jscarbary

Our favorite places to eat, however, were the gelaterias and none of them have a "dress code"!

jgg

You do not need to wear a coat/tie or dress, jeans are definitely okay, but I agree with what others said - they tend to wear jeans that fit well, not sloppy. I would say no sweatshirts and no tshirts - you are going in winter, so just wear jeans a nice coat and I always like to wear scarves to change my outfit up a bit. I wear Dansko shoes when I travel in the winter (no tennis/athletic shoes).

P_Peppington

I COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE that the area WEST of Termini is "dodgy." This area, around Maria Maggiore, is the neighbourhood of MONTI and is my favourite place in Rome.

If you walk down the Via Merulana and cut throught the Parco Traiano, you can be at the Colosseo in no time, or you can take the Metro at Cavour.

A great restaurant in this nabe is Trattoria Monti on via San Vito.

Maria Maggiore is one of the most ornate and beautiful churches in Rome.

Another beautiful church in this nabe, with exquisite mosaics, is Santa Prassede.

There are plenty of cafes in the area and shopping.

You can use the Metro to get to SPAGNA to see the Borghese Gardens (and Borghese Gallery--one of the best art museums in the world), Via Condotti, Spanish Steps, Via Margutta, and Piazza Popolo.

You can also use the Metro to get to the Vatican.

Tschuss,
Pippy aka The Great and Powerful Thingorjus

annhig

I COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE that the area WEST of Termini is "dodgy." This area, around Maria Maggiore, is the neighbourhood of MONTI and is my favourite place in Rome.>>

agreed thin, but even the greatest fan of that area might agree that the area immediately around Termini is not desirable at night, and the OP is travelling in late Nov/early Dec, so there is going to be a lot of night-time. the trouble with staying in the part of Monti that you like so much that we found was that it was a fair distance from most of the places we wanted to be, as first -time visitors. Had be stayed there on a 2nd or 3rd visit I suspect we might have enjoyed it more.

tatie

For vegetarians, I’d suggest two meatless pasta specialities in Rome: arrabbiata and cacio e pepe. As for staying near the Colosseum on a first visit, I just did that (stayed in Monti) and really liked the area. You can reach the Vatican quite easily, and if you take the time I’m sure you can figure out the bus system (or take cabs), since that area isn’t right in the center of the action. In Florence I’d recommend checking out restaurants in the Oltrarno area, across the Arno. I had a great pasta dish of spaghetti with toasted breadcrumbs and peperoncini flakes at Trattoria da Ginone (Via dei Serragli, 35 R). If you’re interested, I recently wrote a blog post on a sandwich shop called ‘ino and a gelato place called Carapina in Florence that I really liked, here: http://tinyurl.com/3awqjh4

vancojo

A little off topic, but since you say this is your first trip to Europe, I am going to caution you to be very careful travellers in both Rome and Florence where pickpockets are quite expert. Use a money belt and if you carry a backpack or any other bag put in on your lap or hold it in front of you on busses--and stay alert. I'm not saying this to discourage you--these are two of my favorite cities, butn I know of some people who have had their trips ruined by being slightly unaware--so take care and have a good time.

Ackislander

Comments on a few of the issues raised:

1. You can fly into or out of Florence by changing in Paris, London, Zurich, or Frankfurt. All have connections to Dallas. So into Rome, out of Florence or vice versa is easy.

2. It can be cool and rainy or it can be warm (75F) and sunny. Raingear and sweaters layered over shirts will take care of whatever comes along. Not sweatshirts unless you are teenagers and plan to eat at McDonalds.

3. Italian and other European visitors in droves stay in the streets around Termini. Though if you want gourmet dining, this is not the area. There is a CONAD supermarket in the Piazza dell' Independenza that is handy for bottled water, snacks, etc, and a number of useful bus lines end their routes in the same place.

4. The area around the Santa Maria Novella railroad station in Florence is a bit more upscale but still full of hotels used by Italian and European tourists, and you should find something in your price range.

5. You will have no trouble finding salads, pasta, and starters without meat. If you eat fish or shellfish, you will find it really good in Italy.

Pizza where you sit down and order it is mostly awesome. Pizza that you see in a display case is awful. Expect less topping than at home.

Have fun. It will be much less crowded than in the tourist season, but it will still be plenty crowded.

dscan99

We booked our hotel in Florence!!!!!! We're staying at Hotel Casci. We read good reviews about it on this site as well as tripadvisor. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Now, to finalize a place to stay in Rome!

dscan99

I am working on a trip report but I have blogged a little bit about my trip. You can check it out at:
http://deepasdoodles.blogspot.com

In the meantime I really wanted to pop over here and say THANK YOU to all of you who helped me with this trip planning. I will post separately on the vegetarian restaurant thread but we loved Hotel Casci in Florence.. the service was wonderful and the staff was extremely friendly. The location was perfect .. we walked EVERYWHERE! I absolutely fell in love with Florence and I will defintiely go back there again.

In Rome we stayed in Hotel Adrianno and had an overall good experience.

We got to see most placed that we had planned.. the only place we didn't get to go to was Pisa because Tren Italia was on strike on that particular day.

We had great weather all 9 days (sunshine and in the high 50s, low 60s). Thanks all of you again!!!!

annhig

dscan,

thanks for coming back to let us know what a good time you had.

glad you enjoyed it!

[and thanks for the link to the blog - that bit about tapas in Chennai was really interesting!]