Il Castello Accommodations - Tourist in Rome

Customer Comments

2007-12-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

Not bad accomodations. They moved me into another apartment after the first night which was a drag. Large rooms for a hostel. More like a bed and breakfast. Would stay again.

Ross Dobson from USA

About Sleeping Beauty B&B!

2007-12-17T01:25:00.000-08:00

This small property is perfect for couples looking for a clean and secure place to sleep on a good location from where Rome can be explored easily. Do not expect to meet a lot of other travellers. Pretty good breakfast, good information about the main attractions and transport in Rome, close to underground (S. Giovanni), safe neighbourhood.

Peter Holtkamp from Netherlands

What about us?

2007-12-17T01:24:00.000-08:00

Quiet, pleasant place to stay. Staff were very helpful and friendly.
Simply perfect to relax and enjoy yourself!

See you soon!
Mark Bierbaumer and family from Austria

Customer Comments

2007-12-17T01:19:00.000-08:00

You can feel as in home when you are in this hotel. The staff is really nice and helpÃ¬ng and the breakfast is good and well served.

I have passed some days here with my family and I surely come back with them!I hope early!!As soon as possible!

Crisanto Aranda Hidalgo from Spain

About us

2007-12-17T01:13:00.000-08:00

it was a great stay in the sleeping beauty and I hope tho stay there during my next stay in rome , -)

Denise KÃ¼hne from Germany

Sleeping Beauty as a great place to stay.

2007-12-17T01:12:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in Rome and our stay at Sleeping Beauty was just what we needed. It was clean and secure and the room was a great size. Alfred was very helpful and nothing was too much trouble. It exceeded our expectations and we have no hesitation in recommending Sleeping Beauty as a great place to stay.

Adam Thorn from Australia

Customer Comments

2007-12-17T01:08:00.000-08:00

we had a very good time at your place. Thanks for your friendlyness and we hope to see you again in this wonderful town -ROMA-

Anke Glembotzki-Schenck from Germany

staying at Sleeping Beauty!

2007-12-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

HAD A LOVELY WEEKEND,WEATHER WAS SUPERB! SAW AND DONE EVERYTHING WE WANTED! BEING IN THE APARTMENT WAS NICE AS HAD MORE ROOM ETC! THANK U VERY MUCH WOULD DEFINATLY COME BACK.

Jamie Carrington from British Virgin Islands

Customer Comments

2007-12-17T01:02:00.000-08:00

everthing was perfect..thanks for all!

Short and concise!To give an idea!
I'm truly sutisfide about my staying at Sleeping Beauty!

jasmin disselberger from Germany

What about us?

2007-12-17T00:56:00.000-08:00

Me and my wife very much enjoyed our stay at Sleeping beauty. About the location: It is very close to San Giovanni in Laterano Square which is located in the historical center of Rome. It's very close to the metro station and various buses so you will have a great mobility. About the place: It is a renovated building, all looks brand new even in the rooms where the furniture is also new along with the doors. There are four rooms for the tourists, two with bath inside and two with (their own) bath on the hallway. All the rooms are double so you will not have a group of 15 teenagers to make noise when you want to sleep :)) There are some shops very close or close - for Pizza, icecream, food, etc. A super-market is at maximum 15 minutes walk. About the staff: Teresa usually makes the rooms and the breakfast. She does not speak english but she is very nice and will make everything to make you enjoy your stay. The owners are english-native speakers (I think they are from the States but I am not sure). I met only Alfred and he also was very nice. The breakfast is indeed very good and rich, unlike most other places. Overall, I think to stay here it is a good value for the money you spend.

Stefan Cosmoiu and wife from Romania

Home away from Home!!

2007-12-17T00:50:00.000-08:00

Home away from Home!! That's how I would describe it. The place we stayed in was fantastic, the room for 4 people that we stayed was very cozy. The bed was big a comfortable, the bathroom was clean, and there is a little dining table for us to have breakfast which is already prepared in the refrigerator within our room. In addition there is satellite TV, Hair Dryer, Toaster, Water boiler and many more!!!.. Basically, my family and I loved this place and we would recommend anyone going to Rome to stay here.... oh did I mentioned that there is an oldest Gelateria in Rome right across the street?? Perfect!!!

I reccomend to evrybody Sleeping Beauty!!It's simple and very comfortable!And Rome....only one word: Fantastic!
Pooriprat Bunnag from Thailand

Thanks a lot Michael and Teresa!

2007-12-17T00:40:00.000-08:00

I had stayed at Sleeping Beauty before and was happy to see some upgrading has taken place. The owners have put in new sound-proof doors, which is an improvement to the previous wooden-glass doors. It's a convenient place for my work at FAO and having made friends with everybody there, i will definitely return.

Thanks a lot Michael and Teresa!
James Saunders from England

Sleeping Beauty

2007-12-17T00:25:00.000-08:00

it was very nice : we appreciated

Jacques Dore from France

Customer Comments

2007-12-17T00:21:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I were very pleased with the overbooking. It meant we could stay at the appartment near the Piazza Spagna, which was really great. Next time we go to Rome, we would love to stay there again.

Greetings Anke and Roos from Netherlands

Costumer Comments

2007-12-14T01:33:00.000-08:00

The best thing about the apartments (which is where we stayed) is that the oldest gelateria in Italy is just across the street. It was so good that we had gelato every night we were there! Otherwise the neighborhood is ok (if you go out at night don't wander-know where you're going) and there is a grocery store just down the street for getting food. Rome is so small that it's quite easy to walk most places from the apartment or there is quick access to the metro. The staff was great in explaining what was around/how to get places and the driver service to/from the airport was very handy...even if the driver is erratic. Only concern about security was the fact that there was construction going on in the apartment entry area. Free internet access was a big plus as was the breakfast provided each morning.

It was wonderful!
Christina from USA

Comments about Sleeping Beauty

2007-12-14T01:24:00.000-08:00

I came from Holland to see Rome for see Roma the first time and all was very nice at Sleeping Beauty. We see you again!

Thank you Sleeping Beauty for those days of relax and comfort.
Yvonne.

What about us?

2007-12-14T01:23:00.000-08:00

Excellent accomodation, brilliant breakfast and very central. Would definitely stay here again.

Debra from New Zealand

Custumer Comments

2007-12-14T01:17:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed our stay at Sleeping beauty. The location is good close to San Giovanni Laterano, metro and Termini is at walking distance. The room was clean and was kept clean. The breakfast was quiet good with more variety in some days then the others and if you want to have a little extra they have a kitchen with all you need. The area is quiet over night so you can have good night sleep. You can very well consider it a good value for the money.

A couple from Romania that will surely come back to Rome in this B&B.

Comments from India

2007-12-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

the stay was really nice .... thank you sleeping beauty

I come from India and I spent a very lovely days here.I absolutly reccomend to anyone who want to pass a few lovely days in Rome to contact Sleeping Beauty B&B!
See you soon...........of course!

What about us?

2007-12-14T00:54:00.000-08:00

We had a very lovely stay at this quaint little B&B. They offer a nice breakfast, much better than the typical Italian "cornetto and espresso". The rooms were very clean and the place itself had a nice welcoming feeling. This is one of the only places in Italy where I felt like I DIDNT get ripped off! The staff was extremely helpful and added alot to the enjoyment of our stay. We will see you again!

Thomas from USA

What are our clients saying about us?

2007-12-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

Great place to stay, staff are very very helpful and the breakfast is great. highly recomend staying here.

A couple from Australia that had past a few days at Sleeping Beauty in August

Customer Comments

2007-12-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a lovely time in Rome. This place was in a nice quite location and very central...it was the ideal location for our quick trip to Rome. We will deffinately go back! Well worth the money.

A couple from Australia

how now?

2007-08-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

The problem with not using your blogpage is that when you come back to it, you dont know how it works anymore.
Specifically i would like to eliminate the previous blogs, but looks like i will be sweating over it for some time and then walk away frustrated.

New website- new blog...at least that was the idea..

As we have been overhauling our accommodations for a while now, trying to keep raising the level continously, we thought we should do the same with our main website, www.ilcastello.com

As you can see, it is still work in progress; we need to insert translations in another 5 languages next week, and there is a shortage of pictures.

Having said that, since our rooms now look better again then even months ago, we have decided to also make new foto's that really express the high level of accommodation we are offering people here in Rome, at prices that are absolutely competitive.

This coming friday or saturday, depending on when we can get the electrician to come out, we will be installing DVD players into all the room.

When on holiday myself, with girlfriend Yvonne and seven year old Lawrence, we always enjoy being able to watch some favourite DVD's after a long day at the beach, or hiking in the jungle, or whatever we might have done, so we thought this might be an additional service we ought to offer our guests.

Since it's so hot in Rome this summer, what better programm then to have siesta in the afternoon, watch a lazy movie, and go out to see the city between 17.00 and 18.00 when it's more bearable.

On a personal note; last sunday we have moved into a new house, which is situated in an area called Ponte Milvio, with lots of green and many trendy cafè's and restaurants where it's actually hard to find traditional italian food: pizza and pasta.
A welcome change for us who have lived here for 8 years now and like international cuisine as much as we do italian cooking.

Ponte Milvio also has the additional advantage of being situated very close to the Olympic Stadium, so i can see myself going to see quite a few games of AS Roma this season, much to yvonne's delight i m sure... :)

Ok, posting this now......let's see again if i can find that "delete" botton anywhere.....

Japanese Food in Rome, restaurant Hamasei

2007-04-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,

This next episode of Cool Food Joints in Rome has come out a lot later then anticipated, as at the moment we are up to our hair in work.
Next to running the Caesar's Accommodations, which requires lots of reckless driving through Rome's traffic-frenzy in our Ford Fiesta or on my scooter between our accommodations , we are currently at the final stage of restructuring our reservations-portal www.hotelnetservice.com' which we have had online as a hobby-project for some 7 years.

Some 5 months ago we had finally decided we wanted to try and see if we could go virtual with our jobs, so we emptied our savingsaccount and went and had the portal restructured completly by award-winning software company Vianet and one of the worlds biggest SEO (search engine optimisation) companies. (whose name we wont reveal here, the competition doesn't sleep...).

The brand-new, high-tech, state of the Art portal is coming out on June 1st, so come by and click around on it if you can find a few minutes of your time.

Anyway....today we decided enough was enough, so we grabbed a cab and headed for the city-centre (nowadays you cannot enter the city centre anymore unless you have a special permit ,and we have not found out who to bribe yet....), destination Japanse Restaurant Hamasei.

Obviously after living in Rome for 8 years, we sometimes crave for something other then italian food, as well as a change of scenery, and today was such a day.

Of the 5 or 6 japanese restaurants we know in Rome, Hamasei is still by far the best, and not even the most expensive.
It's located an easy 5 minute walk away from one of the main tourist sites in Rome, the Spanish Steps, in Via delle Mercede.
When standing with your back towards the actual Spanish Steps , walk away from them to the left and eventually walk off the square, taking the right of two paralel streets off the square.
At the end turn right into Via delle Mercede, and Hamasei is situated some 50 meters down the street at the left side of the street.

You can't really fault the place; service is always highly attentive (staff knows us to be good tippers...), location is top and the sushi is always freshly made.
Last convincing argument to be made for them is that they feature one of our favourite italian white wines on the menu, Gavi di Gavi.

Hamasei is a well oiled machine, the first Japanese to open it's door in Rome some 30 years ago.

Go and check out their lunch-menu's; today we endulged ourselves in a combination Sushi & Sashimi Lunch and some Tempura (fried shrimps and various fried vegetables) plus the inevitabe bottle of Gavi, and in total spent around 50-plus euro.
You will spend that kind of money without any effort whatsoever in any random Osteria or Trattoria for a meal for 2 and risk an unpleasant encounter with the local roman variant of "Tourist-Menu" (which you must avoid at all costs !!!).

Of course Hamasei being a Japanese restaurant, it lack's the flair and melodrama of the average Roman establishment , but it guarantees for a high-quality meal with great service in a discrete and low-noise environment, which was exactly what our overworked brains and bodies were crying-out for today.

We came out feeling revitalised and re-energised, ready to once again face the madness of Roman traffic and burocracy.

Next episode we will dive head-first into a typical chaotic Roman trattoria in one of Rome's most authentic areas, to transmit a bit of the Mediterranean chaos and livelyness we enjoy in Rome every day.

Take care..see you all next time,

Alfred & Yvonne (Lawrence sat this one out at school ...)

Cool Food Joints in Rome

2007-03-24T05:07:00.000-07:00

Episode 1: Osteria Luzzi - near Colosseum

Hello Everybody,

Today we launch our new blog about places to eat in Rome for the budget traveller.
Every week we will go and visit a venue in Rome and tell you about our experience; how we liked the atmosphere, wether service was grumpy or happy, did the chicken liver live up to it's reputation, was it easy to get there and so forth.
For our first episode we would like to take you to an old-time favourite of ours; Osteria Luzzi.
This trattoria is situated strategically in the shadow of the Colosseum, in Via dei Normanni, corner of Via San Giovanni in Laterano.
It is supposedly a soft version of the (in)famous trattoria "La Parolaccia" (The Swearword) in Trastevere.
"La Parolaccia" was originally named something else, but it got famous for the non-caring attitude of it's staff and owers.
They were so rude it's was actually funny and people starting frequenting the trattoria to get insulted; apparently particularly popular among japanese and other oriental tourists, perhaps because getting insulted clashes so much with their own more delicated cultures.

Once the owners of La Parolaccia realised people came there to be insulted, they soon clung on to the concept and (over-)commercialised it.
Now you can see busloads of people sitting there being insulted systematically by some waiter- come entertainer that uses a microphone to more effectively spread his abuse.

Fortunately Osteria Luzzi has not taken the concept that far.
Here you merely have a very friendly and playful staff, run by Luciano, the rowdy roman restaurant owner with a deep seeded love for local soccer team AS Roma.

Luciano runs the restaurant with a smile and although he likes to pull your leg, it's it never done in such a way that might be considered insulting.

Food and wine are generally of good quality as well as affordable, so this osteria makes for the perfect place to spend an hour relaxing and not having to worry about being scammed out of your money.
Pizza and seefood are to be recommended, the fried potatoes come last in our list of favourites.
By now Osteria Luzza has become very popular with tourists as well as locals, which makes for a perfect mix in atmosphere.

It is situated about 2 hundred meters from the Colosseum, which can be visited in the morning as well as in the afternoon, so this food-joint presents you with a great option for lunch as well as dinner.

You can reach the Colosseum on foot from various directions, as well as on Line B of the Rome underground.
The stop is appropriatly called "Colosseo".

All in all we highly recommend Osteria Luzzi, and are still faithful visitors are 8 years of living in Rome.

See you next week for our next episode of Cool Food Joints in Rome.

Alfred, Yvonne and Lawrence