We were a large family with 5 young children staying in Rome for a week. The apartment is ideally located to be close to the Vatican snd St Peters for early morning entrance to avoid the crowds. If you walk out the door and turn left you are heading into the throng of people that surrounds the Vatican area. The crowds are unavoidable in this direction. However, if you turn right and walk a few blocks you will head into a quieter Roman neighborhood near the mercato trionfale where there are local shops etc. so, the location is interesting from that standpoint. You are also a 5 min walk to Metro Ottaviano and bus 23 and 280. We used the metro and the bus for days where we were all trapsibg around the city but when we were in smaller groups we really enjoyed hoofing it even as far as Campo dei Fiori. As for shopping and restaurants there are many. There is a Todi right across the street and 2 min further a CarrefourExpress. Unless you are in a pinch, I would go to Carrefour. For restaurants you do need to be careful. Here are our favorites which are all within walking distance. Panino Divino, Da Vito e Dina, Hostaria de Cicerone, and Piccolo Bucco ( further). Now for the apartment itself; spacious, well equipped, working A/C, hot water, comfy beds, TV works, colors fun, original stone ceilings, pretty cool. The apartment does have a cute courtyard as well. Now some would complain about the one issue in the apartment which is the courtyard. I chose to use it to my advantage. If you use the A/C which we had to as it was just too darn hot, the motor thingy for the A/C is in the courtyard. The motor thingy gets really hot and heats up the courtyard to an unbearable temperature. Here's how this worked for us. With 5 grimy kids and clothing that never dries in Europe because no one has a dryer, I washed a lot of clothes. THEY DRIED INSTANTLY in the courtyard. I've never seen anything like it. I am a clean clothes freak so this was perfect for me. I would happily forgo the sitting in yhe courtyard to be sble to dry wet clothes instantly. Now on to Rafaello: he was very prompt in replying before we arrived, and during our stay. We had an issue (actually stupidly caused by me because I was tired and forgot that I turned off a switch!) the second day. The hot water wasn't working and I called him to ask what to do. I had actually inadvertently turned off the switch thinking it was turning off the A/C motor thingy. Anyway, he hopped on his motorcycle in Trastevere and arrived within the half hour. Iwas of course thoroughly embarrassed as it was my fault. He was good natured about it thankfully. When he arrived the key was accidentdally left in the door as it...