This is a great little holiday apartment - very comfortable and clean, with everything you need. It’s only a short walk from Garbatella Metro and Ostiense stations, so getting there from Fiumicino airport is painless and you can reach just about any part of Rome quickly and easily. In fact it’s quite easy to walk to the centre of town from the apartment, which we had intended to do, but it turned out to be unusually hot for the time of year so we decided to save our energy and take the Metro instead, which at €1.50 a journey (of any length up to 100 minutes) is excellent value.
Alessandro and Roberta are excellent hosts. Roberta met us at the bus stop when we arrived and showed us around the apartment. She kept in touch and when we had a small problem, came round right away. This was their parents’ apartment and they take great care in looking after it. It’s also officially registered as a holiday apartment so you know that it’s all above board and not some dodgy sub-let. The building is very well-kept with a (quiet) lift right next to the apartment door. Alessandro has provided lots of information in the apartment and sent us many tips about things to visit.
We enjoyed being surrounded by Roman people going about their daily lives. It’s perhaps not the most upmarket suburb of Rome, but it’s a very friendly place and you get a real feeling of what it’s like to live as a Roman. There are numerous very reasonably-priced restaurants, cafes and ice cream parlours on the doorstep, and it’s a short walk to a Carrefour supermarket and of course to Eataly, where you can buy fantastic quality ingredients or eat in one of the numerous food outlets. Eataly is also a useful place to go if you need to eat when most of the traditional restaurants are closed in the afternoon.
Garbatella itself has a fascinating history - we learned a lot from a book of walks called “Modern Rome” (£1.50 on Kindle). It was part of a grand plan to house workers displaced from the centre of Rome in the 1920s and 30s. You can wander through tiny picturesque squares and courtyards that look like they’re part of a film set. The red “hotel” that you can see from the front of the apartment was a kind of hostel that was at one time used to house dissidents during the Fascist era!
Altogether a great trip!