DOMUS SESSORIANA
A warm welcome and a unique decor for this hotel located in the former convent of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Jerusalem.
In the former convent of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the Domus Sessoriana houses 81 single, double, triple and some quadruple rooms, located in the monks' former cells. Access is via long corridors characteristic of the convent's original architecture. On the4th floor there's a lovely terrace with a view of the Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano and the former monks' garden inside the Anfiteatro Castrense. Reception is open 24 hours a day, and you'll be greeted in French!
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Members' reviews on DOMUS SESSORIANA
The ratings and reviews below reflect the subjective opinions of members and not the opinion of The Little Witty.
Staff friendly and helpful.
50 euro taxi from airport to hotel, this is a must as the metro is rammed, and gets you there in 25mins.
Good restaurants nearby and I do recommend Marco G's just a ten min walk away. Plenty of E bikes & scooters to hire to whizz you around the city, though I do recommend keeping to the bike lanes or parks as roads are busy and hectic.
My room (P11) isn't recommended - it was obviously one of the older ones needing brightening up. It was small and dark, with one small window; some black scuff marks on the wall. Nowhere to put gel or soap etc in the shower. The shower itself worked fine but I'd have preferred hotter water. Also there was no standard Euro plug point available for recharging phones - reception had to provide me with an adaptor. See room photo.
My room safe didn't work initially - I needed 2 visits to reception to get that sorted - it got fixed at the end of day 2. The toilet flush was temperamental too - a handyman came and did some fixing and it worked for a few flushes after that, then stopped again. I went out and left it, when I came back it worked once - but didn't want to flush for a second time.
No wifi in the room - only reception and the roof terrace. The pictures of the terrace show what's probably the best feature in the hotel. Nice views over the rooftops. They didn't serve breakfast there during my stay - I guess it's possible in the warmer months.
I didn't rate the location, there isn't anything nearby except the interesting (and very ornate) old papal basilica St Giovanni in Laterans. It's 10 minutes walk along the road through the small park. That church is worth a visit, typical "no expense spared" - lavish fittings and top quality marble - see photo.
The nearest major sight is the colosseum, a good 2 km (1.5 miles) away. The forum is around 3 km, and the Pantheon 4km.
Spagna and Trevi fountain both around 3.5 km and St Peter's square is around 6 km.
The Church curiously attached to the hotel (St Croce in Gerusalem) is also worth a visit as it's one of the 7 pilgrimage churches in Rome. It has relics supposedly taken from the crucifixion - a piece of wood from the cross and a nail that was used to impale Jesus's wrist. The church is oddly sandwiched between the two hotel wings. This means going from reception through a connecting door in the church wall into the entrance to the church, then through another door in the opposite wall into the hotel block. It also means that when the church itself is open, anyone could access the hotel block without being noticed by reception - they simply walk into the church entrance then through the unsurveillanced door in the church wall. It also means that the accommodation block becomes a sort of gloomy austere labyrinth - it's around 5 minutes to get from room P11 to the breakfast bar tucked away at the back of the old monastery cloister wing. And I got lost 3 times trying to find the right exit!
I didn't like my stay in this hotel and won't recommend it. Too austere, it felt a bit like I was a monk for a week! The area it's in has a run-down unpleasant ambience. There weren't any typical trattorias nearby - except one nice small cafe, Caffe Italia. The nearest eateries were rather small functional bars or restaurants with plastic tables and chairs and little appeal. Or tourist trappy cheap eateries with pictorial menus outside.