Recently the boyfriend and I decided, continuing with our resolution from last year to travel more, that we needed a little break, so we scoured the website for some cheap flights and plumped on Rome as the destination. Next task, find a hotel. We were only going out for four days so we needed somewhere central which would be convenient for getting to all the sights and, hopefully, not too expensive. Neither of us had been to Rome before, so we had no idea of the best area to stay in, what the standards would be like, the cost; we were clueless! So with the help of the boyfriend's parents, who are travel agents and have also been to Rome before, we were recommended to stay at Hotel Cicerone .
Hotel Cicerone is a 4* hotel with 292 rooms located a 5 minute walk from Lepanto metro station, on via Cicerone. We had flown into Rome Ciampino airport, taken a bus transfer to Termini station and then the metro to Lepanto; it was a really easy journey. We had made our booking online via a third party site and had seen from the thumbnail photos that the hotel looked rather nice, but when we actually arrived we were quite surprised at just how nice the hotel really was! It is a very beautiful and elegant hotel indeed. The entrance to the hotel is via an automatic revolving door which takes you into the large lobby. The lobby is all marble floors and cherry wood furniture, every inch clean and polished to perfection. We had packed jeans and trainers for our trip as we planned to do a heck of a lot of walking and sightseeing, so you can imagine we felt a little out of place dressed this way in such a gorgeous hotel. Other guests in the lobby looked down their nose at us a bit, but the reception staff were as equally polite and courteous to us on checking in as they were to any other guests. We were greeted with a warm smile and a cheerful, "buon giorno" before getting our key and being directed to the elevators to get us to our room, and were greeted the same friendly way each morning on our way out of the hotel.
The hotel offers Superior rooms, Deluxe rooms and Suites. The hotel also offers rooms suitable for disabled persons but what this actually means I have no idea. We thought we had just booked a Superior room but when compared to the hotel photos it seems we may have been given a Deluxe room, which is larger than the Superior rooms. The room was spotless, with gorgeous, crisp bed linen (apparently designer, but I wouldn't be able to tell you which designer!), interactive television, wireless internet access, a wardrobe with a safe inside, minibar, desk and two chairs, air conditioning and an ashtray. Yes, you can smoke here, much to my boyfriend's delight, although I made him hang out of the window whenever he did feel the need for a ciggie. They also provided a magazine about Rome which was mostly full of adverts but did provide a lot of helpful information about where to go in Rome. We had bought a guide beforehand so we didn't use the magazine, but it's a good idea to provide this for other guests who may not have any ideas for places to visit, eat at, etc. The hotel has a concierge service that will help with making any restaurant reservations or booking excursions for example. It's worth pointing out that I did not see any children during our stay, I think this hotel is more suited for couples or business travellers, rather than families.
The en suite bathroom was a lovely size, with a marble sink and a good sized bath which had a mixer shower as well as an over-bath shower. The wall above the sink was one huge mirror and there was also a small, circular magnifying mirror, very helpful when trying to apply make up when you haven't got your contact lenses in yet! The over-bath showerhead was massive and absolutely glorious to step under when arriving back from a long day of walking! The bathroom also had a shaver power point and a hair dryer. The hotel provided two small tubes of camomile fragranced shampoo, two small tubes of tea leaf fragranced bath & shower gel and two little vegetable-based soaps; the toiletries were surprisingly very nice, with a luxurious foam and not at all drying to the skin like a lot of hotel toiletries tend to be. The hotel's website had mentioned that bath robes were provided in the rooms, but we didn't have any at all during our stay. It's not something that particularly bothered us though so we didn't think to mention it to reception. As you can expect, room service and a laundry service is available at this hotel. I was very nearly going to use the laundry service, having spilled coffee on my jeans at the airport on our way out to Rome, but decided against it when I saw it would cost about 8EUR!
Every day when the room was made up the shampoo and bath & shower gel supplies were replenished and two new bars of soap appeared, whether they were needed or not. By the end of our stay we had a little mountain of soaps in the bathroom! Six fresh towels were provided every day - two large bath towels and four small towels - along with a fresh small bath mat, two new toilet rolls and a box of facial tissues. I can't help thinking that it wasn't very environmentally friendly to keep replacing the rolls of toilet tissue when they were not even finished yet though... The bed was also made up with fresh linen every single day and one morning we walked past another room with an open door to see that they even clean the windows each day!
The minibar of the room was well stocked with still and sparkling water, Coke, beer, wine, mini bottles of liquor, mixers and fruit juice. We didn't make much use of the minibar though except for one 500ml bottle of water as we were out most of the day only returning to sleep really, plus it's rather pricey, costing 4EUR for the water and, I noticed, 6EUR for a can of Coke. The television provided a good selection of channels from various countries, for example, TV5 Monde, BBC World, Sky News. You also had a choice of movies but there were not a lot to choose from and they were rather old ones, such as Love Actually, costing 12EUR. As we were out and about for a much of our stay as possible we were not really fussed about the television but it was nice to catch up with the news from home each morning as this is a habit of mine!
Breakfast is served each morning between 6.30am and 10.30am and the cost was included in our booking. Upon entering the room you are greeted with another friendly smile and a cheerful, "buon giorno" before being guided to a table and asked if you would like tea or coffee. A freshly brewed pot of your choice is brought over to your table and then the breakfast is a buffet style with plenty of choice which is constantly being replenished - croissants, Danish pastries, toast, eggs, bacon, hams, cheeses, yogurts, cereal, jam, honey, biscuits, bread rolls, dried and tinned fruit, juice and water. Some mornings we were down to breakfast later than others but always found that there was plenty of fresh food. My only gripe, and it is a little one, is that it would have been very nice to have some fresh fruit as I really am not a fan of tinned fruit. We noticed a few other guests making special requests to the staff such as requesting a cappucino and requesting reduced fat milk; the staff seemed only too happy to meet their requirements. There are also a selection of newspapers from varying countries for guests to help themselves too. You can also request that breakfast is brought to your room each day but it is at extra cost.
In the evenings there was a small bar open near the lobby area with sofas, chairs and tables as well as stools at the bar, with a man playing a piano and singing. The barman was a lovely guy who modestly said he could speak a few words of English and French when actually he could hold a full conversation with us! It was a lovely, quiet area to relax with a nice cup of hot chocolate in the late evening before retiring to bed to get some rest before the next day's sight seeing. The hotel also has a restaurant, le Bouchon, serving Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. We didn't go to the restaurant as we already had a few good restaurants recommended to us that we wanted to visit, however the menu was displayed in the elevators of the hotel and it does seem to offer a good choice and seemed quite reasonably priced. We certainly would have given it a go if we didn't already know of some good restaurants.
When we made our hotel reservation, a friend of ours looked at the map and said we had picked a really good location as we were quite close to Vatican City. It was only when we were there on our second day in Rome, having got to grips with the map and finding our way around, that we realised we were actually able to walk to many of the main sights. We were coming out of the Vatican and checking the map to see which way to the Sistine Chapel when I spotted a road name on the map which looked very familiar, and realised that we were a 15 minute walk away from the hotel. Hotel Cicerone, we discovered, is within walking distance of the Vatican, Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, Castel Sant'Angelo and San Pietro. Even Trevi Fountain and Pantheon could be reached by foot, it was only the Colloseum and Roman Forum that really warranted a journey on the metro and even that took minutes to reach. This hotel really is in a prime location for sight seeing in Rome so if you are planning a trip you should definitely consider this hotel. If we go back to Rome, we will certainly stay at this hotel again.
Hotel Cicerone Via Cicerone, 55/C, Rome, Italy - 00193 www.ciceronehotel.com Telephone: +39 06 3576 Fax: +39 06 6880-1383
Cicerone Hotel
The newly restored Cicerone Hotel is a historic property in central Rome, 400 metres from
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the wonders of the Vatican City and the busy piazzas of Navona and Del Popolo. The 292 air-conditioned guestrooms feature light decor with contemporary furnishing...
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