VISITING ROME: Places To Stay – Hotel Regno

We visited Rome for 5 days from the end of July 2017.

Yes, you are right this is the hottest time of the year there and it was close to 40 degrees but we dealt with it as I will soon discuss.

Our hotel for the duration once we got there was the 3 star Hotel Regno – not 4 star as British Airways were sharing it as and we had a standard room.

The most important thing for us about this hotel was that it was bang in the centre of Rome on Via del Corso – a 2 minute walk in any direction and we were in front of a major landmark in the city.

Don’t worry that’s not a man with no head – it’s a shop mannequin

Pretty much as soon as we got out our Uber there was a porter from the hotel waiting to take our luggage, check in was simple, we got a friendly welcome, a map and advised where all the sites to visit were.

Okay, here’s where the ‘moments of humour’ start/continue. The porter said he would take our luggage and he would meet us outside our room. Great! We thought and he toddled off to the elevator area with our suitcases.

We followed in the same direction a minute or so later and remember when it comes to elevators – I’ve got “previous“.

Inside the elevator, we pressed the button for our floor – a slight movement but no doors closed. Basically we spent a good few minutes in there debating over should we press the ‘door close button’ then our floor and that it must work because the man just went up with the luggage.

Maybe there’s two elevators, we thought, we got out and looked along the corridor and there was another one but it was a service elevator or as we shall now refer to it – a “secret” elevator.

Bear in mind, the whole time that our elevator farce was going on and also perhaps take into consideration we were excited (and a little drunk) because we were on vacation – the reception man was just two or three feet away and must have heard the whole thing/pantomime!

He either didn’t come to our rescue because he was busy doing something else or because he just didn’t fancy dealing with two idiots from Scotland who couldn’t work out how to use an elevator.

In the end we decide it would be easier to use the stairs. Well, You would think so, right? Wrong!

The layout of the hotel is quite odd. Lots of nooks and crannies and ups and downs.  So much so that there seems to be “secret staircases” as well as secret elevators. Fuck it, there’s a secret hotel within the hotel, I’m sure of it!

I understand that they are ‘service’ areas and not ‘secret’ but for the duration of the stay I couldn’t help feel that those ‘secret’ ways were a lot easier to navigate and possibly nicer than the ones the guests had to use inside the ‘actual hotel’.

In the photos below the stairs in the ‘hotel’ are the carpeted ones and the other ones were taken through the windows of the ‘secret’ doors.

Anyway we eventually got to our room and the porter said something in Italian to us which I really want it to believe translates to  ‘ay, where the hell you been guys?’

As it was Greg’s birthday during our stay I had emailed the hotel in advance to see if there was anything “special” they could arrange. They were very hospitable with this and arranged a bottle of Prosecco to be placed in the room for our arrival. We were both very grateful for this!

The room was quite small but I had expected that and didn’t care so much about that as we would be out most of the time. The main thing here was that it had working air con which was a blessing because as I mentioned it was touching 40 degrees most days.

The bathroom was clean, with nice fluffy towels and the usual toiletries and stuff. They could maybe save some water by re-thinking the starts/stop button on the loo as I walked off after peeing a few times (yes, I did wash my hands first) without pressing the stop flushing part of the flush button. Honestly, flushing the loo should not be like a game show – well unless I get a prize for pressing the stop button!

Plus when you did press stop, even then it took ages to actually properly stop.

The shower was small but it served its purpose without any problems so that was good enough for me.

There was also a USB charger next to the loo – this confirms my theory…

There are only two types of people in the world – those who use their phones on the shitter and liars!

There was only one bin available and it was in the bathroom so one morning when we went back to the room at the time when the staff were cleaning it, we caught them either laughing at the bottle of Prosecco in the bathroom bin or the fact that I had hooked my toothpaste and toothbrush around the shower pole (ok, hands up, who doesn’t brush their teeth in the shower!)

There was a minibar in the room which was reasonably priced but there were no snacks and they never replenished it each day when you used something. Also – no wine or Prosecco? Come on, hotel in Central Rome get with the native alcohol program!

Pack a travel iron if you go here as there is no iron available in the room or from Reception. Or do what we did and hang clothes on the shower door while you shower and then use the hairdryer afterwards. I have to stress though…

do not use the two options at the same time as this could lead to death

…and, well, having crease free shirts for the Opera is not worth dying for, is it?

The bed was comfortable. Especially after an entire day out in the hot Roman sun walking for hours & miles – so much so that you end up getting a message from your Apple Watch to say ‘I think someone has stolen your watch’ because the steps per day were so high (cheek!) this bed was a sanctuary!

The cleaning staff done a fab job and the room always smelled fresh when we returned.

We had breakfast included as I think that’s always a necessity when on vacation.

If you want hot breakfasts then Hotel Regno doesn’t really cater for that. There was a nice selection of cereals, meats and cheeses but the only hot option was scrambled eggs. And to be honest I guess it depends on what time you get there but for me, one day they were awesome, the next they looked a bit crusty so I steered clear and the last day they looked awesome again but sadly were really cold!

I loved the ‘sweet’ option, though! The selection of croissants, mini muffins and slices of cake were something to be stock piled for sure!

The staff were really attentive during breakfast and made sure you had fresh coffee and even remembered your preferences which was a nice touch!

The operation of the juice machine was pretty much like flushing the toilet as when your pressed the stop button it just kept on going and you either eventually ended up with an overflowing glass and have to try to negotiate it back to the table whilst sipping on the move (like Greg) or removing the glass before it’s finished pouring (like me – I’ve got the smarts) but still end up wasting a whole heap of juice into the drip tray.

Either way both situations could be averted by having a few jugs of fresh juice, right?

There was always a friendly word and smile when going in or out of the hotel past the reception and upon checkout they were more than willing to store our luggage and offered to arrange travel to the airport if we hadn’t already arranged our own.

I would 100% recommend this hotel for anyone visiting Rome looking for a hotel close to everything that everybody wants to see while in Rome.

Thanks Hotel Regno!

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