# Staying in Castro Pretorio & Termini, Rome: Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/castro-pretorio
Every Rome district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome.md

Termini's northern side: the national library, the barracks the rione is named after, and the cheapest beds with a metro station under them.

Facts: 35 min walk to Piazza Navona; 32 min to the airport; price €€; best for budget, solo travellers, business trips; lines A, B, 5, 14.
Safety: Mixed after dark. The blocks touching the station draw pickpockets by day and persistent hawkers and rough sleeping at night. It is wearing rather than dangerous, and it thins out within two streets north towards Piazza Indipendenza.

Castro Pretorio wraps the north and east of Termini station: the Praetorian barracks that gave it its name, the national library, Piazza Indipendenza and the streets of nineteenth-century blocks now largely turned into hotels and hostels.

The argument for it is entirely practical, and it is a good one. Both metro lines meet at Termini, the Leonardo Express reaches Fiumicino in thirty-two minutes, every regional and intercity train leaves from your doorstep, and rooms cost half what the historic centre charges. For an early flight, a rail-based trip, or a first night in Italy, nothing else comes close.

What you accept is a station district. Wikivoyage names Termini among the four worst spots in Rome for pickpockets; the streets immediately around the station attract rough sleeping and persistent hawkers after dark, and nothing here is old or attractive. Piazza Navona is a thirty-five minute walk. Book north of the station towards Piazza Indipendenza rather than the blocks on the Esquilino side, and treat it as a transport decision, because that is what it is.

What works:
- Both metro lines and every mainline train under the district
- Leonardo Express to Fiumicino in 32 minutes from Termini
- Rooms at about half central-Rome rates, at any star level
- Late-night food and 24-hour services, which the centre lacks

What does not:
- Wikivoyage names Termini among the worst places for pickpockets
- The station surroundings draw hawkers and rough sleeping after dark
- Nothing to see, and about 35 minutes on foot to Piazza Navona
- Traffic, noise and coach fumes on every side of the station

Hotels in Castro Pretorio & Termini: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D2103%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Rome

- [Monti](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/monti): Recommended. Rome's oldest rione, on the hill behind the Forum. The Colosseum is ten minutes downhill, and the bars on Piazza della Madonna dei Monti still fill with people who live here.
- [Celio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/celio): Recommended. The green hill on the Colosseum's south side. You can see the amphitheatre from the street and still sleep through the night.
- [Parione](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/parione): Recommended. Piazza Navona at one end, Campo de' Fiori at the other, and nothing in between more than five minutes away. The most central address in Rome, with the noise that comes with it.
- [Ponte](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/ponte): Recommended. The riverside strip from Piazza Navona to the bridges: antique shops on Via dei Coronari, and Castel Sant'Angelo five minutes over the water.
- [Pigna & the Pantheon](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/pigna): Recommended. The Pantheon, Largo Argentina and the streets between them. The most central address in Rome, and the one Wikivoyage tells first-timers to take.
- [Sant'Eustachio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/sant-eustachio): Recommended. The block between Piazza Navona and the Pantheon: the Senate, a famous coffee bar and about six streets. You cannot stay more centrally than this.
- [Regola & Campo de' Fiori](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/regola): Recommended. Campo de' Fiori, Piazza Farnese and the lanes down to the Tiber. A market square by day, a drinking square by night, and everything else within fifteen minutes.
- [Sant'Angelo & the Ghetto](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/sant-angelo): Recommended. Rome's smallest rione: the Jewish Ghetto between the synagogue and the Theatre of Marcellus. Central, quiet at night, and the best food in the old city.
- [Campo Marzio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/campo-marzio): Recommended. The Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo and the Via Condotti shops. The best-looking streets in Rome and the most expensive rooms, in a district that empties once the shops shut.
- [Colonna & Via del Corso](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/colonna): Recommended. Via del Corso, the parliament and the column that names the rione. Rome's shopping spine, ten minutes from the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain both.
- [Trevi](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/trevi): Mixed. The Trevi Fountain and the blocks around it. Two metro stations and every sight in walking distance, at the price of living inside a queue.
- [Ludovisi & Via Veneto](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/ludovisi): Mixed. Via Veneto and the grand hotels along it. The most expensive address in Rome, sixty years after the film that made it famous.
- [Trastevere](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/trastevere): Recommended. Cobbles, ivy and a hundred restaurants on the far side of the river. Everything a first trip to Rome is supposed to look like, and awake until two in the morning.
- [Prati](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/prati): Recommended. A planned grid of apartment blocks, cafes and law firms behind the Vatican. Metro line A, no crowds, and almost nothing to see, which is the trade you are making.
- [Borgo & the Vatican](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/borgo): Mixed. The few streets between Castel Sant'Angelo and St Peter's Square. You wake up next to the basilica, and everything else in Rome is a walk away.
- [Esquilino](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/esquilino): Mixed. The cheapest central rooms in Rome, and they are cheap because they are beside Termini. Every train and both metro lines stop here, and so does most of the city's pickpocketing.
- [Testaccio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/testaccio): Mixed. The old slaughterhouse district, and still the best place in Rome to eat like a Roman. Half an hour on foot from the centre, with a club strip cut into the side of an artificial hill.
- [Ripa & the Aventine](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/ripa): Recommended. The Aventine hill and the Circus Maximus below it. Orange groves, a famous keyhole and the quietest streets within half an hour of the Forum.
- [Ostiense](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/ostiense): Mixed. Gasworks, a 1920s garden suburb and the clubs on Via Libetta. The cheapest beds with a metro line in Rome, an hour on foot from anything you came to see.
- [EUR](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/eur): Avoid. Mussolini's marble office district, six kilometres south of the centre. Cheap four-star rooms, a metro line, a lake, and nothing at all that you came to Rome for.
- [Campitelli & the Capitol](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/campitelli): Recommended. The Capitol, the Forum and the Palatine, with a handful of quiet residential streets tucked behind them. The most central address in ancient Rome, and one of the hardest to find a room in.
- [Sallustiano](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/sallustiano): Mixed. Ministries, embassies and late-19th-century villini between Via Veneto and Via XX Settembre. Hotel rooms at centro storico prices, half an hour on foot from the centro storico.
- [San Saba](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/san-saba): Recommended. The Little Aventine: a 1909 garden city, the Baths of Caracalla and a lot of green. Quiet, safe and on metro B, with very few rooms to choose from.
- [Flaminio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/flaminio): Mixed. The long strip north of Piazza del Popolo along Via Flaminia: the MAXXI, the Auditorium and the Flaminio stadium. Flat and quiet, and a tram ride from anything older than 1911.
- [Pinciano & Villa Borghese](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/pinciano): Mixed. Villa Borghese and the embassy streets north of it. The Borghese Gallery is inside the district and so is Rome's best central park, with the whole centro storico on the far side of it.
- [Nomentano](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/nomentano): Mixed. Villa Torlonia, Piazza Bologna and the university hospitals along Via Nomentana. A comfortable Roman residential district, on metro B and fifty minutes on foot from the centre.
- [San Lorenzo](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/san-lorenzo): Mixed. The student quarter behind Termini, next to La Sapienza. Rome's cheapest good night out and cheap rooms fifteen minutes from the station, with the noise and wear that come with both.
- [Pigneto](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/pigneto): Mixed. Pasolini's old neighbourhood east of Porta Maggiore, now Rome's bar street for people who live here. The cheapest flats in this guide, an hour on foot from the centre.
- [San Giovanni](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/san-giovanni): Mixed. The residential district outside Porta San Giovanni, along Via Appia Nuova. Metro A to Spagna and the Vatican, neighbourhood prices, and fifty minutes on foot to Piazza Navona.
- [Monteverde](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/monteverde): Mixed. The hill above Trastevere, and the large quartiere behind it. Villa Pamphili, tram 8 down to the river and direct trains to Fiumicino, for about a fifth less than Trastevere.
- [Aurelio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/aurelio): Mixed. The district behind the Vatican walls, along Via Aurelia and Via Gregorio VII. Its hotels all sell St Peter's; from most of them it is a metro ride or a long walk over the hill.
- [Trionfale](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-rome/trionfale): Mixed. North of the Vatican Museums and up Monte Mario. Cipro on metro A is five minutes from the museum entrance; the rest of the district climbs away from everything.