Rome- very central neighborhood?

The Monti neighborhood meets your requirements. It's centrally located, has the Cavour metro stop, is near bus lines, and offers many restaurants.

I stayed in Monti last winter for about 20 days. I liked the area a lot for the general environment; it's not overrun with tourists and has a good number of restaurants. Monti is quite convenient to some sights, including the Colosseum, Domus Aurea and Santa Maria Maggiore, but it was a quite long walk to many of the things I wanted to see as I avoided hills by choice and controlled-access excavations by necessity.

From the standpoint of sightseeing convenience, I think Monti isn't ideal. The usual suggestion on the forum, especially for those on short trips with intense sightseeing goals, is to stay near the Pantheon, though of course each visitor has his or her own list of target sights. There's also the fact that lodging in the Pantheon area is usually more expensive.

I'd suggest you go to Google Maps, key in each of the key places you want to visit and click on "Save". That will give you a map showing the geographical distribution of your planned sights. You can then check potential hotels to see whether they seem practical.

Coverage of the Rome Metro is quite thin; they keep encountering valuable archaeological sites every time they dig. Cavour is on the Green Line (not sure they call it that), which really doesn't look as if it goes many places of tourist interest. If you boarded there, you'd probably end up transferring at Termini most of the time. Some hotels in Monti (or perhaps claiming to be--I don't know the precise borders) are about as close to the Termini Station as to Cavour.

The area around Termini station sometimes gets a bad rap but I think it meets your needs for transport convenience admirably, and I think it’s just fine. Plenty of perfectly good restaurants. It’s been a few years so this recommendation isn’t recent, but we’ve enjoyed several stays at the Best Western Hotel Canada (which doesn’t sound very Roman, but it very much is).

Hi
I have stayed near the Spanish Steps and hence the Spagna metro stop, three times including a couple of weeks ago; there are lots of good resturants in this area and its very handy for the metro [Line A] with a walk thats 'on the level', if you don't stay at the top of the Spanish Steps, that is.

Coffee Girl, this is slightly off topic. Was your surgery foot related? If so, talked to your doctor about a brace and compression socks to control swelling and help with residual pain.
I’ve had multiple foot (neuroma) surgeries and a broken foot. I was not prepared for how long the healing process is, especially from the broken foot. It took weeks after getting out of the walking boot and physical therapy to be able to stand and walk for a “long” time. I almost fell dismounting my horse because I couldn’t put much weight on my foot. It took another month of healing to be able to ride.

For central I'd choose the Hotel Smeraldo. Easy by bus (several buses) to Torre Argentina (also site of Julius Caesar's assassination and cat sanctuary), vert close to Campo de' Fiori and Piazza Navona, even closer to the Pantheon.

A bit further to the Trevi.

I liked it there quite a lot. Nice staff (a few years ago) and good food all around. I used to walk from there (too far I am sure for you at the moment) to Vatican City, but the 492 bus takes you there.

Good luck. Here's hoping you heal up soon...

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'll check some places out and let you know where we end up.

Horsewoofie- yes, it was foot surgery. I am having an ankle replacement this summer and they basically had to realign my foot to prepare for that. I've had arthritis since I was three, so I always travel with compression socks, braces, etc. But I would agree, the recovery has been much more than I anticipated.