Vatican Art Place

I stayed here for six days on a solo trip to Roma in January 2025. The breakfast was a croissant and cappuccino at a café two blocks away. The photos in the ads looked about 20 years old. There was no Nespresso machine, and the shared kitchen wasn’t as pictured. It had a communal fridge and microwave, plus a range guests couldn’t use. The advertised rooms are actually four small rooms carved out of a large apartment. They badly need soundproofing and some renovation. Check-in was a hassle. I had to call, then call again an hour later before anyone called me back. Nobody checks you out. On my first day, I came back to find my room unlocked. Sabrina, the host, didn’t seem concerned, so I emailed her brother Alessandro. He ignored my concern and said he’d fixed the electrical socket. He had, but afterward my two-prong hairdryer wouldn’t plug in. He brought an adapter the next day. I’d read a review saying all the room keys were the same, and they are old skeleton keys that open multiple doors. When Alessandro was there the next day, I asked why guests aren’t told. I opened another door right in front of him, and he gave no explanation or response. I also found the main door unlocked twice. The rooms are supposed to be non-smoking, but the couple across the hall smoked out their window and the whole place stank. During my six days, I got one hand towel and one bath towel, no face cloth, four packets of shower gel, and no shampoo. Towels aren’t changed for free. There’s no toilet paper holder or towel rack in the bathroom. They want to come into your private room every day, but don’t empty the trash or clean. I left a review on Booking.com and gave the place a 4. Alessandro came to tell me it was false, so I went back and cut the stars in half. These aren’t the only rooms in the area, and the hosts showed no honesty or compassion. I’ll look for better accommodation in the Prati area.

The owner was pretty nice, and the price was decent for what you get, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. The location is pretty good, and breakfast is included at a place about five minutes away: a croissant or something similar and a drink. The rooms are in an apartment with three other rooms, and it was noisy. We could hear people in another room and on the floor above. When we arrived, both the room and the building looked quite different from the photos and from what we expected.

The location is great, and the host was friendly. But this is a basic flat with four modest rooms, not a hotel, and that wasn’t made clear. When the positive reviews set expectations so high, arriving can be all the more disappointing. Toiletries are limited, and the hairdryer looks like a toy. The kitchen photo of the buffet is very misleading. The promised breakfast is at a cafeteria about 400 metres away. They give you dirty looks when you arrive with the host’s vouchers and skimp on what they serve. It could be a good bed and breakfast, but as it stands, it’s just a basic bed.

The pictures bore no resemblance to the place we found, and the owner charged quite a lot just for a bed. Breakfast was at a small café about 1 km away, and consisted only of coffee and a croissant. That felt really humiliating. We stayed five nights and got just one towel each, which was never changed. The owner charged extra for literally everything. It was the worst experience I’ve had.