Camping Village Roma

Camping Village Roma is a sprawling property with both wide-open green spaces and paved sections for accommodation. In fact, it is so large that spray-painted bicycles are used to color-code locations within the campground. If Rome weren’t a worldly mecca of culture, art and food, Camping Village Roma could be a welcome escape from city life. When at capacity this seemingly isolated campground rivals the population of small Italian towns, with its beige tents, chalets, and bungalows numbering in the hundreds.

Although the reception building is your typical, plain, rectangular wood-paneled building, the casual Ciao Bella main restaurant, bar, and Pool Bar have definite style to them. Carefully chosen light fixtures with faces of famous composers hang from the ceiling in the main restaurant, the white awning over the seating at the beach-themed Pool Bar bare geometric cutouts, and red, white and green picnic tables wait outside the gelateria -- even if they are a bit rundown. Obstructed views due to nearby tall buildings ruin the isolated vibe.

Off one of Rome’s main thoroughfares, Via Aurelia, behemoth-sized Camping Village Roma is just over one mile from the city center. However, unless you’ve self-driven into the campground, it will take an unreliable pay-per-ride shuttle that leaves "every 15 minutes" or three public buses to reach central Rome. It's a good thing the campground has extensive facilities, as the inconvenient location means many visitors will be spending a lot of time on the premises. Those hoping to use this as a home base for visiting Rome may be disappointed.

Ciampino Airport is about 22 miles from the campground and Leonardo di Vinci Airport is 15 miles away. A campground shuttle to and from these airports can be arranged in advance for a fee.

Beyond spaces provided for campervans or pitched tents, Camping Village Roma has three semi-permanent structures available, rising in comfort from cottage tents to chalets to bungalows. Cottage tents are very basic, framed tents with solid floors raised slightly off the ground, and can be locked for security. Inside there are basic IKEA bunk beds and single beds (tents sleep up to three) with linens and soap included. These require the use of shared bathroom facilities. Bungalows are simple rooms with hard walls, small bedside shelves, curtains, lighting, air-conditioning, heating, and linens. These units sleep up to three and have private bathrooms with showers. Chalets, for true glampers, are similar to mobile homes and contain two separate sleeping areas, dining rooms, kitchenettes, two bathrooms with shower, air-conditioning, heating, and electricity. Both the bungalows and chalets have private outdoor patios.

Don’t expect much in terms of decor here; it is camping after all, and there have been concerns over the cleanliness of rooms.

Camping Village Roma is more of a glampground than campground. Facilities such as a coin-operated laundry room, fully stocked grocery store that goes way beyond the essentials, souvenir shop, restaurants, bars, enormous meeting room, and Internet area help ensure that guests don’t have to leave unless they want to.

To entertain the little ones, Camping Village Roma has a decent-size playground resting within a leafy garden full of colorful plastic and wooden structure and slides. There is also a large, clean swimming pool where guests will find a permanently parked, bright red Camping Village Fiat. Guests will also find two smaller hot tubs here as well as basic white plastic sun chairs.

Adults get their pick of two watering holes: namely, the al fresco Pool Bar or the sleek-as-you-can-get-at-a-campsite Ciao Bella Bar nightclub, which has a glittering disco ball, smooth dance floor, projector, and fancy lighting system.