Emmaus, Rome

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The Emmaus hotel (three star), centrally located, with plenty of amenities on its door step, spacious rooms and friendly, helpful staff, makes a fantastic hotel. Whether a short break in Rome or a few weeks holiday, Emmaus has so many advantages that it makes any length of stay a stress free and pleasant visit.

It's located on Via delle Fornaci (25), which is practically in the Pope's lap. To get to it you can take ...
...Nuova for 8km and then you'll find yourself in the city. Just follow the signs to the centre and head north . Emmaus is minutes away from the Vatican (one hundred yards to be exact), so once you see that then you're almost there.

Or you could take the train from Ciampino airport (Ciampino FS) to Stazione Termini. The fare is €2 and you'll be able to buy your ticket at the desk or news-stand and stamp it in one of the machines before ... more

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The Emmaus hotel (three star), centrally located, with plenty of amenities on its door step, spacious rooms and friendly, helpful staff, makes a fantastic hotel. Whether a short break in Rome or a few weeks holiday, Emmaus has so many advantages that it makes any length of stay a stress free and pleasant visit.

It's located on Via delle Fornaci (25), which is practically in the Pope's lap. To get to it you can take the Via Di Ciampino road, turning right onto Via Appia Nuova for 8km and then you'll find yourself in the city. Just follow the signs to the centre and head north . Emmaus is minutes away from the Vatican (one hundred yards to be exact), so once you see that then you're almost there.

Or you could take the train from Ciampino airport (Ciampino FS) to Stazione Termini. The fare is €2 and you'll be able to buy your ticket at the desk or news-stand and stamp it in one of the machines before you board a train

There's plenty on this street, so much so you could survive quite comfortably here without having to venture to the other parts of Rome...obviously you should go elsewhere because you're on holiday, but if you've travelled and you just need dinner or you need bottled water then you just step out onto the street and walk two metres. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's very crowded. There's a normal amount of cars that drive by and there aren't all that many people that go this way - certainly not like the centre. Two very nice restaurants on the same side of the street, two on the other side - one not so nice at all (the one nearest to the hotel, without the yellow canopy - sorry I've forgotten the name!) and an ok restaurant. Also, walking towards the Vatican, but on Emmaus' side of the street, two or so doors down is a brilliant small shop that sells sandwiches and drinks, like a cafe but with no chairs. The food here was just amazing and the woman behind the counter was wonderful. Reasonably priced too. There are a few souveneer shops on the way to the vatican, mostly newsagents with postcard racks.

It's a lovely street and the hotel gets enough daylight on the front of the building due to the width of the street. I don't know about the back, but I assume it's ok. There's a nice laid back city feel to is as it's not so busy but it's still central. I really liked staying here for this reason.

At the end of the street (far enough so you can't hear it) is a main road which isn't crossable - unless you have a deathwish - so you have to take the underpassage to get to the other side. This isn't long at all, about 15 metres max as far as I remember, there's plenty of light from each end so it's not dangerous. But the one thing I would say is there's a few illegal street vendors here, selling scarves or knock off bags etc. There isn't any trouble here though.

Once you've reached the other side you are moments away from the Vatican. You'll be able to see the giant pillars and once you've crossed them you're over here you are now in Vatican City. Don't forget to look to the left to see the Swiss guards just before those pillars.

Transport links for the city are an advantage of staying at Emmaus. Just infront of the Vatican is a very popular tour bus stop (with all tour companies stopping there) which means that you can walk minutes and be sightseeing. Also after a long day of being on your feet you just hop off the bus and walk a short distance to your hotel. I've stayed elsewhere in Rome and am in the habit of wearing unsuitable footwear and I can safely say that the Emmaus' location was a lifesaver! Also you can pop back to the hotel for a rest as we did on one occassion. Ordinary busses run from the end of the street facing the Vatican, these are frequent and less expensive.

As I've said it's very close to the Vatican, but other sights are accessable easily. For example you can walk to the river and cross the bridge to get access to tourist spots. It's probably a bit too far for most sights on this side of the river. However you can walk, with ease, to the Sistene Chapel and from there to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Cavour, Piazza Popolo and Hadrians mausoleum. Once you've walked to that part it's then minutes down to Trevi Fountain and from there onto the rest of the sights. I planned a whole day of sightseeing, mostly walking, starting from the Vatican. It was a really useful starting point, especially is you want to go into the Vatican/Sistene Chapel - you can get up early and beat the queues!

The hotel itself looks really small from the outside and continues to do so in the reception which is fairly narrow but long. There are four sofas in this area for you to wait on. There's always someone on the reception desk. I'm not sure of the official hours, but my fiance and I went out with the locals one night and didn't come back until about 1am and the place was still open. The reception faces the direction of the breakfast room and the lift/stairs leading to the bedrooms.

Breakfast is held in a fairly small room, but it's big enough as there doesn't seem to be much of a rush in the mornings. The breakfast here was more pleasant than most of the hotels that I've stayed in. Coffee is brought to you by the waitress, who was friendly and didn't mind our unpractised Italian on the first morning! Pastries, cereals, jams and bread are available, as is juice, tea and milk.

Continuing further on from the breakfast room you'll see the stairs and the lift. Ahh the lift - my favourite in the world! It's a fantastically old thing that works brilliantly well. It's in the middle of the staircase and looks like a tiny wooden box but it's fab! My sister wasn't that trusting of it but I adored opening the doors, swinging them shut again and playing my own porter! There was a race (lift versus stairs) on one occassion which resulted in me being slightly over eager to win and opening the doors leaving us about a metre higher than we should have been, hanging in the air! All perfectly safe though, as the doors on both sides shut really well and the lift wont go without you doing so. It loved this thing!

Once you're on your floor you will need to find your room. The hallway really suffers from a lack of light...you might think it's nighttime when you step out to go to breakfast. But this is the only place in the hotel that this applies to.

In your room you will find a large double bed and a single (if you ask for either a double or a triple) and one more if you have a quadruple. They are spacious and although quite flat and not at all springy, they're really comfortable. My fiance and I have both got Ankylosing Spondylitis and sleep is one thing we often miss out on - especially if the bed is all wrong as well - and we loved it. It really suited us. Woke up naturally and not at all during the night.

The rooms are very large, at least the ones that we had on the fourth floor, and were very clean - tiled floors saw to that also. High ceilings and large windows made the room very spacious. I'd have been happy to stay at this hotel for a longer period of time, unlike a lot of hotels where I'm quite keen to get out! The windows have large shutters on the outside, which means you can open them up, lean out and watch the street activity. Unfortunately in the rooms we had there was an air conditioning unit on the outside of one of these shutters, so I didn't really want to open that one up. It didn't move very well so we only opened the one, but it was large enough to get the air in if needed.

The rooms come with a fridge with minibar, television (colour, with satellite and foreign channels), large desk, bedside lamps, plenty of plug sockets in the walls - and the obvious ones too, not the kind that you go exploring behind the fridge for! Also they have an alarm clock, telephone, hairdryer, fax/modem connection and shaver points. So they're well equipt for your stay.

The bathrooms are quite small, but there's a good powerful shower, toilet, biday and sink. I didn't find it too small...after all you only use it for a few minutes don't you! The doors might be an issue for some - the bathroom we had had a grate in the door (like a small window)...so it's not the most private of places.

The bar is location on the ground floor.

The hotel offers private parking facilities at the cost of 16 Euro a day should you be travelling by car. There is a car rental place just across the road, should you wish to hire a car whilst here.

Check out time is before 11 and you can pay either on check in or before leaving.

The price was quite a bit cheaper than most other hotels we looked at, which was great because for less money we got a great hotel in an amazing location.

The staff were very friendly, from the cleaners to those manning reception, everyone was very polite and kind. They're also helpful when asked questions about the city - an insiders knowledge is brilliant, they're very happy to help.

Overall, a much better experience than I've had in other hotels in Rome. Fantastic location, spacious rooms and a good breakfast makes the Emmaus a must! 

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