Umiltà 36 is a block from the Trevi Fountain (with far less footfall), on its namesake street, Via dell’Umiltà. You’d be hard-pressed to be more in amongst it than here.
Planes
Rome Fiumicino airport is a 40-minute drive from the hotel, with connections to a multitude of European and further-afield destinations. A taxi from the airport should cost around €40. Low-cost airlines land at Ciampino airport, a 30-minute drive from the hotel.
Trains
Rome Termini, the city’s busiest train station, is a 10-minute drive from Umiltà 36. You can take a cab or opt to stroll it in 20 minutes, past museums, art galleries, the Quirinale Palace and – just around the corner – the Trevi Fountain. Trains arrive direct here from Naples, Pisa, Bologna and Florence, making it easy to combine your stay with visits to other Italian cities.
Automobiles
What have the Romans ever given us? Plenty, natch, but parking convenience is not one of them. Thankfully, Umiltà 36 is so centrally located, many of the top sights are within walking distance. Or, if you are getting a road trip underway from here, then the Colonna car park is a few minutes’ walk away on Via Santa Maria in Via.
Worth getting out of bed for
Here in the Centro Storico, you can’t turn around for opulent Baroque squares, needlessly long colonnades, outrageous cathedrals and eye-goggling Roman ruins. The concierge at Umiltà 36 will gleefully organise an itinerary for you, but part of the fun of Rome is wandering aimlessly and seeing what appears. As it’s a block north, it’d be rude not to pay a visit to the Trevi Fountain if only to imagine Anita Ekberg trying to wade through today’s tourist crowds, rather than the quiet waters as envisioned in La Dolce Vita. Two blocks to the west is the Pantheon, whose architectural significance – it’s basically the OG of massive domes – is worth entering (the queue moves quickly and it’s free). Keep an eye out for Hadrian’s Temple in Piazza di Pietra, and marvel at endless Adonises and Medusas at the Roman National Museum. There are Caravaggios galore across the city, some of which are free to ogle like at the Basilica of S. Maria del Popolo, the Basilica di S. Agostino and the Church of S. Luigi dei Francesi; others are tucked away in impressive-in-their-own-right galleries: Borghese, Barberini, and Trastevere’s Corsini. It goes without saying that the Colosseum and the Forum will be teeming with people in the middle of the day, so early starts are required for tours there, and the same goes for St Paul’s Basilica at the Vatican, although you can book onto quieter Friday evening walkarounds to avoid the masses. Across the Tiber, atmospheric neighbourhood Trastevere is similarly best experienced midweek and early morning. South of the ruins of the Circus Maxentius is the entrance to the Appian Way, a 2,300-year-old, 560-kilometre road that has plenty of ancient Roman charm – if a very long, very straight road can be said to contain such a thing. A little off the beaten path, too, is the Domus Aurea, or Golden House: Emperor Nero’s buried pleasure palace whose frescoes, rediscovered in the 15th century, are said to have inspired Michelangelo and Raphael to abseil, wide-eyed, directly into it. You too can descend to its halls and chambers with a weekend tour (book in advance).
Local restaurants
Presented as refinement the world over, Italian cuisine so often owes its origins to peasant cooking. That’s certainly the case in the Jewish Quarter, where Italia Tagliacozzo’s street-side La Reginella specialises in carciofi alla giudia, Jewish-style fried artichokes, which had actor Stanley Tucci coo-ing in a recent TV travelogue. A blueprint for the ultimate Italian deli, century-old Ercoli in Trastevere does a mean coffee-and-cornetto combo come morning and will lure you back in the afternoon for cured meats and cheese – and their house spaghetti pomodori. There are also outlets in Prati and Parioli. Over in up-and-coming Ostiense, Marigold is a restaurant and micro bakery with a Scandi-meets-Williamsburg vibe, serving brunches of buttermilk pancakes, toasted banana bread and Sicilian avocado on rye toast alongside its specialty coffee blend. Its lunches – babaganoush with tatsoi and mizuna greens; asparagus salad with radish, parmesan and caesar dressing – are worth sticking around for, too. Just off the tiny Piazza Rondanini two blocks north of the Pantheon is Pizzeria Le Volte, where the service is akin to a family gathering – though our own mama could never have dreamt up pesto focaccia with truffles. Over by the Spanish Steps, the chefs at Dillà are making a name for themselves with dishes such as veal meatballs, mortadella and pistachio sauce; tagliolini with taleggio cheese and black truffle; and artisanal desserts such as top-notch tiramisu and a bellissimo mille-feuille with Italian chantilly and berries.
Local cafés
It’s never too late for an espresso – known simply as a caffè – in Rome, and you’re predictably spoiled for choice when it comes to great cafés. For starters, Tazzo d’Oro just off the Piazza della Rotonda is a king among kings. An espresso shot at its well-aged Egyptian-style counter is just €1 (don’t expect a seat – there aren’t any). The nearby Sant Eustachio Il Caffè is another contender, with its late-Thirties interior and water supply pumped from an ancient aqueduct. If you’re near the Vatican, then Pergamino Caffè is your safest bet for a no-nonsense pick-me-up or, if you haven’t had your fill of marble sculptures in the museums, Canova, named after the neoclassical sculptor and housed inside his former studio, sits at the edge of Piazza del Popolo and has a piano bar, an ivy-covered courtyard and a permanent, life-size, carved clientele. The display case of sweet things will tempt you at friendly Bar Santeo: the coffee is up there but if you’re already caffeinated (and why wouldn’t you be), try the velvety hot chocolate instead, with a fresh cornetto or plate of some other towering chocolate confection.
Local bars
The late-night action has gravitated east in recent years to working-class Pigneto, where craft beer spots and speakeasies are in no short supply. Necci dal 1924 will outlive them all, though: a former school and then gelato shop, it was once a fave of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini – and remains stylishly artsy to this day. North across the Tiber from Trastevere is Il Goccetto, popular for pre-dinner aperitivos on account of its 800 Italian labels, poured under painted wooden ceilings and mediaeval chandeliers. And in touristy Piazza Navona, Bar del Fico attracts both suit-wearing, negroni-swigging locals and an aperol-sipping cool crowd to its French-style bistro.
