Link Incredibly Cool New Testimonial for My Apartment!

I love when my guests leave nice notes in my apartment, but I couldn't expect Jim and Julie, a couple from Chico, California, to send me an email with the incredible review I re-publish completely uncut here below.

Jim and Julie love Rome, and try to visit the eternal City as many often as they can - they also plan long vacations, as they love to feel like resident locals, and they love to discover Rome in all its hidden fascinating details.

So this year they planned a month-long permanence in Rome and, after landing on this blog, we got in touch via email/phone, then catch up in person in Berkeley, and now they are currently staying in my apartment in Piazza Dante. Of course they also got a forfeit discount on the rate!

During the few weeks they already spent in my apartment in Rome, they mapped the neighborhood in a way I always wanted to do for this blog, but never had the time and patience to do.. =(

So thank you Jim and Julie, not only I feel honored and very happy of the way you describe my apartment (I love it too), but your notes (and the map below even more) will also be of help for all the future visitors to this blog who want to find out more about my apartment in Rome, and about the central Rome area where it is located.

Here we go with Jim and Julie's beautiful and super-useful testimonial -

Massimo's apartment at Piazza Dante is a convenient, bottom-floor unit directly across from a large park/plaza that is popular with locals during the day and with kids after school. Although located close to many services and shops, the apartment is on a relatively quiet side street, and it is very peaceful in the evening.

What makes Piazza Dante so compelling is that it is a full-service neighborhood, but it is not in a tourist-oriented area. Thus the restaurants and shops cater primarily to locals, and the prices and menus reflect this fact.

The special quality of the neighborhood can be appreciated only after several days of wandering throughout Rome, and realizing how lucky you are to be living in an area that is not clogged by tour buses and mobs of Americans and Germans following their group leader.

Supermarkets and laundromats are in short supply in Rome, yet the Piazza Dante apartment is within a block of each. There are two pharmacies located a block away on the main street (Via Merulana).

There are a dozen different transit lines within three blocks, including the Metro Linea A, three major tram lines (3, 5,and 14), and a half- dozen bus lines. The nearest station on Metro Linea B (Coloseo) is about ten minutes away. The apartment is about a 15-minute walk from the central train station (Roma Termini).

There are two dozen restaurants, snack bars, gelaterias, and pizza purveyors within two blocks of the apartment. Two of the best restaurants are the Vecchia Roma at the corner of Buonarroti and Ferruccio, and a Chinese restaurant around the corner on Via Alfieri.

A tobacco shop is located one block south on Via Merulana where a person can obtain phone cards and transit tickets (good for subway, bus, tram and many trains). But you don't need a bus for many destinations — the Colosseum is only eight minutes away on foot.

AND, FINALLY, I create a number of maps for my own web sites, and so I made one for Piazza Dante. It might be useful for giving folks an idea of what the
area has to offer.

Thank you very much again, Jim and Julie - this is the best testimonial I ever received by far for my apartment in Piazza Dante, Rome. I appreciate your efforts also in mapping the area so well, and I look forward to receiving the URL of your website, so I can link it from here, to share with other travelers your local knowledge of all the places you love to travel too.

The only thing I can do to add a little value to Jim and Julie's precious input, is add a Google Map of the area, so you can orientate J&J's map in the biggest frame of Rome.


View Larger Map

And, Jim and Julie - let me announce it officially on this blog, your input here secured you a good discount next time you guys want to visit Rome again and stay in my apartment!