Apartment vacation rental

What did you find on those sites? Nothing suitable? I like Expedia, it seems like they have additional discounts sometimes.

Yes, it seems the tourist tax must be paid in person upon arrival, preferably in cash.

We used VRBO for paris and Florence and had good luck both times.

I see quite a few in your price range on booking.com for your dates, including some in popular, central areas like Prati and Trastevere. Why don't you see which appeal to you and ask about them?

Even in the shoulder season I doubt you'll have much luck finding an apartment in the price range you mention.
Suggest broadening your search criteria a bit to include places outside the tourist center but convenient to public transportation, which will permit easy and relatively quick connections to all parts of the city. The Trastevere neighborhood, in particular, might be worth a look. We've had good luck in and around
Vatican City too.
Your instinct is good in that you'll save a lot of money by booking a place with a kitchen so that you won't have to eat out for every meal.
We've had very good luck with VRBO and Homeaway.com in the past.
Safe travels.

Another site to try is Cross-Pollinate. Highly reputable and tend to have some lower priced places. Still, you should expect to pay more like Euro 120 for an apartment in Rome, at a minimum. Try not to make the mistake of staying too far from the center. You will spend a lot of time and wasted energy in transportation to the sights.

Thanks for all your replies. Your input is greatly appreciated. One other issue we are having is trying to identify what is actually the "center of Rome"? Is there a neighborhood that is fairly equidistant from all of the attractions.?? I have looked at the maps of Rome and they are a little confusing. Lastly, can anyone tell me what it costs to ride the train? Thanks again

Hi, On airbnb, in that price range, you can find a private room in an apartment with a shared bathroom and kitchen. Often the person sharing a room in their apt is gone alot. Find something close to a bus or metro station and you can get places fast. I am looking north of the Vatican and see some nice ones with excellent reviews. To find them you must check the search box under "Room Type" for "Private Room" rather than "Entire home/apt" or "Shared room".

what is actually the "center of Rome"? Is there a neighborhood that is fairly equidistant from all of the attractions.?? ... Lastly, can anyone tell me what it costs to ride the train?

• Some excellent locations include Prati, the area around the Vatican, the area more-or-less bounded by Piazza Navona, Campo dei Fiori and the Pantheon, or Monti. Nothing it truly equidistant, but these are convenient and mostly charming.

• What train? To and from where?

I use VRBO.com for apartments everywhere (including Rome) as we are a couple with 2 teens---all of us in 1 hotel room no longer works. I like that site (VRBO stands for vacation rental by owner) because you can narrow down your apartment search based on what amenities are important to you: smoking, nonsmoking, pet friendly, no pets ( we have a team with a dog allergy) Internet or not, # of bedrooms, etc. Look on the website for the word "filters" --- that is where you enter your preferences and then you hit the search button and voilà there are your listings. I only consider listings that have been reviewed by at least six people. I also note what floor the apt is on and whether or not there is a lift. The # of reviews is indicated by yellow stars with the number next to it, indicating how many reviews there have been. There is also a mapping option which is helpful.

Staying in apt can save you a LOT of money (and time) on breakfasts alone, as well as lunches and snacks.

We stayed in the campo del fiori area of Rome, major tourist district, lots to see, lots of pedestrian malls, little traffic---just east of the Vatican, near the Pantheon (west of coliseum). Nearby piazza navona and the pantheon area were also charming with many good apts. (go to maps.google.com and search "piazza navona Rome" to see the general area. I found Rome very easy to walk about so there are many good locations--for apts or hotels. Enjoy!

PS if you are going in summer and need air conditioning, confirm with hotel or apt owner! Ask/confirm WHAT ROOMS in the apt have a/c.

Thank you to all who responded. We took your advice to heart and found an apartment just down the street from the Vatican at a
reasonable price. We are staying there for 12 days and hope to see everything that we can. This includes taking a day trip to Florence. I looked up the Trenitalia train site and it appears that for two people, the economy round trip fare to Florence is 39 euros total. Can this be right? It seems pretty inexpensive ...In any event, we are looking forward to going.
Next question...any do's and dont's for Rome in early December? We don't want to create any faux pas because we are typical tourists. ( Especially since we do not speak Italian....omigosh...oh well, it's going to be an adventure !!) Thanks again to everyone.

any do's and dont's for Rome in early December

• Reserve/Buy tix in advance for anything you truly care about. Borghese Gallery, a Vatican Museum tour, Colosseo, Palatino & Foro Romano for example. The Borghese you can self tour but tix in advance are necessary. I recommend guided tours of the Vatican (use Walks of Italy and take their Pristine Sistine tour), and of the Colosseo, et.al. Sonia Tavoletta does a great job as a private guide ([email protected]).

• Ditto buy advance tix for musuems on your day in Florence -- Uffizi, Accademia, etc.

• Dec 8 is a big holiday, the Immaculate Conception. There may be some closures. Restaurants will be busy so make reservations that day above all others. Seasonal displays start on the 8th so take a Christmas Lights Walk in the center, see the tree at Piazza Navona and the creche at the Vatican.

You do not need to speak Italian, especially in Roma, but do learn the niceties: Buongiorno, Grazie, Per Favore, Arrivederci, etc. Rick Steves' Italy guide has some key phrases and cultural guidance. For example, always say "Buongiorno" when you enter a store and "Grazie! Arrivederci!" when you leave.

" I looked up the Trenitalia train site and it appears that for two people, the economy round trip fare to Florence is 39 euros total. Can this be right?"

It's right, but there's a catch. That ticket must be purchased in advance (it will sell out if you wait too long, as the number of tickets at this price is limited) and if it's a Super Economy fare, it cannot be changed or refunded for any reason. You must take the exact train specified on the ticket; if you don't, the ticket becomes scrap paper. However, in exchange for these restrictions, the ticket is far cheaper than the full (Base) fare. There's also an Economy fare, which is in between these two in price, and can be exchanged once (you don't lose money, but if a new ticket costs more, you have to pay the difference).

Just expanding on Harold's good advice...
Yes, do pay heed to the 'catch' he explained. And not all Italian trains are the same: 'Fast' trains are generally more expensive but have assigned seating and get you from A to B the quickest. Use these for long hauls between bigger cities. Regionale trains, on the other hand, are slower, have no assigned seats (2nd class) but are very good and very inexpensive EVERY day for shorter trips. In fact, they may be the only option between certain points. Tickets for these trains require validating before boarding, and should generally be purchased at the station the day of your journey.

Spend a little time with the 'Man in Seat 61' website for some background on trains.

http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#.V5dXJkuwg4Y

And then there will be places where the trains do not go, and/or are more efficiently reached by bus or car.

You will also have the metro (limited but useful for accessing certain parts of the city) and some urban commuter trains (FLs and others) available to you in Rome. You may take a single ride on the urban train system for the price of a standard metro/bus ticket as far out as stations marked in RED on the map linked below, or to the end of the line if there's no red-marked station indicated. Rome also also has a bus/tram system but we've yet to feel the need to use it.

http://www.atac.roma.it/files/doc.asp?r=385

Both individual tickets and daily/multi-day passes are available, and all must be validated in one form or another depending on type of transport/ticket/pass. It's not as confusing as it sounds... :O)

http://www.atac.roma.it/page.asp?p=229&i=14

Just a start? Figuring transport is often the most difficult part of trip-planning for me personally but thankfully, getting about much of Italy is really not all that complicated at all once you get the hang of it!

BCPetersen,

I've only been to Rome once (I plan to remedy that, soon) but my favorite neighborhood was the area around Piazza Navona. It was a comfortable walk to just about anything whether day or evening (even for middle-agers like us).

That being said, I don't think you'll find too much in the form of an entire fully-equipment apartment in that budget. You might find some small efficiency (one room) flats or a bedroom in someone's apartment, but not an entire apartment. If you do find an entire apartment for 50-75 euro a night, it might be on the 5 floor in a building with no lift. And, remember, European convention is that the ground floor (our 1st floor) in 'G" and not the 1st. So, you need to add 1 level to what the description says...

I don't find significant "savings" until adding bedrooms to an apartment. Our trip last October used 2 bedroom/2 bath (lift-served) apartments in Venice, Florence and Rome. I figure we saved about 25% to 30% compared to two rooms in an upper-scale (but not luxury) hotel. The big difference comes with being able to relax in a living room (lounge) space and have amenities like a clothes washing machine and a kitchenette. Although, me personally, only use the kitchen for breakfast.

Yes, each city has an occupancy tax. It is payable in cash at check-in time and it is per-person - per-night. Also, take a photo-copy of you passport for each apartment you are renting (if going to multiple cities). Italian law dictates that hotels, B&Bs, holiday apartment owners, etc. register their foreign guests with the local police. Having the photo-copies just makes it easier... (Take an extra, for the Embassy, just in case your passport gets stolen.)

Finally, most holiday apartment search engines (TripAdvisor, HomeAway, HolidayLettings, etc.) have a map-view that is very convenient when you don't know the names of the neighborhoods (TripAdvisors neighborhood names are mostly incorrect anyway). Get to know the attractions in the city using a paper map (or Google maps) and then display your apartment results on the built-in map in the search engine. BTW - most holiday apartments are listed ON ALL the major rental sites but they may be under slightly different names.