Two days in Rome

I recently reported about my three days in Rome. This week I returned
for two more days, and am reporting back as promised.

Dave (DFM) had recommended the Albergo Lucia at a stone's throw from
Termini Station. The prices seemed too low to be believable, but I had
a reason to want to be very close to Termini Station, so I decided to
give this hotel a try.

I went to Rome to meet my daughter who was returning from a research
trip to Africa, with lots of luggage. I wanted to meet her at the
airport early in the morning to help with the luggage, so I needed to
stay in Rome the night before. Then we wanted to spend one night in
Rome alone together so that she could rest and have a good shower, the
first in several months.

I got a single room the first night for 45 euros, and a double the
second night for 60 euros. These rooms have private baths and are
air-conditioned. The price doesn't include breakfast.

Dave's description of this hotel didn't do it justice. It's on a
really awful street, and I wouldn't want to be walking around late at
night on that street, and I always kept my possessions firmly under my
control. The building is unprepossessing, but less so that that of the
Hotel Pavia where I stayed last week. There are at least six hotels in
the building. I couldn't find it at first, because I walked right past
it without seeing it. The street numbers defy any logic, so once I had
passed the hotel, looking for number 77 didn't help much. I ended up
calling the hotel to get directions from the corner where I was
standing.

If you want to find the hotel, follow these directions: After leaving
the train, walk straight past a bank of shops until you find yourself
in a long corridor with shops on both sides. Turn left and exit at the
end of the corridor. At the street, continue more or less in a direct
line on the small street in front of you (Via D. Marin). At the next
intersection, cross the street and turn left again. The hotel is in a
building a few doors in from the corner. The building has signs for
many hotels and pensiones.

The Albergo Lucia is on the sixth floor. There is an ancient elevator,
but not as ancient as the one at the hotel Pavia. The hotel itself is
very nice and the owners (husband, wife and son) are very kind and
helpful. The rooms are decorated in a vaguely Ikea-like style. The
whole place was very clean and the baths were modern.

The single room was long and narrow, and the bath was of the sort
where the entire bathroom becomes a shower stall. There was a tiny
balcony, but not at all romantic, more like a fire escape platform
(without the stairs). The room overlooked several other buildings,
which seemed to mostly have private apartments. The floor in this room
was of very old ceramic tiles, which were rather stained and some of
which were cracked, but it was clean all the same.

The double room was spacious and airy, more so than the single room.
It overlooked the main street, which I expected to be noisy, but it
really wasn't. This room had a larger bath with a real shower stall.

It was hot in Rome this week, but there was a thunderstorm both
evenings, which cooled off the air a bit, but also left it rather
humid. I turned on the air conditioning the first night, but either it
wasn't working very well, or else I wasn't using the remote control
correctly. I don't really like air conditioning, anyway, so after a
while I turned it off and opened the window. Because the room was long
and narrow and the bed was at the far end from the window, it was a
bit stuffy all night. The double room had a nice breeze. We turned on
the air conditioning for a while to cool the room in the evening, but
then turned it off and opened the window. This unit worked very well,
almost too well. After a short time the room was really a bit chilly.

Altogether, I would recommend this hotel for anyone who has a strong
reason to want to be in this vicinity. The neighborhood is full of
spaced out looking people, drunks, drug addicts, pimps and crazy
people. Also lots of gypsies and immigrants from all over the world.
Just be careful, don't stay out too late, hold your nose when
necessary, and keep your bags close to your chest. We actually had no
problems in the neighborhood, but all my urban sensors were lit up.

I went to an internet cafè near the hotel, where I believe they tried
to rip me off. I paid with a 50 and the guy gave me change for a 5.
When I reminded him that I had given him a 50, he pulled out 4 10s
with no complaint, but I'm pretty sure he was hoping I'd just walk
away with the first batch of change.

We returned to Il Ristorantino for lunch the first day, which I
discovered on in my recent trip (see that report). We had the same
waiter Marcello and I had had several weeks ago. He gave me a somewhat
puzzled look, and I asked if he remembered me. He replied, "No, why,
did we ever go out together?" Again, we had a very good meal at a very
reasonable price. 35 euros for two people. I highly recommend the
seafood dishes here. I saw a man with a great plate of steamed
mussels. I had wanted to order that, but my daughter can't eat them
and we wanted to share plates. We had a lamb dish instead, which was
good but not as good as the seafood I had the last time.

As far as activities, my daughter was rather tired, so we didn't do
much. The first day, we walked all the way up Via delle Quattro
Fontane, doing a lot of window shopping on the way, until we reached
Trinità dei Monti, the church at the top of the Spanish Steps. Then we
kept walking straight past the Villa Medici, which couldn't be visited
because it's private property of the French National Academy. However,
the walk is very nice and shaded, with beautiful bougainvillaea
blooming on the walls of the Villa. A bit further on is an entrance to
Villa Borghese, where we relaxed in the shade for a while.

Closer to the hotel, we also visited the inside of the Church of Santa
Maria degli Angeli e Martiri, which was built inside the ruins of the
Diocletian baths. (By the way, we saw the restaurant the Pan had
recommended, which was also inside the vast ruins of this bath
complex. We had intended to eat there that evening, but we were too
tired and just ate some fruit at the Autogrill in Termini Station.
Then we planned to eat lunch there the next day, but that day it was
very hot, so again we just had fruit and cheese at the Autogrill.
We'll have to try that restaurant another time.)

The next day, we took a bus to the department store La Rinascente and
did a little mother-daughter shopping at the summer sales, which had
just begun. Afterwards, we again walked to the Villa Borghese, which
is a very attractive destination in the heat.

The last time I was at the Villa Borghese, I tried to connect to a
Wifi hot spot there with my Palm Life Drive, but it asked me for a
userid and password. This time, I came provided with a userid and
password, having signed up at the web site of the Comune di Roma.
However, this time I couldn't establish a connection. It never even
got to the point of asking for my userid. I'm not sure I was really
near enough to a hot spot, because we didn't see any of the notices I
had seen before. However, there was a map of hot spots at the entrance
to the park and we walked in the direction of one of them and stopped
when we saw a young woman using her laptop; I asked her if there was
wifi in this spot and she said there was. I don't know what the
problem was, but I can't verify that you can really connect at Villa
Borghese.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:16:42 +0200, B wrote:

I recently reported about my three days in Rome. This week I returned
for two more days, and am reporting back as promised.

Dave (DFM) had recommended the Albergo Lucia at a stone's throw from
Termini Station. The prices seemed too low to be believable, but I had
a reason to want to be very close to Termini Station, so I decided to
give this hotel a try.

I got a single room the first night for 45 euros, and a double the
second night for 60 euros. These rooms have private baths and are
air-conditioned. The price doesn't include breakfast.

Dave's description of this hotel didn't do it justice. It's on a
really awful street, and I wouldn't want to be walking around late at
night on that street, and I always kept my possessions firmly under my
control.

It's definitely grimey, but I didn't feel unsafe. My mother stayed
there too, and thought it was ok. Little bothers her though.

If you want to find the hotel, follow these directions: After leaving
the train, walk straight past a bank of shops until you find yourself
in a long corridor with shops on both sides. Turn left and exit at the
end of the corridor. At the street, continue more or less in a direct
line on the small street in front of you (Via D. Marin). At the next
intersection, cross the street and turn left again. The hotel is in a
building a few doors in from the corner. The building has signs for
many hotels and pensiones.

The Albergo Lucia is on the sixth floor. There is an ancient elevator,
but not as ancient as the one at the hotel Pavia. The hotel itself is
very nice and the owners (husband, wife and son) are very kind and
helpful. The rooms are decorated in a vaguely Ikea-like style. The
whole place was very clean and the baths were modern.

The single room was long and narrow, and the bath was of the sort
where the entire bathroom becomes a shower stall. There was a tiny
balcony, but not at all romantic, more like a fire escape platform
(without the stairs). The room overlooked several other buildings,
which seemed to mostly have private apartments. The floor in this room
was of very old ceramic tiles, which were rather stained and some of
which were cracked, but it was clean all the same.

The double room was spacious and airy, more so than the single room.
It overlooked the main street, which I expected to be noisy, but it
really wasn't. This room had a larger bath with a real shower stall.

Altogether, I would recommend this hotel for anyone who has a strong
reason to want to be in this vicinity. The neighborhood is full of
spaced out looking people, drunks, drug addicts, pimps and crazy
people. Also lots of gypsies and immigrants from all over the world.
Just be careful, don't stay out too late, hold your nose when
necessary, and keep your bags close to your chest. We actually had no
problems in the neighborhood, but all my urban sensors were lit up.

Thanks for the report!

Yes, the area near the station is pretty rough, but I assumed that you
knew that. The hotel is definitely far cheaper than any of the others
in the area, and it sounds like you have the same rooms we had, from
the description.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:02:03 +0200, Dave Frightens Me
wrote:

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:16:42 +0200, B wrote:

....

Dave (DFM) had recommended the Albergo Lucia at a stone's throw from
Termini Station. The prices seemed too low to be believable, but I had
a reason to want to be very close to Termini Station, so I decided to
give this hotel a try.

.....

Dave's description of this hotel didn't do it justice. It's on a
really awful street, and I wouldn't want to be walking around late at
night on that street, and I always kept my possessions firmly under my
control.

It's definitely grimey, but I didn't feel unsafe. My mother stayed
there too, and thought it was ok. Little bothers her though.

I just realized that my juxtaposition of sentences maybe gave the
wrong impression. I meant that your description didn't do it justice
in the sense that the hotel was a lot better than I had expected.
Aside from the street of course. I didn't really feel unsafe, but I
wouldn't want anyone to think it was a tranquil and trouble-free
neighborhood. I more or less knew what the immediate vicinity of
Termini was like, so I wasn't particularly surprised.


--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

B*Vaughan wrote:

Dave (DFM) had recommended the
Albergo Lucia at a stone's throw from
Termini Station. The prices seemed too
low to be believable,[snip]

Thanks Barbara! I asked you before you left that I would be interested
in info about this hotel.

With the USD exchange rate, the upward price bump with the Euro
introduction and just higher prices all-round my Rome trips are taking a
bigger bite out of my wallet every year, so I'm always looking for
decent inexpensive hotels.

Also thanks to DFM for earlier info on this hotel. Regards, Walter



...And Paradise Was Lost...like teardrops in the rain...

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:14:36 -0400, (Poetic
Justice) wrote:

B*Vaughan wrote:

Dave (DFM) had recommended the
Albergo Lucia at a stone's throw from
Termini Station. The prices seemed too
low to be believable,[snip]

Thanks Barbara! I asked you before you left that I would be interested
in info about this hotel.

With the USD exchange rate, the upward price bump with the Euro
introduction and just higher prices all-round my Rome trips are taking a
bigger bite out of my wallet every year, so I'm always looking for
decent inexpensive hotels.

Also thanks to DFM for earlier info on this hotel. Regards, Walter

No problem. I like a place that's clean, cheap, and centrally located.
There are definitely worse places to stay in Rome.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--