Verito

My husband and I will be visiting Italy for the first time from November 25 to December 3rd.
We are planing to spend 4 days in Rome, 2 days in Florence, staying at Hotel Delle Nazioni, and 2 days in Venice, staying at Hotel Le Boulevard.

Have anyone stayed at these hotels before?

We will be taking the train to go from one city to the other one. Is it better to buy the tickets in advance or just get them at the train station?

Also, is it worth it to get museum passes in these 3 cities?

Thanks!!

mclaurie

Verito, I note you're a new poster. Welcome!! I also saw Ira gave you info on the train tickets and the museums. I'll just add for Venice you should consider a vaparetto pass. Info on options can be found at actv.it Probably a one day pass should work b/c it's actually good for 24 hrs from the first time you use it. The Secret Itinerary Tours must be booked ahead (and your hotel can also do it for you) but you don't have to take that tour to see the Doges Palace.

Tripadvisor.com is a great website for checking reviews on hotels. If you type the names of the hotels in the search box above here you will also find previous threads that have reference to these hotels, but tripadvisor usually has all hotels listed.

You should know Venice has been having lots of flooding. Just read on another post there's a flood predicted for earlier in November.

You should figure out how to get to your hotel from the train station. There should be directions on the hotel's website.

Have fun!

RufusTFirefly

Hotel Le Boulevard isn't in Venice proper. It's on the Lido; the beach resort island. Some people don't mind the difference in atmosphere from old Venice, but others do. You would have to take a vaporetto or a water taxi from the Lido to the main part of Venice each day.

beachy1

Verito, should you decided against staying on Lido, I can recommend La Pensione Accademia in the Dorsoduro district. I stayed there last month and LOVED IT!! I agree with Ira on the train tix -- just buy them at the station. If you don't feel like standing in line, there are ticket machines in the terminal which are very easy to use. You can request class, choose seats, etc. And I would recommend going 1st class! My sister and I did one leg 2nd class and the rest 1st, and the difference in comfort and spaciousness between 1st and 2nd class was noticeable!! Worth the price difference in my opinion.

DianeP

We bought our train tickets at a travel agency which was around the corner from our hotel in Rome. We bought all our tickets there for our entire vacation. They did not "upcharge" the tickets and we found this a very convenient option.
Our hotel gave us this info. Once we had all our tickets puchased we could relax and not have to worry about buying tickets at the train stations in Florence or Venice.
Enjoy your trip!

Verito

We are finally leaving to Italy tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you for the information, it really helped us a lot.

In 2 weeks I will tell you how we liked Italy.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!!!