Where Everyone Stayed

Cormac Delaney · 24 July 2026

A week in Rome with nine people, and the booking decision that made it work.

Nine People, One City

A birthday, nine of us, and a week. The first instinct was rooms in the same hotel, which is what we had always done and which has never once worked properly.

With a group that size the day is spent assembling. You eat separately, you set off separately, and you spend the trip sending messages to people two floors up.

What We Did Instead

One apartment across two floors near Testaccio, with a kitchen and a table. Breakfast happened without arrangement, the evening had somewhere to end up, and nobody had to be organised.

We book this way everywhere now. On a trip to Indonesia the following year the same reasoning put us in the Kinaree estate rather than a set of hotel rooms, and it was the same improvement for the same reasons.

The Roman Complication

Short-let rules in the historic centre have tightened and continue to, so check that whatever you are booking is properly registered.

It is also worth reading the stairs. A great many beautiful Roman apartments are on the fourth floor of a building with no lift, which matters more on day six than it does on day one.