Heather

Stella Hotel in Rome??<BR><BR>Villa Piccola Siena??<BR><BR>Piccolo Hotel Etruria in Siena??<BR><BR>Il Nido in Sorrento??<BR><BR>Are these places in central locations??<BR>Affordable??<BR>Clean??<BR>Any other affordable hotels in these places of better value??<BR><BR>Thankyou!

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BOB THE NAVIGATOR

Heather, That is so ironic. You have mentioned 2 "piccolo" hotels in Siena but not my favorite. Try the Piccolo Hotel Oliveto just outside the south wall. I do not know the others.

xxx

Il Nido in Sorrento has gotten good reviews on this board (do a search). It's not in a central location, though. I think it's way up high on a hill outside Sorrento, which may be part of the reason people like it so much. You'd definitely need a car.

Heather

Thanks for the advice!<BR>Bob do you have a website for that hotel? Price range?<BR>xxx, any idea how much a taxi would cost to the Il Nido? I will be arriving by train? Thanks for the advice because I didn't know you would need a car for the Il Nido.

BOB THE NAVIGATOR

Heather, Try www.oliveta.com Also, you can find it at tuscany.net as well. It will be about $110 I would guess, and is a :15 walk thru the Porta Romana into the Campo. The owner, Antonio, is a cool guy and also does car tours thru Tuscany--see www.country-tours.com<BR>Good luck !

Nancy

Heather,<BR><BR>If you choose Il Nido, they will have someone pick you up at the train station, just call when you arrive. (It will be a wild ride back to the hotel if Gianni is driving, our luggage had more activity in their van than in the plane). We did not rent a car for the 5 nights we were there in September and were fine with that. We went to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Amalfi, Ravello, Positano using the Circumvesuviano and the buses.<BR><BR>Il Nido is located high above the water and has some wonderful views of Mt. Vesuvious & Bay of Naples. The hotel provides daily drop off into Sorrento at the train station (where you can catch the buses along the Amalfi Coast), the port, and the meeting place. I think there are about 4 times scheduled for drop offs in the morning. There are also pick up times in the afternoon (at the meeting place only) and then they also drop off & pick up there in the evening. I think the last shuttle in the evening was 11:30. We did catch a cab back one night back by our own choice, and I don't recall the cost, just that it was not outrageous (and the cab driver loved Sophia Loren! and that his 64 year old wife ate too much pasta).<BR><BR>We paid about $75 USD per night in October 2001. That included breakfast of juice, croissants, bread and jams. Our room was a double bed and a twin. We had our own bath. It was very clean, not luxurious, but comfortable. Also had a small balcony off of our room. <BR><BR>Gianni & his family were very gracious, giving us an unscheduled ride to the train station for a very early departure. I think if you read the guest book on their web site, you'll get a good feel for what it is like there. <BR><BR>They do have internet service available. I don't normally log on on vacation, but since this was soon after Sept. 11, my family wanted to hear that we arrived safe. The charge for usage was minimal.<BR><BR>I guess the biggest drawback to us was having to arrive and depart Sorrento at a scheduled time rather than on our own, but the price and hospitality made up for it.<BR><BR>Let me know if you have further questions.<BR><BR>Nancy

Rome Hotels

There is really only one hotel to stay in in Rome. <BR><BR>Dicaprio, Kidman and Cruise (before the split), Diaz, Schiffer and even Prince Charles (if you like that kind of thing) stay there when they're in town.<BR><BR>If you're going to a wonderful city like Rome you shouldn't waste your time with mediocre hotels.<BR><BR>Hotel de Russie - check out it's website, roccofortehotels.com