Hotel Suggestions in Italy
 

I will be traveling to Italy on 9/23/06 staying in the following cities - Bari, Rome, Florence and Venice. Two suggestions I have received for places to stay are Hotel Imperiale in Rome (near Borghesi) and Hotel Lucchessi in Florence. Has anyone heard of either and have any opinions? As far as Venice and Bari I'm at a loss on where to stay...any advice would help. Im looing for a "middle of the road" place as far as price. Thanks!

Hi C,

How much is "middle of the road"?

((I))

www.lacalcina.com is excellent in Venice but contact asap as they are deservedly very popular.

I would interpret "middle of the road" as close to the 50th %ile, for a given city - - which may or may not hit you with sticker stock. And while I do not know Bari, I suspect that its 50th %tile will be considerably lower than what you find for Venice. Take a look at www.venere.com - - you can decide if the range of room rates you see there match your expectations.

I'd say that Hotel Ala is a good example of "middle of the road" there.

Best wishes,

Rex

I suppose when I say middle of the road I'm thinking $300 US. I'm not looking for a luxury/upscale hotel but I do not want to be in a low-end hotel either. From what I have seen $300 will get me a room somewhere in the middle of these two types. Sound right?

Rex - where is Hotel Ala?

Hi C,

$300 is about 250E and puts you in the 3*-4* range.

((I))

Suze - I just checked out La Calcina and love what I see. Thanks for the suggestion! I just emailed them.

Also, to clarify again, middle of the road - I'm more referring to the type of place. As far as price, one always wants as cheap as possible, of course, but I would go up to $300 US a night.

thanks!

Castro-my very first suggestion to you would be to go on www.venere.com-for ALL of your cities-it has a nice location map-it divides the cities into the different areas, and shows the hotels in each, plus reviews of each hotel. I would not advise staying near the Borghese-that's too far away from the center-consider Navona, Pantheon, Campo dei Fiori, Colosseum, Termini zones for Rome.

For the end of September, booking now, you're going to have a problem finding reasonably priced good accomodation in Rome, Venice, Florence, because most of the hotels are quite booked-I know, I've been looking!

Florence-all the main sights are quite close together in city center, and the train station is quite walkable to the Duomo. Suggest Hotel Caravaggio-a great little 3 star hotel, rooms, staff, price to value- near SMN train station, near to the train station and to sights

Venice-pretty much any area is within a 20 minute walk or less from the main sights in Piazza San Marco/Accademia area, however, you can just jump on a vaporetto to take you back and forth as well-I would suggest Ca Gottardi in Cannaregio, Antiche Figure in Santa Croce, Liassidi Palace in Castello, Hotel Ca Dogaressa in Cannaregio

I don't know Bari, so have nothing to suggest there.

ira - is 3* to 4* decent in Italy?

In Florence- I would recommend (highly) the Hotel Davanzati.

thanks Girlspytravel! Very helpful! If I find any available hotels I will let you know.

thanks K - as Suze pointed out, Davanzati is not available for my dates, my looked very nice. I'll keep searching.

<< Where is Hotel Ala? >>

I see you didn't do (comb through) the recommended reading yet.

It's right here:

http://www.venere.com/hotel/index.ph...ction=location

www.tripadvisor.com is a good resource for finding hotels, It has lots of travelers' reviews. I find www.venere.com useful for narrowing down hotel location. In general, try to be as central as possible. The exception is Venice, where it's too crowded around Piazza San Marco. But Venice isn't a big place anyway.

I can highly recommend the Hotel Ala. I stayed at the Hotel Ala for 6 nights in April. It is a 5 minute walk to St. Marks square but it is located on a quiet square. I know that some on this board prefer not to stay so close to St. Marks square, but one of the highlights of my trip was my daily early morning walk through the square before the hoards descended.

The hotel is very pretty with high ceiling rooms beautiful glass lamp fixtures. It is about a 100 yard from a vaparetto stop. The rooms include a full breakfast.

For Florence, check out TOURIST HOUSE GHIBERTI, which is just around the corner from the Duomo.

In Rome, try ALBERGO DEL SENATO. Very small rooms, but an unbeatable location on the Piazza Della Rotunda, just across from the Pantheon.

In Venice, La Calcina is an excellent choice!

castra...for 250E's you can buy Bari. But, hopefully, you'll stray into the Trulli districts about an hour from Bari...very unique area...look it up...we stayed at an actual trulli lodge in the town of Alberobello...
Hotel Trullincanto..less than 100E's...
Bari is not the most inviting city and its port area is wise to avoid...unless you're shipping off to Dubrovnik across the Adriatic.

http://www.bookings.it/hotel/it/trul...el=alberobello

Stu T.

Castra...I should give you a heads up here...if, indeed, you're sailing across to Dub from Bari, be aware that most of the Adriatic's cancelled ferries occur between those two ports...we were cancelled out of Dub because of "heavy seas" and friends of our were cancelled for three days out of Bari...evidently the currents in that one stretch are treacherous at certain times. Our cancellation was in spring, but friends were in summer.
Stu T.

castronova,

We had a wonderful stay at Ca dei Conti in Venice. It's small, located on a little canal, and so pretty.

Our rooms (we had four) were all large, with sitting areas. The bathrooms had wonderful jacuzzi tubs.

www.cadeiconti.com

Byrd

wow - thanks everyone for all of this great info! Yes Rex, you caught me, I haven't combed through everything yet. I will tonight when I get home but these suggestions will make it that much easier, as I plan to book the hotels tonight. I will let you all know what I end up with.

$300 USD is not 250 Euros. As of today, it is 230 Euros, and you almost certainly will not have any 4 star hotels available in that range.

Albergo Senato is considerably more.

The Ala in Venice can be a nice choice, but the rooms vary widely so be very careful about what room category to reserve.

A good choice in this range in Florence is the Il Guelfo Bianco.

In Rome the Raffaello

In Venice, my vote would go for Ca Maria Adele www.camariaadele.it and in Florence for Hotel Villa Belvedere www.villa-belvedere.com.

Have a great trip!

We stayed at ALBERGO DEL SENATO last month. Doubles, depending on the season start at E140.

thanks for the advice on Bari, Tower. We won't be in Bari for long. The only reason we are going there is that it is the closest city with an airport to the village my grandparents grew up in - Cirigliano (in the Basilicata Region). we'll have two nights in Bari and the day inbetween will be spent driving to Cirigliano. Good to know not to stay near the port!

<<We stayed at ALBERGO DEL SENATO last month. Doubles, depending on the season start at E140.>>

The original poster's dates were in September. You cannot get into the Albergo del Senato at that time for less than 275-300 Euros (about $375 USD)

In Florence you can check on:

http://www.tuscanweb.com

Castra..on your way to and from Cirigliano, try to briefly visit Alberobello in the heart of the Trulli District...it's a mind blower!
Enjoy!
Stu T.

Depending on how long you are staying, you might consider and apartment, especially in Rome - more room for less money. Usually you can get them for 3+ days, and it might give you more choice as you are booking quite late.

2* can be decent in Italy. Smo eother recs are: Rome - Sanat CHiara (3*), Florence - Hotel Casci (2*), and Venice - Hotel FLora (3*).

You should start checking for availability now. Also check tripadvisor.com for reviews, and search here on hotel names for more comments.

I can't make any recommendations from personal experience, but I did quite a bit of research before choosing our hotels. Check out Locanda Orseolo in Venice. www.locandaorseolo.com
It gets lots of rave reviews. Good price too.

In Florence, for something different, consider Relais Grand Tour. Perfect location and gorgeous B&B. www.florencegrandtour.com

ALso, you didn't specify how many in the room. Prices vary depending on the number of people staying in the room (kids or otherwise).

I strongly agree with Girlspy re: ROme hotel location.

We first stayed at the Lucchesi in Florence two years ago and really enjoyed it. It was the prettiest room of the three hotels we stayed in that year with a great balcony and views of Santa Croce. We are staying there again in a couple of weeks in fact, and have requested the same room. (its a hotel offered by American Express Travel Rewards). It is just past Piazza Santa Croce and we had no trouble walking everywhere from there. The staff was also very helpful.

We, too, stayed at the Lucchesi and really enjoyed it.

The hotel is located on the Arno, and our room had a lovely view of the river.

The breakfast was memorable, featuring made-to-order omelets.

We walked to the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio,Uffizi, etc.

Byrd