My wife and I stayed in Ale and Fabiana's Pettinary Village apartment in February 2009, for 4 days. It was fantastic! There are two apartments, we stayed in the second, No. 78, just a few buildings up the street from Ale and Fabiana's, and the first apartment.
Location, location, location! The apartments are in Via dei Pettinari, 100 metres up from the Ponte Sisto bridge. The street is a popular walkway between Trastevere, across the Tiber, and Old Rome, and for people like ourselves who want to take Rome head on during the day, but then retreat from the busiest of the tourist areas in the evening, Pettinari is perfect. The street is home to numerous jewelry stores, a Carabinieri police office, a small bar and a fully stocked supermarket which is open till late. Although there's the occasional beggar, and out of hours the street is a little sleepy, we felt completely safe at all times.
How to find the apartment. We had no trouble finding Ale and Fabiana, as we had researched the location on google earth and Ale sent ahead a welcome email, with detailed directions, just before we left. We flew Ryanair into Ciampino, so for us the easiest and cheapest way to get to the apartment was to catch a Terravision bus (8 euro ticket from the Ciampino departures lounge, or on-line. 40 min. approx) to Rome Termini train station, then walk over to Piazza Barberini (15 min.), to Via Veneto in the northern corner of the piazza, where there are a number of bus stops just 10 metres up the hill. Facing downhill, jump on the small electric bus "116" which passes every 20-30 minutes and jump off at the Ponte Sisto bridge, bus stop "Giulia" (15 min., 2 euro ticket machine on the bus, stamp the ticket!). Walk 100 meters up Via dei Pettinari and you're there!
The apartment. The apartment was simply lovely. I can't think of a better way to describe it. Let me describe what we saw and how we felt as Fabiana showed us around the apartment. The first thing we noticed was that everything had a cottage feel and a woman's touch! A red ribbon around the towels in the basket, fresh flowers in the kitchen, chocolates on the pillows. We were actually celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and we had mentioned this when booking. A bottle of Chianti and a hand-written card stood alongside the flowers! The apartment was spotless and beautifully decorated, with a lot of thought put into every aspect of the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and balcony.
The kitchen had absolutely everything we could want, and a continental breakfast, basket of fruit and fresh milk were provided each day. The dining table folded down from the wall, and hid lots of goodies like different flavours of tea, coffee, notepads and various other bits and pieces. On the top shelf there was a small but growing library of books, which we happily contributed to. The local supermarket was really good, though we didn't actually cook a formal meal in the room... how could we with Trastevere 2 mins in one direction, Campo dei Fiori 3 mins in the other direction, and the rest of Rome beyond that!!
The bathroom was pleasant and nicely decorated. It was only really large enough for one person at a time to do their bits properly, and although the small shower was a bit of a challenge for a large person, I soon got used to where my arms and legs needed to go! The water was hot and strong, and there were "wall mounted jacuzzi jets" that massaged all those "difficult to get to" places quite nicely! Everything in the bathroom was fresh and clean and had that special touch.
The main room had two chairs, a comfortable queen sized bed, a large wardrobe and a modern air conditioner/heater. On a shelf sat a wide-screen tv with satelite, and enough electronics to play CDs, DVDs, the radio, an iPod and even a USB stick, if memory serves me correctly.
Ale and Fabiana are lovely people, they speak English well and, most importantly, they care. This was our third trip to Rome, and Pettinari is the place we'll always stay from now on. And the same for our friends if we have anything to do with it!
Lovely. Just lovely.
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