Jolly Hotel Leonardo da Vinci - Rome
Written: Sep 25 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great neighborhood and walking distance to some sites.
Cons: Standardized, unmemorable decor and food.
The Bottom Line: Walk to Vatican and Spanish Steps. Walk along Tiber. Superior gelato-close location.
|
|
|
| realtraveller's Full Review: Jolly Hotel Leonardo Da Vinci |
Review based on a three night stay in July, 2007.
Great Location
Rome is a big city, but in many ways a very walkable city. Rome has wide boulevards with sidewalks and in the evening the Corso which links many of the sites in the historic center of the city becomes a pedestrian-only zone. Despite the famed seven hills, Rome is relatively level. So we were very pleased that the Jolly Hotel Leonardo da Vinci was well-located a 15 minute walk to the Vatican and (in the opposite direction) a 15 minute walk to the Piazza del Popolo and 20 minutes to the Spanish Steps.
The hotel is located in a quiet upscale residential neighborhood lined with trees. The Czech Embassy was next door (embassies are almost always in the nice neighborhoods). There was almost no traffic and no traffic noise. The hotel on Via dei Gracchi was two blocks from the Tiber, two blocks from the Via Cola di Rienza which had shopping and restaurants and just one block from a great gelato shop.
It was really pleasant to stroll back from the historic area, enter the peace and quiet of the hotel's neighborhood, pop into the gelato shop and head back to the hotel to put our feet up for awhile.
Breakfast Buffet
Breakfast was less lavish than the offerings at our other Italy hotels. There was little fresh fruit and not much selection of rolls. But it did have eggs, sausages, cheeses, cereals and sweets. Fuel for traveling, nothing special. But the restaurant was pleasantly situated with floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the street. On our last morning we had to leave to catch our flight before the restaurant opened. The hotel had a small coffee room opened with carafes of coffee but nothing else besides those pre-wrapped doughy things that are inedible. I would have thought that a hotel that hosts groups of airline employees who often need to leave early for the airport would put out a few real rolls to have with the coffee. The hotel did give our tour director boxed breakfasts to take away but except for one apple, the rest was of the factory wrapped "eat it only if you're really starving" variety of food.
Room
The room was a standard American style hotel room. We had plenty of room to move around in, places for suitcases, and a full bath with good shower. The maid left plenty of the little bottles of shampoos. Everything was very clean, quiet and comfortable.
Front Desk
The front desk staff was cooly efficient as seemed to be the norm in Italy. They switched our room when we discovered that the first room had no security chain. They called taxis which came promptly and they made restaurant reservations for us. The lobby itself was a little small with very few chairs.
Overall
I would stay here again mainly due to the central location and the nice quiet upscale neighborhood.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
realtraveller
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Kathryn
Location: North of Malibu, East of Eden
Reviews written: 157
Trusted by: 132 members
About Me:
Seeking higher ground
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.