First impressions:
The apartment is very spacious (12 foot ceilings!) and well laid-out. Every room (except the bathroom) has it's own AC unit. All the units work very well, cooling their respective rooms quickly. For people concerned about security, there are gates between the street and the inner garden; a locked door to the lobby and the apartment door is very heavy with the biggest lock I've ever seen on a door.
Travel to "central" Rome:
We bought "Roma passes" which are valid for all public transit in the central Rome area.
Buses: The 715 has to closest stop to the apartment (less than 2 min walk), but takes longer to get to central Rome, making more stops. The 30 bus is a bit further (5 or 6 minutes walk), but gets to Rome quicker being an express bus with a more direct route and less stops along the way.
Metro: The closest metro station is about 1 km away (a 15 minute walk); we'd often stop at a little coffee shop to get a couple of cappuccinos and pastries on our way to the metro early in the morning.
Cool stuff near the apartment:
For groceries, there is a "Conad SuperStore" store 2 blocks from the apartment (upon exiting, go straight down Via Tito) which proved very useful during our stay, since we didn't want to buy too many groceries in advance. We could go and get a few things and be back in about 15-20 minutes.
If you've walked to the metro, you might as well walk 5 minutes more and visit the Basilica San Paolo; a truly beautiful and majestic site. We went the early in the morning and basically had the place to ourselves.
There are quite a few restaurants near the apartment, many with 4+ stars on Google reviews.
Our hosts:
Michela was waiting for us when we arrived to show us around the apartment; Bernardo checked on us a few times (via text, he didn't show up unannounced...) during our stay to see if we needed anything. All the texts we sent (mostly before arriving) had prompt and clear responses.
A few tips (thing we learned during our stay that would've been useful to know earlier):
- When leaving the apartment, there are big white buttons on the wall to open the gates to the street.
- When you see your bus arriving, you must signal to the driver or the bus won't stop.
- In buses, you place the Roma Pass on the yellow circle of the machines placed at the front and back of the bus to "validate" your passage.
- There are fountains all over Rome where you can refill your water bottle. Most fountain also have a small hole on top of the spout, so that if you block the spout with a finger, you get a water fountain that's easy to drink from.
Overall, great experience, we would book again with Bernardo if we're ever in Rome again.