Originally Posted by
Perche
It's difficult to give advice without knowing the time of year you are going. In the warmer months or during much of the season, Albergo del Senato can be a bad choice. It's right on Piazza della Rotonda, which means in front of the Pantheon. It is packed with tourists, so there is only one decent place to eat. All of the restaurants around the Piazza serve microwaved industrial frozen food. With rare exceptions you cannot eat well in that neighborhood. When I say that the street in front of Albergo del Senato is packed, in the summertime there is often at least five people with amplified electric guitars trying to pick up money by covering American songs like, "Sweet Home Alabama," or "Hotel California," and there are street vendors everywhere. I've been in Rome for a week and a half and walk through there periodically, although I'm staying in Monti. Right now it's OK. But I was in Rome in July, and also in early October, and it was not OK. It's best to choose a hotel near the action, but not in the center of the action to avoid the noise that goes on until 11 at night. So you can't separate hotel choice from time of year of the visit.
It will be noisy, with street performers, and a general circus atmosphere in May, but tolerable. You just don't want to hang out there. Whatever you do, don't eat at any of the restaurants around the Piazza della Rotonda, the plaza in front of the Pantheon. I've been to the basements of several of them, and it is all basically box after box of TV dinner type food that they defrost, microwave, and serve to you. Most of it isn't even made in Italy. One of the restaurants directly in front of the Pantheon has a small bar, and for the last few years, more out of memories sake, I stop there for a glass of wine sometimes. There freezer with the frozen food is actually not downstairs, but in the bar itself, in freezers with glass doors. since you can see all the frozen food in there, I tried to take some pictures on the sly, just to show people what they are eating when in that neighborhood. I got some pictures but they noticed me, and rushed me, and started yelling, "No picture! No picture!" I went back in a few days later, and they had papered over the glass so that people couldn't see that the food they were eating was frozen. The Pantheon area is a really bad place for food. There is one gem, literally right around the corner, called Armando al Pantheon. It's first rate. Like all good restaurants in Italy, you are not getting in without a reservation made a day or a few days before. Facing the Pantheon, you go towards it, and when you get right to the Pantheon take a right. It's really that close, but it's the best restaurant in that area.
There are many nice rooftop bars in Rome, but the one that generally tops the list is Hotel Forum, because in addition to overlooking the entire city it is directly above the Forum and across from the Colosseum. You are not just seeing rooftops, but also all of the antiquities. I haven't eaten there, and it doesn't have a good reputation for food, but it's considered one of the best places to have a rooftop drink in Rome, because you are right on top of the historic center.