Rome Day 3: The Beautiful Hotel Impero Saves the Day

The morning of our last day in Rome was supposed to be very straight forward. We had tickets to take the speed train right back to the U.S. Navy base in Napoli. We were staying outside of Rome, so we hired a cab to take us to the train station.

We had a good breakfast at our Hampton Inn that morning, and a reasonable cab fare. All was going to according to plan.

Then our taxi driver started to ask us about our plan, and he realized we did know about the train strike. (Of course, there would be a train strike). He kindly told us about buses that also can take you to Napoli, and we decided that was our best option.

That is how we ended up on a bench at the bus station in Rome, with dozens of buses, none of which had empty seats available to Napoli.

Alan and I agreed we might as well find a new hotel inside Rome and change our plans.

You can find good deals these days just looking on Google, so that is what I did. I found an excellent looking, highly rated hotel in the very center of Rome called Hotel Impero.

We booked a reservation online, called a cab, and headed on over to the new hotel.

This was such a welcome change. Staying outside of town was an extra hassle, having to constantly hail a cab over to Hampton Inn. Even in Naples, we were staying on post, so we had to rely on the Alibus to get anywhere.

Here at Hotel Impero, we could just step out the front door of the hotel and walk to almost any tourist attraction in Rome!

Plus, we were a block away from the train. Everything was suddenly so much easier and more affordable.

My best travel tip for when you don’t have a car is to pick a hotel right in the middle of wherever you want to be, and stay there!

Plus, I loved the ambience of the Hotel Impero. Most of the buildings in Rome have been there forever, and this hotel was no exception. The man at the desk said that the hotel and all of the surrounding area belonged to Mussolini’s government a hundred years ago.

We arrived earlier than check-in, since our plans had been flipped upside down, but the staff was so kind and welcoming about it all. We sat in the small bar area while they made sure our room was ready. After a short wait, we went up the tiniest old school elevator with a bell hop. The hotel has many turns, so he guided us to our room.

The whole place had the vibe of the early 1900s, and I loved it. This place was perfect for me. Everything was decorated and plush, and it seems like there were antiques everywhere.

Plus, I finally felt like I was staying in a real Italian hotel. The Hampton Inn was nice and offered all the comforts of home, but it had less of the authentic Italian experience, you know?

This place even had these enormous weighted keys and multi-level maze-like hallways. I adored it; I really did.

Once we’d gotten our things all situated, we headed across the street for lunch. There were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Everyone talks about the food in Italy. As a person with food allergies, I do not get the same level of enjoyment out of restaurants.

Having no choice but to be gluten free is such a bummer when you are traveling. Yes, Italy is health conscious and has many places with gluten free options. But still, we had to ask everywhere we went and choose based on that.

Thankfully, I did still manage to have many gluten free pizzas and even one gluten free pasta dish. Alan printed out this celiac statement to explain my problem in Italian, and he would show it to places. It was so sweet of Alan to do that. He really looked out for me.

On our third day in Italy, we covered so much ground on foot. Our favorite place was the The Basilica Of St. Mary Of The Angels And The Martyrs. That one was such a big deal, and we took so many photos that I have to save those pictures for my next post, which will be dedicated only to the basilica.

Here are a few other places we saw.

The photo above is an elaborately carved sarcophagus. True art connoisseurs would probably be baffled at our attitude, but we did not know much about what we were seeing. If you love sculptures, you would enjoy the museum, I’m sure.

We saw many unusual things that we did not know they were.

This was the view from outside the museum. So much of Rome was this cool.

This was outside the baths of Diocletian, but it cost extra to go in, so we passed on this one.

This was close to our hotel too. We had the perfect location.

After touring the museum and the basilica, we just started walking around Rome. We took off on foot headed towards the famous Trevi Fountain and took photos of a few cool things we saw along the way.

This was another one of those buildings that looked important, but we had no idea what it was.

Orange trees grew along the street.

The Trevi Fountain itself was lovely and in tact and definitely the most densely crowded place that we toured. People packed in there. That’s why the photo is a close up. I was trying to cut out the crowds.

In retrospect, I should have taken a distance shot so you can see how many people there were.

We enjoyed picking out a few souvenirs in the little alley shops near the fountain.

After all that touring, we went back to our hotel and napped. Alan woke up from the nap and went out and visited a few stores. I have no memory of what he was shopping for. He probably brought back some food. I said, “I know we are in Italy, but I don’t even need to eat tonight. All I want to do is sleep and rest my feet.”

So that was what I did. I never did go back out that night. It’s a good thing too, because the next day we headed to Pompeii. I love that we saw Pompeii, but it turned out to be our roughest day by far, and you can bet I will be blogging about it soon.

To read about Rome day 1, see this post, with the Colosseum.

For Rome Day 2: The Vatican, click here.