Alison V.
Yelp
My mom and I stayed at Mecenate Palace when visiting Rome for a few days. Overall, we had a pretty good experience. The front desk staff was helpful and always willing to help out whenever we had a question. They were always friendly and made several suggestions for the best ways to see the city.
The hotel has two different sides. The main side, where the front desk is located, is a bit more standard of a hotel you'll find in Italy. It's not dated, but it's not quite as modern. The rooftop restaurant is over on that side. My mom and I stayed most of our nights in a room on this side and had little complaints. We could look out our window and see Santa Maria Maggiore out the window. It was great listening to the bells at night and be able to overlook the plaza and watch people coming and going.
The other side of the hotel, where we stayed our first night, is much more modern. The rooms are slightly smaller and are all connected through an outside terrace area. These rooms are accessed by leaving the main hotel, walking down a few doors, and up a flight of stairs.
The one thing that impacted our stay is that we specifically chose this hotel for the fact they had an elevator since my mom has bad knees and stairs are difficult for her. The first night we were quite disappointed to find ourselves up a long flight of stairs which my mom struggled to get up. The hotel didn't have any other rooms available, so we made it work. The next day, however, they moved us to the other side for a room accessible by elevator. They were as accommodating as possible and had a bellhop move our bags between rooms for us while we were out sightseeing. It was a smooth transition between the rooms. The only disappointment left for us is that the hotel restaurant is on the rooftop and the elevator stopped about 2 floors below the restaurant level. Thus, my mom had to take the stairs slowly to and from breakfast each morning to take advantage of the free breakfast.
The breakfast itself every morning was ok. In the about 4 mornings we ate there, there was no variety in the breakfast. The servers were frequently quite busy and it took a while to get drinks to the tables. One morning we had to wait for a table to become available. The food offered was good, but the pastries were a bit disappointing.
The location within Rome was great and had quick access to several sights, a sightseeing bus stop, and was on a main traffic circle so you could get transportation easy. Also, staying right by a major church in the city was a great way to be sure you can find your way back to the hotel! It's a pretty good place to stay if this is the area of Rome you want to be in!