HI - Roma Hostel - Foro Italico - AF Pessina

Maybe they have improved things. I was just there last week and had a nice experience. I was checked in quickly, the staff spoke enough English to be helpful, and the place is very clean in the afternoon. Later in the day there can be a little mess from a few people who don't clean up after themselves. Breakfast is not that much, but enough to get you started. Also, you can buy some extras in addition to the free breakfast. The only problem was some people coming in very late and keeping the light on and talking while others were trying to sleep. This problem can probably be reduced by requesting a room with fewer people. It's close to the Vatican and the 32 bus runs quite often -- an additional ten- to fifteen-minute metro ride to other parts of Rome. Overall, a good experience.

I have stayed here last week, with my school from Holland. The rooms are simple but good, you've got a safe deposit box, which you can use like a cupboard. You only must bring a padlock with you from home, because there aren't locks. Breakfast isn't so bad, you can take (free) one or two pieces of bread, a cup of tea/coffee, a very sweet fruit juice, and some butter and jam for your bread. You can also buy some extra stuff like bananas, fruit yogurt, cakes for one euro or less. I can recomend the fruit yoghurt, that's lovely! The only one big negative thing about this hostel is the sanitary conditions. Sometimes the toilets are exploded with sh*t, and the douches don't like very clean. At the boys' douches, there aren't curtains but they should have been customary. Anyway, there aren't also doors so you have to take a douche with sightseening. But you easily survive this hostel, and you can sleep well, but at night there is still a lot of noise from other guys, although it's forbidden after midnight. I can only say Rome is an awesome city with great curiosities and the atmosphere is cosy.

Some pictures are the same than Ostello Piero Rotta Hostel's in Milan. Check yourself at www.hostelz.com/hostel/91-Ostello-Piero-Rotta-Hostel-Milan. Rather strange.

Ok, first of all it took an hour at least to check us in. We had booked three rooms of six ages ago and they knew we were coming that day, but anyway, they had screwed up and we ended off getting a room for twenty people. Bravo folks. The room was ok, a bit shabby and cold, but we could live with it. We received clean sheets, but the blanket wasn't warm enough for the cold room. Large lockers, but no locks. There were a lot of showers, they were just disgusting. So were the toilets, but that's what happens when it's public. Breakfast was a roll of bread, hollow inside, jam, butter, a warm drink, and pineapple/grapefruit juice that was too sweet. They had a lot you could buy at reasonable prices though. It's a bit far away from the centre of the city, but the taxis are usually cheap and they know where the youth hostel is. Overall, a quite shabby youth hostel, but also one of the cheapest. You get what you pay for.

I stayed six nights in this place it wasn't good accommodation, but i can't say don't stay here because it is cheap compared to the other hostels in Rome. you have to be careful in this place what you forget (money, camera) you will not find. better not to ask italian guys if you need something, because they speak english very bad. the good thing in this place, the transportation system is very good in Rome.

Well of all the HI hostels I've stayed in (Europe or Canada) this was the worst, and at €18 a night was not worth it. (I made the mistake of pay for five nights before seeing the room.) The bed was hard, the room noisy and cold. I stayed in Early november, it was warmer outside than it was in the room. the lockers were in a terrible state, on my fourth day I forgot to take my camera with me, and accidentally left it on my bed. It was stolen. A month and a half of pictures gone. The one thing that saved me was the hot water in the showers (the showers were nasty dirty). Honestly find one of the other hostels in the City. There are plenty to chose from.

oh folks, this hostel was not that bad. i was quite afraid, but eventually i was satisfied. the staff is, true, not friendly as you would expect from people, who are dependent on your satisfaction, but actually you don't have to spend your evenings with them. otherwise, there were no problems, quite nice people, no thefts or whatever. clean rooms, really near to center, one of the cheapest hostels in Rome, warm water. breakfast sucks (really hard to eat, but then you're hungry no more), girls and boys separated.

Stayed at this hostel in December 2005, it was not that bad and I enjoyed it. It is a bit hard to find for the first time but the bus stops across the road. I was travelling alone and met three other travellers the same in my room they were really nice. It's a short walk to the Vatican City and from there not too far to other sites. The hostel is very big and found it to be very clean. Sheets were free. The bathrooms need a bit of attention as they were only cleaned once a day. Showers were hot but are a bit open with just shower curtains. I would stay in this place again, but I think like anything it's the people you meet there that make it a memorable place.

I went to Rome with a school trip and stayed in this youth hostel It was not that bad Beds: short and hard, but when you're tired, you don't notice ;) Lockers: huge, bring your own lock Noise: little Mosquito's: bring a lot of stuff to keep them away Breakfast: bread, jam, butter, fruit, 1 hot drink, 1 cold drink Staff: be nice to them and they'll be nice to you, quite normal Showers: horrible, cold, hardly any curtains (no doors either), no place to put your clothes Toilets: OK Other bathroom stuff: loads of mirrors and taps to wash yourself So, it's not too bad, but not like a luxerious hotel either.

Welcome to Italy! Yes, the line at the desk took 15-20 minutes per person to check in, yes there were flies and mosquitoes, yes at night every motorbike with a bad muffler that drove by woke up everyone in the dorm. I stayed in the all-female side, and a few girls were having trouble dealing with the conditions, so much so that they had a big crying party at 2:30 am. Hello! You're in Rome, what's there to cry about? The continental breakfast in the morning shouldn't be bothered with. You're in Italy, finding better food isn't difficult. Be nice to the staff and they will be nice to you back. Most of all, be patient. Italy isn't an instant gratification society like N. America. Take note the subway closes at 9 p.m., which can make it a little tricky to make it back in time for the lockout. I never did hear of anyone actually being locked out for the whole night though, since there is a person on the desk 24 hours. Also there is nowhere near the hostel to buy bus tickets, so buy some extra at the train station, or they will ticket you 50 euros for riding the bus without a ticket and march you over to the Bancomat to pay the fine. I saw it happen.

This is the WORST HOSTEL in the world!!! Do not put yourself through the pain! I stayed in this dump in April 2003 and it was three days of pure hell. We called this place the converted mental institution. With its concrete walls and lino floors it was so noisy. The huge open rooms are packed with beds so there's absolutely no privacy (Getting changed in the showers is a no-go zone!! Doing it with 20 other people watching is a far better option!). Oh and there's just one power point for half the floor!!! We had the pleasure of sharing our dorm with a psychotic night screamer. Three nights in a row of death screams followed by total silence and 19 sets of terrified eyes staring around, too scared to move their bodies. It was like something out of a horror movie. The bathrooms were filthy, the water's freezing. (Freezing enough for me to go without a shower for 3 whole days — never before and never again!!!), the shower curtains were either ripped or not there, and God help you if you need to do number 2's.... Save it for McDonalds or save it for the next town (requiring an enema because you've held on so long is a more appealing prospect). And I won't even mention the curfew, the rude bastards at the desk or the unbelievably bad food — just read the other comments for that. If you do find yourself unfortunate enough to be trapped here as we did, walk yourself to the alcohol van across the road, buy a bottle of vodka and drink it straight up, in the garden, and just pray you make it out alive.

This place is a total waste of money and it's the worst place I've stayed so far. If you at all have another possibility for choosing a different place to stay I highly recommend you do so. The staff were rude, inefficient and basically uncaring in general, even by a rundown hostel standard. The place is once again I repeat rundown and filthy. It's really not cool, and I didn't appreciate the curfew or the separated dorms either. The only good thing was the amount of backpackers you got to meet, as the traffic through the place was high, but everyone was of the same opinion. Foro De Craphole.

I am staying here right now. DON'T STAY HERE, it is a total rip-off. I am paying 21 euros a night for a place with a horrible location. You have to take a bus to a Metro station and then the Metro to get anywhere. Breakfast is a hard roll (and butter), juice, and either coffee or hot chocolate. You have to pay extra for cereal, jam, milk, or yogurt. The Internet is 5 euros an hour, but a guy from the restaurant showed me where this cheap Internet cafe was. The soda machine charges 1.30 for a can of soda, then doesn't give you any change so really it's 2 euros for a can. The receptionists take like 20 minutes to check someone in, and the blankets look like they haven't been washed in years, and don't even get me started on how gross the toilets are. Ick! It's not worth it, stay elsewhere!!!

Hey! My name is Lisa and I'm from Germany. I stayed here in this hostel for three nights (I came back yesterday night (June 10, 2005)). I can warn you about going there. We slept with 14 people in one room. The beds were dirty. I think the floor was cleaner than the beds. You have a wardrobe but no possibility to lock it. It's very loud in the rooms because there's a main street in front of the windows. The toilets, the showers and the washbasins were in one room. The toilets were filled with toilet paper all over the floor. Sh*t was in the toilets. Sometimes there was no toilet paper anywhere. The showers were either freezing or too hot. Everywhere midges were flying. You have no privacy. I was lucky in that I could sleep in the room with people in my class. The other part of the girls in my class had to share their room with people they didn't know! The hostel closes its doors at midnight so you have no chance to go out or something like that. The breakfast was ridiculous! You got one roll, butter and jam. The roll is hollow inside and hard outside. You had a plastic knife to do the roll. For every additional roll you had to pay 25 euro cents. An egg costs 30 euro cents. Yogurt costs 50 euro cents and muesli was 1 euro. You could have orange juice and hot chocolate/tea/coffee to drink. The orange juice was too sweet, and the hot chocolate left disgusting crumbs in the cup. All in all, it was horrible!! I am glad that we just had to sleep there and not to stay there for the whole day! It was worse than the military. Boys and girls had separate parts of the building and the men at the reception really kept an eye on every boy who tried to go upstairs to the girls. There was a drink machine, which offered Coke, Sprite and iced tea (but no water) for 1.30 euros. This is the only good thing about this hostel. To everyone who goes there: GOOD LUCK!!! If I were you I wouldn't do it!! If anyone wants to have more information or wants to see pictures that I took, write me: woelfchen_2004@yahoo.de

I stayed in this hostel a few years ago. Well, I hope they don't have the same people working there still. They were very rude and didn't speak/understand much English. I don't know if they still have the curfew, but they sure did when my friend and I stayed there! We came back about 30 minutes late, but they wouldn't let us in (even though there are people there all night through!) So we had to stay out all night. :( As for the rooms, there are way too many beds in them. It feels like being in the military...