Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Back from Paris - Venice & Rome

Not going to bore you to tears - just a few notes... Paris Stayed at Duquesne Eiffel a 3-star hotel in the 7th. Loved the location, quiet area just a few minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower and Rue Cler. Our room (55) had a balcony with an awesome view of the tower. You can see it on their website. They were extremely helpful and pleasant. Had great dinners at Fontaine du Mars and Clementine (both within walking distance) and at Georges in the Pompidou Center I had a Lobster Risotto to die for. Sales sales sales all over the place. We had a ball shopping - got great prices between the sales and the exchange rate. Dress: Like in any other city. There were shorts, jeans, lots of capris. I even wore my Nike Prestos one day and did not get shot! We flew Air France to Venice - nice short hop. in Venice we stayed at La Calcina in Dorsoduro. Really nice hotel, again great staff, right on the Guidecca Canal. We had a nice size room with a view over the canal. Hotel has a deck on the canal which we used daily for breakfast (included with the room) and for drinks in the afternoon after our feet gave out. Our only reserved meal was at da Fiore which was excellent. We took a gondola ride with gondolainconcert.com which was pretty neat. Loved Venice - an absolutlely unbelievable city - I can;t wait to go back!!! Took the Eurostar to Rome from there. Thank goodness we made reservations - train was full and some people we rode on the vaporetto with to the train station were not able to get seats. Was a wonderful train ride. In Rome we stayed at Hotel Raphael near Piazza Navona. A super nice hotel just off teh piazza so you did not get the noise or the crowds. I strongly recommend tours of the Vatican, St Peters and the Ancient City instead of doing it alone. A good tour guide can really bring those places to life for you. Our tour guide was wonderful and they only do small groups (16 max) so was very personal. We only had 4 people in each of our tour groups. St Peters and the Sistine Chapel both made me breathless - they were totally awesome. The Scavi Tour was unreal. It was unbelievable what they found when they did the excavations. I strongly recommend it. The thing i found neatest about Rome was the Ancient on one side of the street and the modern on the other. In some places modern buildings are built on top of ancient buildings and they have plastic floors to show the Ancient City below. One thing in Rome - we had tour reservations for a wine sampling tour with Here to Eternity tours - and they never showed up for the tour or e-mailed that they had to cancel it. All in all a great trip though I would not rush back to Rome.Any questions - just ask. Donna