Help! I am overloaded with information from the internet. We're a family of 5(3 children 12,14&14). We are looking for nice 3-4 star hotels in Venice and Siena for this Aug. Also if anyone one has info on the following hotels...Royal Sporting in Portovenere, La Palma in Stresa and La Locanda Van Gogh in Rome. Any other suggestions????. Thanks

A wonderful 3-star in Venice is the La Calcina (do a Google search on La Calcina + Venice). We paid 176 euro for a canal view room (OK, so it's the Giudecca, not the Grand Canal) and could walk to absolutely everything. I'd stay there again!

We loved the Hotel American. It is in the Dorsoduro section, not on the Grand Canal, but within a view of it. Vaporetto stop is the Accademia Bridge. You can e-mail them directly. The site, venere.it will give you most of the particulars on lots of Venice hotels & you can then e-mail the ones that interest you. I made my reservations this time last year for an August visit. But, don't delay your choice long!

Laura--<BR>I inspected a double room at the Royal Sporting in Portovenere in April, to see if I might want to stay there in the future. Somewhere I'd gotten the idea that it was supposed to be the best hotel there. The room looked comfortable enough and had a water view and a balcony, but it was VERY simply furnished (pine furniture, I think). Someone on this site said they paid $300 a night there last summer (or was it $400?). If that's so, it's overpriced, IMO. But perhaps it has wonderful food. It is a bit of a hike from the town center, but it's possible the center could be noisy at night. The center certainly gets a lot of tour-bus and day-tripper boat traffic in the daytime. Three hotels in the center looked like possible candidates from the outside, but I did not take the time to inspect their rooms or even go into their lobbies: Grand Hotel Portovenere, Paradiso and Belvedere.<BR><BR>Re La Palma in Stresa, I have not stayed there, but acquaintances have and I've been in the lobby. The acquaintances had a room on the front with a lakeview, which they said was nice but noisy because the hotel faces a busy state highway that divides the hotel from the lake. ALL the best hotels are on that highway and have the same noise problem. I stayed at Villa Aminta last September, had a front room with a lakeview and it, too, was noisy. Had to keep the sliding-glass door closed and the A/C on to drown out the street noise at night and early in the morning. So did the acquaintances who stayed at La Palma.<BR>My very favorite hotel in the Stresa area is the small (only 12 rooms) Hotel Ristorante Verbano on Isola dei Pescatori (Fisherman's Island). For tranquillity, atmosphere, charm and good food, it can't be beat, but it does not have a pool, no TV in the room, and you have to take a ferry to go anywhere else. For my next trip, I plan to try the Grand Hotel Dino in Baveno, the next town north of Stresa. Has a ferry dock in the side yard and it looks like it might be quieter than the big Stresa hotels because it's a tad further off the highway. Also, it's on the lake side of the highway, instead of being across the highway from the lake. TWA flight crews used to stay there, which is how I learned of it.<BR>arney

Laura - try going to the web site for the state dept in Rome. They have a list of "approved hotels" - everything from one star to the 5 diamond jobs. I got this from a friend who works at the embassy and I've referred others to it who've used it and liked it. Hope that helps. Have a great trip!

Jennifer--I could not find the "approved" list of hotels you mentioned on the State Dept. Web site for the U.S.Embassy in Rome.<BR><BR>Please tell me what Internet address you used and any other pertinent directions.<BR>arney