After a 14 day tour of Europe, this was our last place to stay and was the best place of the entire trip: the most comfortable bed, the best shower, a beautiful room perfectly clean, and by far the friendliest host.

Our host was unavailable when we first arrived, so her mom meet us at the door and greeted us like family. I don't speak much Italian beyond a few pleasantries, but that was not an obstacle for her mom! She was warm and friendly, and her smiles and hands communicated what I was not able to understand of Italian.

We met our host, Ina, the following morning and she was so kind and gracious to us. I thought I heard her speaking Russian at one point, so I tried out some Russian that I remembered from my years of study in college. That was a neat surprise to both of us to be able to communicate, a bit (due to my bad memory), in Russian as well as in English. (It was also handy having Google Translate's app downloaded on my phone to help when communicating technical things.) Though the room was beautiful, perfectly clean, the breakfast nice, and the bed and shower the best I had yet experienced in all of Europe, what made our stay so special was Ina. She was warm and friendly, chatted with us about life and family, and by the end of our trip it felt as though we were saying goodbye to a new friend.

Should you have concerns about staying at this place, DON'T! The neighborhood, though just outside of the old heart of Rome, provided a nice retreat from the busy city center. It was easy to head into the heart of Rome by jumping on a bus (a few blocks away) or walking through St. Peter's Square and up to the Ottaviano metro stop. Also, being a bit outside of the main tourist area meant that the neighborhood had GREAT restaurants visited by locals. The food at La Caletta (1/2 block away) was DELICIOUS and the salad and pizza at Goose (2 blocks away) were great too. I just wish we were able to stay longer and explore more of the neighborhood and local restaurants.