Rome apartments Plazzo Olivia? Info on apartment Berta?

Stayed in Berta last Oct. Small but 2 efficient rooms. Kitchen is super tiny, really only viable for coffee ans snacks.
Spiral staircase may present a problem for oversized bags and elevator is very small - a tight squeeze for the two of us with carry on bags. Very quiet as is on an internal courtyard which is not scenic but also not noisy. It was clean but management has changed since our stay. I saw the first negative reviews on TA pop up after the change in management. Staff was only the half days even before the change, though. As with any apartment, it is limited service and not staffed like a hotel. You cannot beat the location. They do charge for internet which annoyed me.

We stayed in the Basilio apartment in Sept '09 & enjoyed it. (We wanted the Berta apartment but it wasn't available.) We were very pleased with the Basilio apartment & the overall building. The bedroom in the Basilio apartment faces the internal courtyard which made it very quiet since the bedroom didn't overlook the street. The apartment was very comfortable, clean and spacious and the location can't be beat. It's close to everything & we enjoyed the easy access to a taxi stand, bank/ATM, internet cafe, bus stops, cafe's/restaurants, etc. We loved being so close to Piazza Navona & walking around at night. The A/C worked well in the apartment which was nice and at night we turned off the A/C & enjoyed having the option of a ceiling fan in the bedroom. The elevator is small but we didn't find this to be a problem; we simply took our luggage up to the apartment in two trips. I was glad that the building even had an elevator as many apartments that I looked at didn't have one at all! I wasn't aware that management had changed as Laurel pointed out and I'm sorry to hear that there have been some negative reviews lately. I would definitely take this into consideration. When I booked the apartment, I got prompt replies to my e-mails and I was pleased with the on-site representtive.

Ciao, Thank you all for your candid responses. This will be our second trip to Rome. On our first trip we stayed at Hotel Smeraldo and had an Ok experience. We would like to stay in Rome for perhaps 4 days, so an apartment seems like a logical move, particularly when we will have two large and heavy bike travel bags. Given the mixed reviews Olivia with the new management, we're leaning towards staying at Smeraldo again. In the meantime, I'll monitor Tripadvisor for any new reviews of Plazzo Olivia. Cordiali Saluti,
David

David,
I feel as you do so when we return in Dec we are staying in an apartment rented by VRBO. There were many options in the Piazza Navona/Campo dei Fiori areas. Ours is near Torre di Largo Argentina about a 3 minute walk to CDF. Worth a search to see what you find. Many have washers, which is a huge plus. We truly loved having an apt instead of just a room. Good luck!

David, I've been searching through apartments and hotels in Rome for our trip next year and I came across a nice apartment on the same street as Palazzo Olivia (Via de Leutari). You might have a look at it; it's pretty modern but looks really nice and the location is obviously excellent. Here's the link: http://www.rentalinrome.com/piazzanavona/leutarihitechapartment

We stayed at Palazzo Olivia last June, right at the time they changed managers. As a matter of fact, the one manager tearfully told us that someone else would be around the next day to check us out. We never heard the reason for the change. We stayed in the Figaro room on the top floor. It was a good two bedroom-two bath unit. It had windows which opened onto Via dei Leutari, the small sidestreet the apartments are on and we never had any traffic noise, other than the occasional police siren, which is heard all over. The common living space was adequate, but the bedrooms were a good size. As was mentioned the elevator is small but it eventually managed four people and four suitcase. For us, it was very clean, in our roms, the hall outside, and the downstairs entryway. We also usually had someone around to answer our questions. But we left in the morning and then were gone for a large part of the day, so we saw someone in the mornings. I don't know how available they were at other times. But they were very efficient arranging transportation from and back to Leonardo DaVinci Airport. Again, as was mentioned earlier, the location can't be beat. We walked to many major attractions and bus stops are within a half block for buses going both ways. When we go back to Rome, we'll definitely book here again, unless the new management runs it down too much.