Best to base lodging in area of Vatican or Colosseum?/What if one of us has limited mobility?

I would actually stay between those two in the Pantheon area as it's very Central. But of the two. I would say that the Colosseum area is more Central than the Vatican area. It depends what kind of neighborhood you like. The Vatican area is much quieter.

We usually stay about 500 yards down the street from the Vatican around the San Pietro/Ottiaviano underground station. When coming into Rome Termini, we just catch the underground there.

There are a number of B&B's and small hotels to stay in. And it's a short walk to the Vatican Museum too.

Otherwise, we'd be staying in the Pantheon area. But it's more expensive.

This spring we stayed near Campo De Fiori. Walking distance to both the Colosseum and the Vatican, plus to most other places you’ll want to visit. Would definitely choose that location again!

Bus and metro can’t get close to most tourist sites as they are located in pedestrianized areas

Never taken metro in Rome but check on how many stairs you’ll have to deal with in the station

If you stay right in the historical center-Pantheon/P Navonna/Campo de’Fiori you can walk to most sites and loads of restaurants and just have to walk out to the edges of that center to catch
a bus.
I’d plan on taking a taxi to Vatican and to Colosseum-each ride 10 euros or so

I would imagine there are more bus stops than metro stations, so they would get us closer to a tourist site, but are they reliable and convenient for seniors?

The Metro is not that useful in Rome for visiting tourist sites, as there are limited stops along the route, and you would have to stay near a Metro station to begin with.

You are correct that buses cover more territory in Rome, but in part due to the fact that streets in Rome don't lay out along a grid, figuring out where a bus goes can be a challenge, and the ATAC maps of the bus routes aren't easy to follow.

https://www.atac.roma.it/en/utility/maps

Since a number of bus routes terminate at Termini station, there may be an advantage to staying in that area. Or else in very close proximity to a taxi stand.

As others have suggested, you should draw out on a map the places you intend to visit, and then figure out a location to stay, convenient from a transportation perspective.

I would suggest getting [by download from Amazon at this point] the RS Rome guidebook and using the incorporated maps to assist in your planning.

You can try using the Directions function in Google Maps or Citymapper to help plan your routes.

Barb, please accept my apologies for this somewhat unrelated post, but I couldn't figure out another relevant way to get this to the Webmaster. I think it would be helpful to many of us on this forum to have a separate topic in the Trip Category for Limited Mobility Travel. It would be convenient to have these increasingly common posts all in one area that we could browse. Thanks for your understanding.

I hope you have a great and easy trip in Rome.