AW Cicerone Hotel

Expensive, and you don’t get much for it.
Beds are uncomfortable. They turn the Air conditioning off at midnight, and the street gets loud, so you’re either hot, or kept awake by the mopeds on the street. Kind of close to the Vatican, but far from everything else, so you either walk miles a day, take the metro (6 blocks away) or take cabs.
On the plus side, the restaurant is really good, and reasonably priced compared to many other restaurants in the area.

I am giving this hotel 3 stars instead of 2 because of its location which is hard to beat if you plan on doing all the tourist attractions — its in the perfect spot for that. There are no views, however. In fact the back of hotel has rooms with balconies facing a concrete wall and the front of the hotel (which looks like an ugly office building) which has a better view has no balconies at all, I think they got that the wrong way around! The rooms I’m talking about are all standard rooms too so there is a discrepancy in the room standards even at the same price point.
I do find it hard to see how this is a 4 star hotel. The service was very average (front desk and restaurant) as was the breakfast and rooms. Don’t expect to get much sleep here either for several reasons:
Firstly the maids seem to take pleasure in letting the doors slam repeatedly as they went in and out of the rooms from around 7:30am onwards. Coupled with them yelling to one another I don’t think they could have made more noise if they tried.
Secondly the pillows were literally like concrete road bumps. We switched ours out but they were almost as bad and the mattress didn’t help either.
Thirdly the air conditioning doesn’t work. My family had 3 rooms in the hotel and the problem was the same in each. This was Italy though so there was no point complaining, it was just met with a shrug which we took to mean «welcome to Italy». The Wi_​Fi is terrible everywhere in Italy but it seemed exceptionally poor here too.
All in all you get what you pay for and for many its location, location, location and in this instance its hard to beat.

We spent 3 nites at this hotel…
Let’s start with the:
GOOD
Fantastic location — we only needed a cab twice to dinner locations. It is centrally located elsewise to every tourist spot you’d like to go to without feeling like you’re too into the mix.
EHH
the bed — not comfy
No AC
LOUD maids slamming doors at early hours
Elevators that shut on you before you got in
Breakfast buffet
BAD
Wifi — what wifi? Only works in the lobby not in your room.
I’m giving it 3 stars because of location and your hotel shouldn’t be the most important part of your trip.

The staff of VOI Cicerone Hotel is very nice and tries hard. The rooms are archaic, small and have no amenities, such as real bureaus. The rooms make 1050s railroad rooms look good. The maid service is awful, since they forget to replace or even to give out soap, coffee and sugar. The power plugs constantly fail. The internet is sporadic. The hotel is designed for tourist groups so the breakfast is crowded and mediocre. VOI Cicerone needs to be remodeled and brought into the 21^st Century.

It was one of the best hotel in the city when I was living in Rome (till 2000). Now it is still a 4 stars but a little bit old. You can tell from the carpet in the room and the bathroom. It is clean though. Breakfast excellent as long as the location, just 2 steps from via cola di rienzo (for shopping), vatican city (if you want to see the pope) and the city centre. It is worthy only for the promotion rate I paid (around 70 euro). Personnel did not impress me.

This hotel offers three different types of rooms, my review covers the standard which is ~150 euros ($ 195 at this writing) a night. Unlike Pauls room, this room had no: coffee maker, mini bar, tea, etc.
Let me start out by saying most probably don’t travel to Rome for the hotels. It is nice however to have a pleasant comfortable place to relax after a long day of sightseeing. Well, this isn’t that place. In fact if you ever wanted to know what a Motel 6 was like in ancient Rome look no further.
My pros and cons are all below but a few of the things I didn’t like in the rooms: there was only a desk chair to sit on in the room. You couldn’t even sit on the bed because there was this big rail going across the headboard right at the level of your neck.
This wasn’t the hotels fault but there was construction in the area that started before 6am. I put some fault on the hotel because I had to leave my window open b/​c the AC was insufficient to cool the room. Speaking of the window, it swung completely open and there was no screen or bars. Not really a big deal but could be a safety concern if you had children.
I liked:
–Nice lobby
–Nice bar
–Great location
–Free safe in room
–Staff was friendly enough for being old and cranky
Neutral:
–Breakfast included (not worth paying for)
–Internet access: 9 euros/​day
I did not like:
–Bar doesn’t accept Credit Cards
–No art on walls in rooms
–Carpet well beyond service life
–TV remote was only for pay service (or was broken)
–Thin walls in rooms
–Small rooms
–no clock in room
–renew Internet access daily: reenter credit card, new username & password
–Internet access would brown out after about 30 mins of use
–paper thin pillows
–mattress was beyond its service life
–low quality hotel branded toiletries
–sheets felt like they were ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ or low grade cotton
I would not choose to stay here again.

I had a layover in Rome, and found this hotel on Expedia for a reasonable rate. As a bonus, it’s close to the Vatican and had 4 stars there and on another travel site.
It should be noted that, as I’ve experienced before, the European standard for a 4 star hotel is not the same as our 4 star expectations in the USA. This hotel is a bit older, when you arrive at the front desk you still see a large, circular wooden shelving system that encircles a support column and is basically a mail box/​message box for each room in this hotel, the elevators are small and the rooms relatively simple and basic. However, everything in this hotel was in fine condition, the front desk personnel were exceptional, bellhops very friendly and helpful and everything in the rooms worked, was clean and in good condition. That being said, if you’re expecting to find American-​style comforts and a traditional American 4 star experience, you may be a bit disappointed, primarily because of some of the things that Constance C. mentioned in the second paragraph of her review. This hotel is older, it’s traditional European and isn’t new and ultra-​modern. Then again, why would one want to come to Europe or travel abroad and then be disappointed that they didn’t get the same type of experience they’d find at home?
I arrived here, they had a folder waiting for me with my name on it and the check in process was fast and efficient. I was given a room on the 7^th floor with a balcony that overlooked the central courtyard. Nothing to see, really, but at least I could get fresh air into my room as the weather was nearly perfect.
Again, expect European styling in the rooms… The toilet and bath tub/​shower fixtures are definitely traditional European (the letter C on water spigots means «Caldo» in Italian, which means hot, BTW. Don’t confuse this with «Cold» as it would stand for in the US), there is a bidet with packets of gel to be used in conjunction with your bidet experience, and all light switches are older European style. Most of the furnishings (desk, wardrobe closet, night stands, etc.) are more functional and utilitarian vs. ornate or decorative.
Each room has a mini-​bar, an electric kettle/​hot water dispenser with a selection of coffee, teas and condiments, and in the bathroom you’ll find branded soap, shampoo, conditioner, a shoe shining kit and vanity kit containing Q-​Tips, an emory board and cotton. The rooms also have a safe that you set your own combination for (a bonus, as few hotels have in-​room safes and some charge for their use, here it’s free). There is a quality restaurant on premises (though I chose to seek out local fare off-​site) and they also have a well-​stocked bar off the lobby. They offered wireless or wired internet access, the fee was I believe 10 Euros per 24 hours for standard speed, or 12 Euros for faster speeds for business travelers or those having to download larger files. They also offer pay per view TV and movies and have a wireless keyboard for internet via the TV. Two standard TV channels were in English — CNN and BBC.
The beds and linens weren’t the most comfortable in the world, but served their purpose and I slept well here. My only critical comments (minor) would be that the TVs in the rooms are the older «CRT» style with a picture tube. Initially, the picture kept scrolling quickly across the screen until I unplugged the TV and reset it. The A/​C (I’m assuming it was A/​C) didn’t work so well; I turned it all the way down and still roasted at night until I finally got up and opened the door to the balcony to get some slightly cooler air into the room. The room key card I was given appeared to have been used several times previously. Lastly, I noticed a lot of areas in the hallways of this hotel where there were white nylon strings sticking out from the edges of the carpets where there were seams or decorative inlays. Simply trimming these tufts of nylon strings that appeared to be from the carpet’s backing would do wonders to make this hotel look better cared for.
As far as location, I was really pleased, as there were several traditional Italian restaurants, shops and gelato stands within walking distance, and the area is relatively busy at night so I felt safe walking about. Since this is a city with many tourists, most everyone speaks and understands English, and this hotel is literally a 15 minute walk from the front steps of St. Peter’s Basilica… And there are a lot of sights, significant landmarks, shops and other things to check out between the two.
Considering the price, amenities, quality and location, I was very happy with this hotel. If it were in America, then yes, I might say it’s caught in that middle ground where it’s not historic enough to preserve in its current state, and yet it’s not modern enough to appeal to some American clientele. However, this is Italy, and for what I was looking for, even if this hotel is slightly older, it was perfect for my needs.

I thought this hotel was alright, I definitely liked Royal Santina better. But this one was closer to Vatican City, so we stayed here after the end of our cruise.
This one to me personally was not as comfortable, maybe because it’s older and in need of a remodel. It gave me a bit of a creepy feeling, kind of out of a horror movie. It might be just me though.
Fortunately, it wasn’t so creepy to me that I wasn’t able to sleep because I was so tired from walking all over Vatican City and Rome that I completely knocked out after laying down for a bit.
It was a decent sized room for Rome. Enough space for all our luggage and we could still walk around without knocking into things. The room had a decent sized desk and dresser/​closet area. And the TV was an old school tube TV so the room itself was pretty large.
Their breakfast however, isn’t great and was definitely nowhere near as good as that of Royal Santina.
Spinach Quiche, Various Pastries, Provolone, Mortadella, Salami, Orange Juice.
The quiche and pastries were pretty much disgusting, overly dry, didn’t taste like anything they were supposed to. The provolone was also not good, definitely the worst cheese I’ve eaten in Italy.
The mortadella was yummy in my tummy, definitely not like that Oscar Mayer bologna crap from the supermarket. Bologna is actually the American faked version of Mortadella. Oscar Mayer bologna tastes like a flat, thinly sliced version of hot dog mystery meat. Legit mortadella is ground superfine and though fatty, has a smooth, non-​salty porky taste. NOMS.
The salami, once again, was bomb. I’ve never eaten so much salami in my life since I’m usually opposed to cold cuts because the ones from the supermarket are pretty subpar. The salami in Italy, however, had the perfect fat to meat ratio and it was yummy in my tummy.
See photos of food,