Rome is known to have very expensive accommodations. It is a tourist destination all year round and the city is crammed. There’s really not much space for it to build more accommodations, therefore it is going to be expensive. Cost aside, we also need to take into account a few more factors. We wanted a place with proper air conditioning, seeing that the climate would not be conducive without air-conditioning. We also wanted somewhere near public transport so we can go around places easier. At the same time, somewhere near public transport would also mean that we have conveniences such as restaurants and grocery shops.

We settled on Rome Hello Hostel. Looking at the website, it says it offers a “community” feel and pictures of mostly young people. We found that we could book a whole room for 4 people with ensuite, It is also rather new. From Google Maps, it looks like it’s near to a Repubblika metro station, Rome Termini, some museums and a major road. That was how we decided on the accommodations.

Reality

The bus dropped us just outside Rome Termini Station. The heat in Rome at that time was like hot days in Malaysia, unbearable and should be spent indoors under air condition. It was a long hot walk, passing roadworks towards the hotel from Rome Termini. Was supposed to be a 15 mins walk, we ended up taking about half hours. Mainly because we started walking towards the wrong direction after the bus stop. Then we had to take a long way around to the hotel to avoid what we thought were road closures. We also found that the Republikka Metro station was closed. That put a dent into our plans for the week as we had expected to take the metro to Colosseum.

The hostel has a shared kitchen and dining room, which we end up using a few times. The kitchen has about 3 stoves, microwave, pots, pans, plates, bowls and a fridge. Basically enough to cook a meal if you bring your own ingredients. They even have electric pots to cook noodles, typically seen in Asia. Throughout our stay, we see a lot of people using that kitchen. Few times a week, there are cooking classes held in the kitchen.

Conveniences

There only so much restaurant dining that we can handle in this trip. Lucky for the kitchen, we are able to head out to a local grocery shop called “Pam Local” and get prepared food and noodles. That is where the kitchen comes in handy, we are able to heat up food and cook up noodles.

In fact we saw a family cook up their whole dinner in the kitchen and eating in the dining hall. It was a chinese family so the cooked up soups with vege and meat for dinners. It was a way to save money on the trip, especially when we are not so hungry after a long hot day.

I also took this opportunity to delivery. Bought a bucket of KFC delivered to the hotel, had it for dinner at the common dining area. We got our rooms with breakfast, so that’s sorted.