Argentario Home is in Montesacro, a residential neighbourhood north-east of the centre of Rome, a short walk from Piazza Sempione. The flat is in a private residential building and has its own entrance. It is a convenient base for seeing the city — the direct buses to Termini and Piazza Venezia leave five minutes away on foot — and a quiet one to come back to and sleep.
The neighbourhood
Montesacro was built in the 1920s to a design by Gustavo Giovannoni: a garden city on the English model, made of low villas among the greenery, with its own school, church, post office and park. Piazza Sempione is its theatrical entrance, with buildings by Giovannoni and by Innocenzo Sabbatini. It is not a tourist area, it is an area where people live: by day the streets are quiet, in the evening the bars and restaurants around the square stay open.
A couple of steps away is the Ponte Nomentano, one of the most important Roman bridges of the republican age in the city: tufa and travertine, fortified in the eighth century with two towers and altered until the fifteenth. Tradition has it that Charlemagne and Pope Leo III met here in the year 800. Beside the bridge stands the mausoleum known as that of Menenius Agrippa.
The bridge is also the gateway to the Aniene valley, the green belt that follows the river into the city: meadows, pine woods and paths along the water, ten minutes on foot from the house. It is the place for a morning run or a walk after dinner, without taking any transport and without the feeling of being in Rome.
How to get here
From the airports
From Fiumicino the direct train reaches Termini in about half an hour, then you carry on with the 90 Express. Some regional trains stop at Tiburtina instead: from there take metro line B and change at Bologna for the B1 branch, direction Conca d’Oro. From Ciampino there are buses to Termini, usually around forty minutes. By taxi the time depends on the traffic.
By public transport
The neighbourhood has three direct links with the centre, none of them requiring a change: the 90 Express to and from Termini, the 60 Express to and from Piazza Venezia, and metro line B for the Colosseum and the Forums.
From Termini the 90 Express is the better choice: it stops at Piazza Sempione, 450 metres from the house — five minutes on foot — and takes roughly as long as the metro. The 60 Express passes from the same point, linking the neighbourhood with Piazza Venezia and stopping in front of the gate of Villa Torlonia, six stops further along the same Via Nomentana.
The metro is better the other way round, for going into the centre: from Conca d’Oro station line B reaches the Colosseum and the Forums without a change. The stop is further away though, a little over a kilometre, a quarter of an hour on foot: for arriving with luggage the 90 Express remains the best option. Watch the branch, because line B splits: for Conca d’Oro you need a B1 train, marked on the platform.
Other lines run down towards Porta Pia and connect the neighbourhood with the stations. At night the 90N leaves from Piazza Venezia and passes through Piazza Sempione, where there is also a taxi rank. In the evening the service thins out: for late returns it is worth allowing for a taxi.
By car
The neighbourhood is reached from the ring road and lies outside the restricted traffic zone of the historic centre. On-street parking is free, although in the evening finding a space can take a little patience.
In the area
Around the house there is everything you need not to depend on the centre.
- Supermarkets on Viale Adriatico and Via Gargano, and two neighbourhood markets open in the morning, in Piazza Menenio Agrippa and on Viale Adriatico
- A pharmacy open 24 hours a day, every day, on Via Nomentana, plus two more in the area
- Bars, pizzerias and ice-cream shops between Piazza Menenio Agrippa, Piazza Sempione and Viale Gottardo
- The Aniene valley park ten minutes on foot, with paths along the river
- A launderette nearby; there is a washing machine in the flat anyway
- A taxi rank in Piazza Sempione and free on-street parking
- Direct buses to Termini and Piazza Venezia five minutes on foot; Conca d’Oro metro station a quarter of an hour away
The address and your arrival
We are at via Monte Argentario 5, in Montesacro. Directions and the instructions for letting yourself in with the smart lock are sent to you by email before your arrival, once the booking is confirmed. Check-in is from 15:00, check-out by 10:00.
If before booking you want to know how far a particular point in the city is, write to [email protected]. What the flat is like is told on the page The flat.