Has anyone stayed at this hotel or has a recommendation? Other than being pricey, my concern is that the rooms facing the Pantheon's piazza would be quite noisey. Also, I would think any other room would face an interior wall which could be worse.

The Grand Hotel et de Minerve, in fact, is not on the Piazza della Rotonda but a few steps away. It shares a much quieter piazza with the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva and the Bernini elephant scupture holding up the small obelisk.

It is my first choice for a five star hotel in Rome, although it is not quite the same level of ultimate luxury as the Hassler, Eden, St. Regis Grand, etc.

I don't know the Hotel de al Minerve, but it doesn't appear to be on the Piazza della Rotonda, which is in front of the Pantheon. From the map, it looks to be behind the Pantheon.

We stayed at the Del Senato, which is comparably priced and located on the Piazza della Rotonda. We enjoyed it very much and had no problems with noise. Our room looked out on the Pantheon and the piazza.

I've stayed at the Del Senato also and found no problem with noise inside the hotel. It is a great location, you can walk to everything and I really enjoyed all the restaurants and shopping in the area. Hope this helps.

Luisa

I'm with Jim on this one. Lovely hotel, great location, no noise!

The Minerve is the only hotel we will stay while in Rome. It is a notch below the other luxury hotels in Rome, but several notches up in location. The lobby is quite nice and the roof garden in pleasant weather is wonderful with quite good views.

Once the shutters are closed and the drapes drawn, it is very quiet. It is stunning to awake in the morning, open everything up and enjoy the view of the Pantheon and the Piazza della Sopra Minerva.

It is interesting to note that the building directly across from the hotel is the building where Galileo was imprisoned.

A friend could not get rooms at the Minerve during April.

Peter

The Minerve....Pricey, but LOVELY roof garden and blissfully quiet bedrooms. Very pleasant hotel staff, more than adequately sized rooms. Excellent location.

I stayed there for just 3 nights in May '03. I was upgraded to a top floor room overlooking the Piazza della Minerva (straight ahead center was Bernini's elephant, to my right the Gothic church and ahead to the left was the back of the Pantheon).

I agree with most of the comments posted by my specific problem that trip was horrible jet lag. The first day I was desperate to get some sleep but was driven to distraction from the infernal shreaking of the gypsy's accordion - even with my windows shut I couldn't get rest. Then I was awake throughout the night and saw the most distubing site in all my 10 visits to Roma. The piazza was used as a makeshift car port in the late evening and I witnessed 4 good looking Italian men take position around the 5000 year old obelisk and "relieve" themselves before getting in their car and departing.

But you really can't beat the location - just be careful where you sit. :-)

There used to be parking in Piazza, but that is no longer the case.

Peter