Rome lodging

If you get Rick Steves' Italy guide for 2019, available on this website, you will see what he recommends for places to stay.

We like the area near Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

I agree with Suki about the Pantheon area. The other area I like is Trastevere. Both areas are relatively central, lots of great options for eating and people watching.

I agree with the two previous suggestions. The area around train station is not where you want to stay.

We stayed north of the Colosseum, just a little north of the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli and really liked it a lot.

We like the Piazza Navona / Pantheon area.

Recommend the Hotel Navona. https://www.hotelnavona.com/index-eng.htm

We always stay in the Termini area - Hotel Sonya, Aberdeen, and Contille. We find it very convenient for transportation with nice local oriented restaurants. Wife prefers Sonya because she believes the lattes are better than Aberdeen -- IMO -- very small difference. You can easily walk to everything except the Vatican. Vatican is about hour's walk. One same advantage it is always easy to get home. Since many of the bus routes either terminate at Termini or pass through it is easy to hop any bus anywhere that has Termini in the overhead sign. If you spent a long day walking and want a ride home, find a bus that says Termini. We like the Trastevere area but it is not central and you will have to use the buses to get around.

Not sure what your budget is, but we have stayed at Hotel Fontanella Borghese many times and have always been pleased. While it is not "luxury", it is very nice and the location (near the Spanish Steps) is great. The staff is very friendly and helpful. You can walk to the Pantheon, Nuvona, even Vatican city, and of course the Spanish Steps, They also have a sister hotel closer to the Pantheon called Hotel Due Torri. We always send an email directly with our request for a booking and get an answer back in 24 hours or less. Ask for a room overlooking the courtyard as rooms overlooking the side street can be noisy. The web site is www.fontanellaborghese.com.

Another vote for the area near the Pantheon.

After 2 trips to Rome my vote is the Monti district. Close to train station, great restaurant selections, Colosseum and other historic sites.

We also stayed in the Monti district. Easy walk to Termini, and we used the metro there to get to the Vatican and also to go to the Spanish Steps and then spent a couple of hours wandering back. We had a short walk to the Colosseum. Many restaurants nearby. I would definitely stay there again.