E104ÐE114 ($98Ð$107) with bath. Breakfast E5ÐE8 ($4.70Ð$7.50). This is the first place in Rome I call for a room. You just won't find a better place at these prices in the very heart of Rome. You get burnished chestnut veneers, stone-tile floors, marble sinks, and all the electronic comforts of home (satellite TV, hairdryers, even A/C). The price for rooms with full bath rises above our $80 ceiling but all rooms have sinks and bidets. The industrious owners have also just renovated the old Hotel Piccolo (it's now called Hotel in Parione; tel. 06-6880-2560, fax 06-689-2330) across the street.
Casa Kolbe Via San Teodoro 44, tel. 06-679-4974, fax 06-6994-1550. 63 rooms. Double room E80 ($75). Breakfast E6 ($5.60). Those rooms that don't open onto the peaceful courtyard's palms and orange trees look instead across a little-trafficked street onto a romantically overgrown, semi-excavated portion of the ancient Palatine Hill. The Roman Forum entrance is just a few hundred feet away. The Kolbe exudes that somber quiet that only a former mon-astery can muster, but it's comfy enough. The built-in units are austere, with heavenly orthopedic beds sporting blankets in the most hideous shades of brown and yellow the 1960s had to offer.
