33 min
35 min
A · B · 5 · 14
3.8 / km²
5
4
2,188
−8% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
The blocks immediately around Termini, particularly Via Giolitti and the streets north of the station, are the specific place Rome's safety warnings mean. Book uphill towards Santa Maria Maggiore and take a taxi after midnight.
Staying in Esquilino
Esquilino is the hill south of Termini, centred on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. It is the best-connected address in Italy: metro A and B cross under the station, four tram lines meet at Porta Maggiore, and the airport train and every intercity service leave from your doorstep. If Rome is one stop on a longer trip, that is worth real money.
It is also a genuinely interesting district rather than a dead one. Piazza Vittorio has the city's best food market, Santa Maria Maggiore is at the top of the hill, and the streets east of the piazza are where Rome's Chinese and South Asian communities cook, which is a relief after four days of carbonara.
The reason it is MIXED is the two blocks immediately around the station. Via Giolitti, Piazza dei Cinquecento and the streets north of them are where the guidebooks' warnings are actually about, and at 01:00 they are not somewhere to walk with a suitcase. The gap between a room there and a room five minutes uphill by Santa Maria Maggiore is about fifteen euros a night and the entire character of the stay.
What works
- Cheapest central rooms in Rome by a clear margin
- Metro A and B, four tram lines and every mainline train at Termini
- Mercato Esquilino is the best and cheapest food market in the city
- Real Chinese, Bangladeshi and Indian kitchens, which Rome otherwise lacks
What does not
- Thirty-five minutes on foot to Piazza Navona, further than it looks
- The blocks around the station are the ones every warning is about
- Hotel stock north of Termini is coach-party grade and priced to match
- Piazza Vittorio's arcades collect litter and rough sleeping at night
Termini (the main railway station), Esquilino, bus line 64 (Termini to San Pietro), and the Trevi fountain are well known for pickpockets, so take extra care in these areas.Rome is generally a safe place, even for women traveling alone. However, there have been rape cases around the Roma Termini train station, so be careful especially at night time.The area to the southwest of Termini railway station has numerous large hotels; these are used in particular by groups and coach parties. On the other side of the station are many smaller, fairly inexpensive, hotels that are popular with individual travellers.