ITALY-The official thread!!

I would definatly recommend Venice and the gondola ride it was AMAZING!!! I fell in love with that city!!

another LIW bride suggested to check out www.contiki.com

I checked them out and they have awesome deals !!!!!!!

Let me know what you think

DH and I did 16 days in Italy this past June/July for our HM... the most perfect and magical trip we have ever taken. Here is the list of hotels we stayed in during our HM.

Rome... Albergo del Senato (room with balcony overlooking Pantheon)

Sorrento.. Hotel Minerva (saved with the book - room with balcony overlooking Bay of Naples)

Assisi.. Hotel San Francesco (room with view of St. Francis and Umbra country side)

Siena.. Palazzo Ravizza (Frescoed room with partial view of Tuscany country side - higher rooms have full view of country side)

Florence... Guelfo Bianco

Venice... Hotel Ala (on a canal)


For anyone researching Italy (or even other destinations in Europe) I highly recommend getting the Rick Steve's books. For Italy he has one on Italy in general and then several other ones that cover specific regions. Some hotels give you a percentage off you rates when you mention his book (I didn't use a TA and booked everything myself thru the hotels). He reviews the hotels, restraints and sights which makes it handy when traveling around. Several restraints we went to also gave discounts when they saw our books. Definitely worth checking out!

m&m great info! thanks so much--a couple more questions: did u book the hotels online or call them; were they hotels that your book suggested? and you said you booked all of your excursions from the hotels right?
reading your post makes me want to be in italy right now!!
PS-how did you get around italy-train/car??
i have so many questions for you but i don't want to bombard u all at once! so i will ask some more later!!

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Posted by 2003wedding.

m&m great info! thanks so much--a couple more questions: did u book the hotels online or call them; were they hotels that your book suggested? and you said you booked all of your excursions from the hotels right?
reading your post makes me want to be in italy right now!!
PS-how did you get around italy-train/car??
i have so many questions for you but i don't want to bombard u all at once! so i will ask some more later!!

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Not all the hotels we stayed at were in his book. When I started researching Italy I used Fodors.com, tripadvisor.com and I believe venre.com. My SIL gave me the Rick Steve’s book for Christmas later that year. I used the reviews from the websites and the book to make a list of our top choices. Our main concern was that the hotels were centrally localized to everything. Luxury was not a top priority for us but I wanted something rememberable. Rome, Siena and Venice I reserved better rooms in. By better I mean canal view in Venice, Balcony view over the Pantheon in Rome or a frescoed ceiling room in Siena. All the hotels were better than anything I have stayed at here in the US. Any questions I had I used the forum on Fodor’s to answer (they are very helpful on there). Once I had that list I emailed all the hotels and if they came from his book I mentioned it to see if they would offer us anything. I told all the hotels it was our HM. They respond fairly quickly and are very helpful. They were very patient with all my questions and change of dates etc. Once I had all the quotes I reserved over the email with a credit card.

We booked the Academia over the net during our stay in Sorrento and the Uffizi through our hotel. I forgot to do these before we left for Italy. If you know when you will be there and definitely want to see the museums in Florence I suggest booking before you leave. The lines are ridiculously long.

We picked up a rental car our last day in Rome and drove everywhere until Florence, where we dropped it off and 3 days later took the train to Venice. The roads and signs are so easy to navigate but for me the speed was the only thing I was uncomfortable with but after awhile you get used to it. My DH was in heaven with it. We liked the freedom to travel as we wanted, for example we spent 3 days in Siena but 2 of them were traveling around. 1 day we went to Pisa and then took the coastal route back to Siena, the next day we drove around Chianti and the vineyards, visiting small towns and even having a picnic on the roadside overlooking a vast vineyard.

Please if you have questions let me know…… I love talking about it and this makes me remember so much of our stay there.

thank you thank you thank you M&M!!! such great info! i also want to stay centrally located to everything and although i want a nice/clean hotel---i don't need the best b/c i plan on sightseeing most of the day/night anyway....... i will look into your hotels and get prices and i will also check out fodors.com......i really appreciate you taking the time to write all that info. and when i think of more questions--i will post them!!! thanks again! going to italy is my dream trip!

I have been too Italy since I was little so many times, since we have relatives there. But I never traveled North of Florence. My fiance and I are considering Venice for our honeymoon.

Can someone recommend any type of resort type places near the sea. We don't mind having to stay on the outskirts of Venice and take another mode of transportation in. Do these resort type places even exist there?

TIA

Going to the Almafi Coast and Rome!

Maybe Cinque Terre too, but that hasn't been booked yet

not me I wish

My rooms are booked in Positano and Rome.
Looking into trains to Cinque Terre from Rome and hotels in the area

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Posted by bridy06

My rooms are booked in Positano and Rome.
Looking into trains to Cinque Terre from Rome and hotels in the area

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I'm not going to Italy for my honeymoon but I've been there numerous times to visit family and I just wanted to tell u that u made 2 wonderful choices with Cinque Terre and Positano. I went to Cinque Terre for 1 day about 3 years ago and it was really beautiful and I stayed at Positano for 3 days and I have to say that I've never in my life seen a place that is more breathtaking. If anyone ever has any questions on Italy or Sicily feel free to FM and maybe i can help

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Posted by bridy06

My rooms are booked in Positano and Rome.
Looking into trains to Cinque Terre from Rome and hotels in the area

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what hotels did u book? and will you only use trains to get around or rent a car???

bump--any progress ladies!!??
i am still trying to gather info--haven't booked a thing yet!AAHH!

we booked our airfare and our hotel in Milan.

We still need a hotel in lake como and in rome and to figure out how to get from milan to rome.

should we rent a car or take the train???