My wife and I just returned from Italy this week from our honeymoon. We arrived at Cicerone 28 on Aug 19th. Michelle greeted us and immediately told us that we had to stay at their sister B&B because the bathroom wasnt working. I was very skeptical about this because it seemed pretty ironic that it happened the day we arrived so be careful. The first night was awful! We slept on a bed that was basically a cot and a hard cheap mattress. It was so miserable that we complained and to Michelle's credit she gave us another room. The bed was much softer, however there was the smell of smoke in the room nonstop due to the huge vent in the corner. My wife can't stand the smell so we had to cover the vent with a blanket. The room was right next to the street and was very noisy, had we stayed in the original cicerone, this would most likely have been avoided because its on the 5th floor. We were there 4 miserable days and it made our Rome experience a lot less enjoyable. The staff however was as helpful as could be when Michelle was not around. We could not wait to leave this place. Make sure you don't stay at their sister B&B if you plan to stay here.

Do NOT believe the website which specifically states that all the rooms have en suite bathrooms on the 'Rates' page. It is simply not true! We stayed in Room 4 for three nights. When we got there, we realized that we didn't have a bathroom in our room. We didn't bother to unpack and waited for Michelle to arrive. She explained that we did have a private bathroom ... down the hall ... but that there was no key because it had been lost. She assured us though that we could leave our toiletries in the bathroom because nobody else used that bathroom and it was exclusively for us. The sign on the door of the bathroom does NOT say Privato! It simply says Toilette. There are two other rooms closer to it (5 & 6). Inside the bathroom, someone kept their contact solution and hair spray. This was clearly NOT a bathroom that only we would be using. Michelle did finally give us what she said was her only key.

For anyone thinking the lack of a true en suite isn't so bad, consider the following:

- Our room had air conditioning. The bathroom does NOT so was very hot.

- If you have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, you need to find a robe and the keys (loud skeleton key lock in your room) while trying not to wake up your spouse. Good luck with that one.

- If you have 'shy bowels', you may be in for some discomfort as the young lady preparing the breakfast does so right outside your bathroom window. You can hear her running the water, the toaster pop, etcetera. She therefore can hear any noises you may make.

Note that this is clearly not mentioned in the website and there is no lower price for the greatly reduced comfort or privacy.

The "rich breakfast" is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, a croissant, a yogurt, a glass of juice, and a quite nice hot drink (coffee, hot chocolate, espresso, etc).

I have no idea about the other rooms but the bed in Room 4 is incredibly hard. It appears to be an unsprung mattress pad on a wooden slat base.

Michelle herself is charming and very helpful with things to see in Rome. The location is good with an easy walk to Vatican or the many bridges over the Tiber. The room itself was nice and, with the addition of an en suite, would have been an entirely different experience.

Bottom line is that we felt ripped off by the lack of an air conditioned, private en suite. Had the website stated that some rooms didn't have en suites and I just overlooked it, shame on me. Under 'Our Rooms', the website does simply say, "and private bathroom". However, if you look at the Rates page, the description for every room type says, "en suite bathroom" which is untrue. Shame on B&B Cicerone. We will return to Rome but not here.

Michelle who runs this place was fantastic, spoke fluent English (a rare thing, at least in our experience) and went extra length to make our stay as comfortable as possible.
Besides Rome, we had stayed in Venice and Florence and have not been that lucky with our other hosts. They either spoke almost no English, or were very indifferent/rude.

The b&b is a very clean, safe (there is a concierge downstairs) and quiet place. There is a kitchenette with tea, coffee, fridge full of juice and yogurt. There is a fridge in your room too.

After having traveled 31 countries and stayed in many places, I highly recommend Cicerone for the reasons mentioned above, cause they are not so easy to come by.

It is close to Vatican, about 15 minutes. There is WiFi and cable TV.
Nice breakfast - tea/coffee, pastries, sandwiches and yogurt - is served in your room from 8am to 10am (you just tell them when you want it).

I travelled with my adult daughter to Rome for the first time. Through Trip Advisor we found B&B Cicerone 28, and how grateful I am for that. The entrance hall was just amazing, through a very large wooden door and a lovely old-fashioned lift. The location was perfect in every way... safe, near buses, metro and restaurants and very quiet at night. We were on the fifth floor, which meant we had privacy and were able to leave the windows open with worrying about security. The only downside was that my daughter and I had to share a double bed which was en-suite, or take a twin bedded room, which had a private bathroom along the hall - we opted for the double bed room, which is why I have only rated the room at a 4*.

The breakfast was enormous and there were snacks left in the room, and we were able to put other provisions, including wine! in the fridge in the room. There was a small kitchenette for communal use at the end of the corridor where we could make coffee or tea whenever we wanted, which proved invaluable.

Michelle was so helpful and our room was always cleaned very well each day.

We were one of the unfortunates marooned by the volcanic ash, but Michelle could not have been more helpful. We were able to continue to stay at the B&B on a daily basis until we were able to sort out our return to the UK, and Michelle was very kind and considerate toward us.

I recommend this B&B very highly and would stay there again if I were lucky enough to return to Rome at some time in the future.