i am going to italy in oct. and need to book a couple of hotels. how much time in advance should i do this? do i just email the hotel/pensione directly? i also imagine i should specify nonsmoking?(yes i know the italians smoke alot)

You can reserve from now just to be sure. Yes, email is best if there's an email address otherwise call or fax.

Good luck with the non-smoking rooms, many hotels do not offer them-only a few do.

ang,
I am going Sept.20-Oct.10 and I have booked my hotels already. I had to do alot of work to find ones in my price range. Go online and go to venere.com or eurocheapo.com. There are others I cant think of right now. Or just type in "hotels in Rome" or whatever. I would do it NOW !!!

Is this your first trip to Italy? What cities do you plan to visit?

Good luck and I hope you have a wonderful trip.

I would book straight away. We're going to Italy the first two weeks of Sept. and I had everything in place by mid-May. I know September is high season in Rome, so October may be considered the same. Better safe than sorry.

It took me an enormous amount of time to get our lodging set up. I worked first within the parameters of price and location and made lists. Then I cross referenced my best choices after looking at the hotel's websites. I used tripadvisor.com and slowtrav.com as my main sources.

Then I e-mailed the hotels directly. And yes, I did ask about non-smoking. If there was an availability in the lodging, I usually got an e-mail back in less than 24 hours. However, I was rather surprised at the hotels that did not bother to answer me at all! Not even a "no thanks, we're booked." Once that happened a few times, I stopped waiting in excess of 48 hours for a reply, and went on to inquire about somewhere instead.

I'm pretty pleased with the accomodations I was able to get, and feel that it was well worth the time and effort to act as my own travel agent.

I agree with using e-mail and the sooner the better. I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for a response (but keep in mind the time difference of 6 hours when you send yours).
I disagree about the non-smoking rooms. I was just in Italy and Germany and had absolutely no trouble at all booking non-smoking rooms. Simply tell the establishment up front EXCATLY what you are looking for to include making sure that if you ask for a "double" you are not (unless it is what you want) getting a "twin-bedded" room. Hope this helps and good luck.

thanks- iwill check out the couple of websites mentioned. no, this is not my first trip, i studied abroad in florence now20 years ago, but this would be myfirst experience with booking as i lived with an italian family. my sister actually rented a villa in umbria, but i have a few trips planned-- rome, florence and amalfi coast area. i have read about different hotels and have narrowed down right now before trying to contact. i like the pantheon view b+b, santa chiara, del senato(all mentioned here) and am checking others for backup. any further info would be appreciated.

I've been to Italy several times in October and never booked any hotels in advance. In my experience, you can turn up almost anywhere and find a room straight away. I also loathe the smell of tobacco smoke, but don't find this a problem - most people don't spend much time awake in hotel rooms, so there is rarely any left-over smell.

I'd book as soon as possible.

Surprisingly, September and October are considered hi-season in most of Italy.

Hi ang:

I concur with several other posters on this thread re: making your reservations ASAP.

I will be in Italy (Venice, Florence, and Rome) from Sept. 27-Oct. 9 and I have also booked all of my hotels. I booked all of them via e-mail. It was very, very simple.

Good luck,
Jennie