Monday, July 30, 2012

A Touch of Rome - Comfortable Accommodations near the Vatican in Rome

During our recent visit to Rome, we stayed at a bed and breakfast called A Touch of Rome. This very reasonably priced lodging was nicely situated on Piazza del Risorgimento - a couple of blocks from St. Peter's Basilica, from the entrance to the Vatican Museum, and from the Ottaviano Subway Station.

It is one of two B&Bs that are owned by the same people and located in different parts of an eight-story building. The other B&B is called A View of Rome (http://www.bbaviewofrome.it/). Both B&Bs focus on American clients. Normally, I would not choose lodging that focuses just on Americans because I like to use foreign travels to meet people of other nationalities. However, in this instance, A Touch of Rome seemed to suit our needs. I made my choice on the basis of Trip Advisor reviews. As usual, the reviews were spot on.

The owner of the B&B, Daniele, his colleagues Simona and Livio, and his staffers Lourdes and Filippo were all extremely nice, helpful, and friendly. I had several very nice conversations with Daniele, and with Lourdes, who is from Peru. Both spoke excellent English. My dealings with Simona and Livio were via emails in English. Their English was superb.

When I called Daniele from our car to inform him we had arrived, I learned that he was outside waiting for us. He showed us where to park for a few minutes while we checked in. He also took our luggage up to our room.

The price for our room for four was 144 per night. The room, which was located on the fourth floor, was large and clean, with a modern bathroom. We had a king size bed and two single beds. One thing we liked about the bathroom was that it had a medicine cabinet behind the mirror above the sink. This made it much easier to store our toiletries. The view from our window was a boring view onto an uninteresting courtyard. In this instance, the view was not important.

The room had free WiFi, and a big-screen TV, which could also be used as a computer. Another nice feature of the room was that it had lots of electrical outlets, which made it easier to recharge all of our cameras, smart phones, computers, ereaders, etc.
The price of the room did not include breakfast, so it is not quite a Bed and “Breakfast.” (The sister B&B, A View of Rome, does provide breakfast.) We were provided a free breakfast on Sunday, when Zero Cafe, a nearby restaurant with which A Touch of Rome has an agreement, was closed. On that Sunday, we were served breakfast at A View of Rome. That breakfast was very nice - a tasty omelet, bread, coffee, and juice - served by Filippo.

As I mentioned, A Touch of Rome does have an agreement with Zero Cafe to serve a reasonably priced breakfast to its clients. There is a choice of an €7 or €8 breakfast. We all had the €7 breakfast, which was nice and which included a ham & cheese omelet, toast, choice of coffee, and a nice size glass of orange juice.

One great recommendation from Daniele was to have dinner at Da Vito e Dina, where we had a delicious and very reasonably priced meal.

For our departure, Simona arranged for a large taxi to take the four of us to the airport for a fixed fare of €50.

See TripAdvisor for reviews, photos, etc.: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187791-d3171929-Reviews-A_Touch_of_Rome-Rome_Lazio.html

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