I need to find a hotel in Florence and Rome for late August. Preferably around $100 USD per night and relatively close to all the action. Any suggestions?

can suggest the following hotels that we liked and that are quite nice and close to everything:Florence - Hotel Machiavelli see the link at http://www.asiatravel.com/italy/florence/machiavellipalace/<BR><BR>Rome - Hotel Rex on via Torino see the link at http://www.italy-rome-hotel.com/rome-hotels/rex/<BR><BR>both are excellent choices but may be bit over your price range<BR>

My wife and I stayed at Hotel Lancelot in Rome in late May of this year. It is very near the colosseum. The room we had was very nice, had a balcony and a view of the colosseum. The owners were very helpful with making restaurant reservations and general information. It was under $ 100 USD per night.

wniblack.,<BR><BR>Was ther AC? I forgot to mention that A/C is a must...

Sorry for delay in answering your question. Yes there is air conditioning at this hotel. Even though we were going in mid to late May, we chose only hotels that had air conditioning because we did not know how hot it was going to be and with putting in long hard days of touring we wanted a cool room to sleep in. If you book with Hotel Lancelot tell Lubna we said Hi. Lubna is one of the owners that was very helpful.

Also, one thing I forgot to mention was that Lubna was very good and prompt with responding to email. Some hotels we tried to communicate with did not respond to their email. In addition, they speak very good English at Hotel Lancelot.