I just returned from a vacation in Rome, Italy. Assuming that I can get a higher class hotel for a lower rate outside of the city, I booked the Domina Roma hotel in Capannelle. Well, this appeared to be a terrible mistake... Don't get me wrong, the hotel is nice and fancy, everything is pretty new and clean, the staff is helpful and the hotel is located in a quiet village - which appears to be the main problem... I tried getting there from the De Vinci airport by public transportation (a taxi is 70 Euro), which appeared to be a hard task for a non-Italian speaker... It took me about 3 hours to get there, from which at least one hour of hiking with all my luggage in hand... After the long hiking I arrived at the hotel; they couldn't find my booking for about 10 minutes, but eventually gave me a room. I planned to join guided tours in Rome with a company that works with the hotel (every reasonable hotel offers this kind of service). At the reception desk I got a booklet with the offered guided tours of the company that they work with, and the time table for the hotel's shuttle. But here is the problem - there is no correlation between the shuttle and the time tables of the guided tours, and the tours company picks their clients from their hotels, but not from this hotel as it is too far from the city. Example: the tour to the Vatican leaves from the center of Rome at 07:30, but the first shuttle leaves the hotel after 8am... The hotel’s staff was kind enough to teach me about the public transportation (there is a bus stop right next to the hotel). To get to the city center at 07:30 using public transportation I had to leave the hotel at 06:30. Breakfast? - They start serving it at 07:00.... I'll save you the time reading the details of the rest of my experience in the hotel (dog barking in the 3rd floor corridor in the middle of the night, terribly thin walls between the rooms, and so on...) and just summaries by saying that if you plan an event in Rome this hotel may be a good choice as it is pretty fancy for the price. But, if you are in town for sightseeing, do yourself a favor and stay in a hotel in the city, even if it is not as fancy...

One of the best hotels we stayed in on our recent business trip in Europe. It's about 15 mins from the city centre by cab (30 Euro) and about 15 mins from Ciampino airport. It's NOT close to Fiumicino. The hotel seems pretty new, and the cab driver wasn't too sure where it was, but the sat nav got us there. Reception is huge, and there seemed to be a lot of people milling around. Only one guy on reception trying to do everything, so it all took a bit of time to check in, book cabs, alarms etc. But he was very polite, if a bit distracted by the endless queries from the enormous Korean tour groups who kept fussing about their rooms. Room was pretty big, felt quite plush. Very clean. Nice new bathroom too. Only problem was that it wounded like there was a stream running overhead - something to do with the aircon, and I couldn't make it stop. Out with the ear plugs again. No noise from the corridors though, or from outside. There was wireless internet and also a network connection cable, but it was an extra cost (12 Euros for 12 hours) which was added onto the bill. Breakfast was extra too, but since we had an early start, we didn't try it. Overall, it was quite a nice hotel, and I'd have been happy to stay there a bit longer. But only for business, it's too far out from the centre to be a tourist hotel.

We had booked our stay for 3 days and two nights in the hotel. We had rented a car with GPS system for our stay in Rome. The hotel is little difficult to find based on the '37, via siderno' address even with the car GPS system. After trying too many times GPS refused to find the correct address and provide us with a route to get to the hotel. Finally we called up the hotel on which the receptionist told us to put the name of the main street as '37, Via Appio Claudino' instead of 'Via Siderno'. The new street name worked and we were able to reach the place where there were boards all over giving directions to Domina Hotel. Mind you that '37, Appio Claudino' is still not the correct address. The correct address is '37, Via Siderno' but that doesn't work with GPS systems. On reaching hotel, we found the staff to be friendly and the rooms very neat and clean. The hotel itself is quite new and modern. It is in a lovely and peaceful residential area. It has small well-maintained swimming pool which is quite welcoming in hot summers. We had access to 3 lifts to get to our room on second floor. Our room was quite spacious and well decorated with modern amenities. The only thing missing from the room was an electric kettle to prepare hot tea water. Though this was sorted by paying only one time room service charge of 5 euros and getting the tea served to your room everyday in the morning. Breakfast is quite okay and does not contain too many items apart from croissants, breads, jams, butters, juices, bacons and eggs. Car Parking is not a problem as there are some free parking spaces in front and behind the hotel. I am not sure about the availability of public transport from the hotel to the center of Rome. But I am sure there are some hotel provided shuttle buses running everyday to take you to center of Rome as well as to the airports. By car we could reach any place in Rome within 20-40 minutes. We checked out on the third day as planned, but ended up missing our return flight. We called up the hotel to accommodate us for one more night and they were prompt to take us back and gave us the same room all cleaned and tidied as usual. On the whole it was a pleasant experience. I would definitely recommend this hotel to those who have their personal transport and would like a quite peaceful time away from the humdrum of Rome City Center.