Moved to the Europe Forum

Everyone has their own interpretation of “reasonable” prices, but sites like airbnb do often provide discounts for longterm rentals. Obviously, the further away you get from tourist hot spots, the more “reasonable” the rent. For example, for short term stays, we have found apartments, desirable for us, IN Rome for as little $100/day. I would expect 20-30% discount for a longterm stay. We have found nice places for almost half of that amount in areas further south and in smaller towns like Umbria.

AT&T has a 30 day plan that can be renewed, with free texts, discounted telephone calls but not super cheap (use Skype of FaceTime), and I believe 1GB of data. Or you can pay $10/day for a day pass (pay only on days you use it) which gives you same data you have at home, unlimited talk and text, I believe. Make sure your rental has wifi.

Here is one person’s experience traveling with a dog in Italy.

https://travelnuity.com/dog-friendly-italy/

I'd suggest looking at the towns on the regional train line into Rome. This way you can easily commute into Rome. If you want to visit many of the other cities you can then catch a connecting train at either of Termini or Tiburtina or even take the bus from Tiburtina.

April to June means Easter, April 25th,May 1st and June 2nd. All national holidays. I'm not sure how much of a discount to expect.

If you're staying 90 days, you'd be better off with an Italian phone plan, which would save you enough money to buy yourself a very nice second phone. My daughter, who's visiting me in Italy just now, got a plan that costs €5 per month. She spent another €5 to get extra data, and the initial cost of the plan was €25 altogether, which includes €10 initial credit. It's a little known company, but it uses the TIM network, which is the most reliable in Italy. The base plan includes 250-some minutes a month, which can be used to make calls to various countries, not only to Italian numbers. (I know the US is one of them.) You can also buy a monthly package of extra minutes. I don't remember the name of this plan, but there are lots of others.

If you stay in any town near Rome, you'll be on train lines heavily used by commuters, so you'll want to travel outside rush hours if you want to find a seat. The farther out you are, the easier it would be to find a seat in the morning. There are some nice towns along the coast north of Rome, and prices would be lower than in July and August. Other nice areas are the Castelli Romani area, a region of lakes and castles south of Rome. Lake Bracciano is another nice place north of Rome. All of these are in the same region as Rome, so you can get inexpensive monthly regional passes for travel into Rome, including travel within the city.

Small dogs are welcome in many restaurants and in most hotels.

does your dog have a passport? Seriously what if anything must you do to have your dog enter the EU if anything - just show up in Rome with it?

What kind of dog? Large? Small? Can he/she go in a carrier?

Yes, your dog needs a doggie passport, or some kind of document, attesting that all EU-required shots are up-to-date, and the dog also needs a microchip. If you're planning to travel to another EU country after Italy, you may need an additional EU passport, which you can get in Italy. (My daughter needed one to take her US dog to Germany after visiting me in Italy, but I don't know if Germany is a special case.)

Small dogs in a carrier usually can be placed under your seat on a flight.