Sheraton Roma Hotel, Rome

...Sheraton.

The Sheraton isn't in central Rome, it's in the EUR district. This presented no significant problem however. It's a breeze to find - take junction 26 on the ring road and head for central Rome. Go through the EUR district almost to the very end and turn left at the sign that says 'Sheraton Hotel' (you can see it from the road anyway).

It's a big, modern(ish) hotel with absolutely no redeeming features architecturally ...
...what you'd expect in a Sheraton - glitzy and shiny with lots of leather sofas dotted around for those little tete-a-tetes, a large area to go online (or as they say ' the Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft'), and a large piano bar just off to the side. There's also a small shopping mall with four or five outlets offering gifts, jewellery and tobacco etc.

Having sorted that all out, I went to park the car. The hotel does have ... more

This year, we mostly went to Italy.
We had booked a hotel a little to the south of Rome for a few nights as we wanted to visit places outwith the city but changed our plans for the Saturday night and tried to book a hotel in Rome itself. Not an easy task (at least not on my budget). Oh sure, you can stay in a pit close to Termini station, but not being suicidal, or wishing to part company with my belongings, and always leaving myself the option of swinging a cat should the chance arise, I'm afraid that's not for me.
Long story short...after several near things (literally) we ended up booking the Sheraton.

The Sheraton isn't in central Rome, it's in the EUR district. This presented no significant problem however. It's a breeze to find - take junction 26 on the ring road and head for central Rome. Go through the EUR district almost to the very end and turn left at the sign that says 'Sheraton Hotel' (you can see it from the road anyway).

It's a big, modern(ish) hotel with absolutely no redeeming features architecturally but all hotels look much the same when you're out cold at 4 a.m. I find.

We parked up and entered the foyer to check-in fighting off the bellhops vying to carry our luggage for us. 'Looking for a tip?' says I, 'Ciao Baby in the 3.30 at Kempton is worth a fiver each way.'
It didn't take too long to check in but since we had pre-booked and pre-paid it shouldn't really have taken any time at all. In fact it was around 10 minutes while they looked to find a room for us...must be some amazing database that they use.

The reception area was pretty much what you'd expect in a Sheraton - glitzy and shiny with lots of leather sofas dotted around for those little tete-a-tetes, a large area to go online (or as they say ' the Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft'), and a large piano bar just off to the side. There's also a small shopping mall with four or five outlets offering gifts, jewellery and tobacco etc.

Having sorted that all out, I went to park the car. The hotel does have (unguarded) free parking, but only around 50 spaces which is a bit short for the hotel's 640 rooms. 'Fortunately', they have secure outdoor and underground parking and this is a snip at 23 euros a day. There are lots of car parks around the hotel, but as these were literally a sea of shattered glass, I thought it might be imprudent to leave my car out there so 23 euros it was.

Suitably keyed up, we proceeded to the lift. Even though there were six lifts, they still struggled to cope with the volume of traffic - it didn't help that the lift would shoot off to wherever someone pressed a button whether it went past your floor or not - reminded me of a half-built hotel on the Spanish costas.
The hotel is shaped like a giant cross with the lift banks in a central area and four corridors leading from it. Luckily, all the rooms have numbers so it wasn't too difficult to navigate our way to ours.

The room was nice enough, but not really to my taste decor wise. The furniture was new but old fashioned and to my mind, there's nothing worse than mock antique. The woodwork was a mottle veneer of some sort with mock leather tops. Handy for sitting a TV on top off (you'd think these days it would be a flat screen but there you go). It was a good size TV though and we had around 50 channels from all over the world - jeezo, you think Brit Tv is bad (and it is) try watching Korean or Turkish.
A kettle would've been nice, but to be fair, they supplied one at the desk if required.

The two large beds were firm and comfortable and come complete with a pillow menu...we'd already eaten so didn't bother. A nice plush carpet was easy on the feet and although the room wasn't decorated to my tastes, everything was immaculate and spotlessly clean. Loads of lamps meant the room was cosy at night.
We had a large window which we eventually managed to open fully but not much of a view, unless a freeway ramp is your idea of a view.
Still, when the double windows were closed, it was silent as a grave...very cheery.

Great air conditioning though - cold enough to turn a brass monkey into a eunich.

The bathroom was plush enough, but a little on the small side, as was the bedroom. Strange, as Sheraton claim this is one of the largest hotels in Rome...they also claim it's one of the most attractive. Hmm.
Having said that, for a capital city hotel, it was I suppose fairly large. It's just that you'd expect a modern Sheraton to have larger than average rooms.
Anyway, back to the bathroom (I knew I shouldn't have eaten that shellfish).
Again, although the decor was quite luxurious, the toiletries on offer were run-of-the-mill and I've had larger, softer and fluffier towels in far cheaper hotels too.
It was very clean though.

As for amenities, well it pretty much had everything going that way - fitness room. lovely pool, restaurants, meeting rooms...yadda, yadda, yadda.
We were only there for one night and we spent that mostly in town so didn't really get a chance to try anything out. We did have breakfast though. Gawd knows how much they charge for it but it was included in our rate. What a breakfast. It was a buffet with every kind of brekkie food imaginable. All of it good. Of course there's no way you can scoff bacon and eggs, sausages etc, then cakes and fruit and yoghurt and museli and...you get the picture. Suffice to say, it was probably the best breakfast I've seen in an hotel (of course that's not really saying much).

The hotel is surrounded by parkland, apart from aforementioned freeway ramp and it's a very short, but hair-raising walk to the metro station (around 200m). This was one of the reasons we chose this hotel as 10 mins or less on the metro and we stepped right out at the Colosseum.

In conclusion, the Sheraton is maybe not everyone's choice for a hotel in Rome, but it's very comfortable and really easy to get in and out of Rome on the metro for 1 euro. Oh, nearly forgot. The hotel has a shutle bus in and out of Rome and to the airport. but the metro is far easier anyway.
We paid 120 euros B&B but the walk in price is nearer 300 euros. I think at 120 it was fair value but 300 would be a rip off.

©proxam2009 

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