Best area to stay in Rome

Castel Sant'Angelo and the Vatican city are pretty much the same area. It took us less than 5 min to walk from St. Peter's Square to Castel. It was a nice area but you are far from other sites. If you're using taxis and what not, shouldn't be an issue. Are you guys trying to stay together? Like an Airbnb? We stayed next to the Pantheon and it was great. You're pretty much in the center of everything and we walked to everything we wanted to see. The furthest walk was to the Vatican Museum and that was only about 25 min.

I also like the area near the Pantheon, specifically between the Pantheon and the river. Very central!

Between Piazza Navona and Pantheon is a favorite area for us. Also Monti neighborhood.
Hated being by the Spanish Steps.
Traveling over the holidays takes more planning, dining reservations in advance.

Ditto to what Suki says

We stayed in Trastevere this past trip and we didn’t care for the area much-way too busy, party scene, etc

Next trip it will be back to Pantheon area

JMO but with 8 people I’d want at least 2 bathrooms so you might consider splitting up

If you are looking at Airbnb and apartments make sure you have 8 REAL beds, not futons or sofas, etc

I stayed off the Campo de Fiori, which is between the river and Piazza Navona/Pantheon and loved that area. I would get up early every morning and walk to the market there. It was close to many sights and had a wonderful atmosphere.

We have always stayed in the Termini area simply for the convenience to transit. The subway system in Rome is very limited so you need to use buses and trams more than the subway. The area is a bit busy but has nice restaurants, bars, etc.

This metro/attraction map may help.

https://maps-rome.com/maps-rome-metro/rome-metro-map-with-attractions

If you’re staying in an apartment, what we have found, to get the correct number of beds, is if you add a person or 2 to your inquiry, you’ll come up with the right configuration. Plus another bath.

Thank you all for your help! Yes I was looking for an apartment situation. I have not been able to find anything near the pantheon that was reasonably priced. Thanks also for the info about the beds! I am finding that many places count futons or pull out couches as beds. I will continue my search!

I second what Mardee said. Love staying in the campo de fiori area. Easy walk to many sites and restaurants and it has the market during the daytime

Something that might be fun, especially at Christmas in the evening is a two hour Golf cart tour. Kind of expensive, but we’ll worth the time.

https://mybesttour.com/tour/golf-cart-tours-rome/

I always enter the address of the hotel I am considering into Google Maps. I then turn on the transit layer to see which bus stops, tram stops, metro stations are nearby. Metro lines are shown in various colors that allow you to see the entire route. When you hover over a stop or station icon you get a list of the buses/trams/metros at that stop. When you click on the icon you can scroll down the sidebar to get a lot of information; busy times, a photo of the stop, a clickable list that shows the time of the next few times stops at that location, sorted on direction of travel. I admit that I am dweeby enough to plot walking trips from the hotel to the most likely stops, turn on satellite view and decide if I will enjoy the walk or not. If the satellite view lights up with trees or garden spaces along the route I am done. I book quickly. I walk whenever I can and take buses because I want to see stuff other than ads on metro walls. If I can't walk it in 30 minutes or take a 40 minute bus trip, and I have a genuine constraint that doesn't allow an unstructured meander in the direction of the place, I go ahead and go underground.