Which hotel to choose in Rome?

We stayed at Hotel Smeraldo last spring and loved it. Very helpful staff, great breakfast, and located right in the heart of things. Vatican city about 20 minutes, Colosseum about the same, and all manner of shops, cafes, piazzas, Campo de Fiori, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, and Spanish Steps all easily walkable. Around the corner from Smeraldo is Salumeri Roscioli, the best place to eat and with takeout. Lunch crowd line is a half block so go early and get reservations for dinner. We'd stay there again and will.

Agree on Hotel Smeraldo. We stayed there in November 2012 and loved the location and the hotel.

Thanks, it seems like a favorite on this forum. We booked it and found it to be close to a few of our other destinations.

So excited to be reading this as I just booked our stay in April at this hotel!

We stayed at the Downtown Accommodation last year. We had a pretty enjoyable stay, inexpensive price, great comfortable rooms but the main feature was the excellent location next to the Colosseum.
We recommend it. Lorenzo, the owner was always so much kind and helpful!

We always stay at Hotel Aberdeen, in the Rick Steves book. It is right off of Via National, and walking distance to the train station, subway and an easy walk to most main sights. It is tucked into a quiet street, with lots of neighborhood restaurants. The staff is excellent and has a great breakfast included every morning. I know there are tons more hotels in Rome, but we feel comfortable there and don't want to test out other ones.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. We've chosen the Hotel Smeraldo for location and everybody's great reviews.
We actually leave late tonight! Thanks, again!

We stayed at Downtown Accommodation in May 2013. We liked it -- the family is helpful and friendly, and the location near the Forum and Colisseum is fantastic. But the same family runs B&B Smart, and we actually preferred the room at B&B Smart to our room at Downtown Accom. It was big, airy, comfortable. We actually stayed in both because we had to split our Rome itinerary into 2 parts. B&B Smart is right by the train station, so it is still super easy to access all the sights. If we had to do it over again, I think we would have stayed at B&B Smart for both halves rather than split it up just for the location of Downtown Accom.