Well, I'm home from my wonderful two weeks in Italy...arrived from Rome last night, and of course, this morning at 5:00 a.m. I am checking the Fodor's site! Thank you so much to Fodor's and so many of you who gave wonderful help, encouragement and advice. I was so intimidated at first...so overwhelmed...and you all helped so much. Thanks especially to Joe Lomax and Elaine! I made so many wonderful discoveries and will share a few with you. (As Elaine said, "You will return and then YOU will be the expert!" NOT! but I did find a few wonderful places.) First thing...GO! You really can do it...even rented the car in Florence and drove out of Florence (crazy!) and actually made it back to Rome airport to turn car in (crazy!) But the driving was easy and very do-able. VENICE: GO! Stayed at the Accademia and cannot recommend it enough. Had a wonderful room (No.18) overlooking the garden. Luciano was very helpful. Great location, great hotel, reasonable for Venice! Restaurant: Alle Testiere...find it in the red Michelin guide. Small, good food, but pricey. DISCOVERY ALERT: Vignamaggio outside of Greve (fax: 055/8544468) Ask for brochure. Rent the video "Much Ado About Nothing" (Kenneth Branaugh) and see the villa. Gorgeous, nice gardens, tennis court, swimming pool, but very quiet and private and incredible breakfast. Check them out at www.vignamaggio.com., but it does not really show you how nice it is...see the video. SAN GIMIGNANO...I would stay here for three or four days and do side-trips to Florence and Siena and other sites in Tuscany (Monteriggioni, etc.) Checked out the hotel Antica do Pozzo...very nice and I really want to return there, but full, so we stayed in Bel Soggorno, also within the city gates and very nice...great restaurant for dinner...try the Carpaccio Caldo for appetizer. Mmmm... Lunch at Chiribiri...a tiny place recommended to us by a local couple...we were the only tourists in there, and it was wonderful. On P. della Madonna off the main street near Hotel Bel Soggorno. FLORENCE: Did not discover the beauty of Florence until the last day when we took a wrong turn in our rental car (fortunately!) and discovered that Florence is NOT all about Vespas and crowds and crowds of very stressed-out people and smog and trucks and....ugh, I was so ready to leave! Find the Florence that is birds and quiet and beauty and on the hill to the south...I don't know, but just look for that Florence. We made the mistake of staying right in the town and it was awful! Someone e-mail me and tell me how to access lovely Florence that I have heard others swoon about. ROME: is wonderful! The people are wonderful...very friendly and very helpful. A great city! Well, there's so much, but no way to tel you all of it! Thanks again to everyone and to this site.

Tell us more about Rome -- where did you stay?

Hi Karie- Going to Italy in early October for my honeymoon. Tell me more about San Gimignamo and what hotel you stayed in? Any other recomendations for the area? How many hours driving from Florence? As far as romance is concerned, you would definately recommend staying there over Florence? Thanks!! Ann <BR>

<BR>Karie: <BR>Glad to hear your visit to Italy was a success. Was this your first time? Tell us more about your impressions and any delighful surprises or unanticipated disappointments. <BR>What did you most love about Italia?

Karie, in Florence we stayed at the Hotel Loggiato dei Serviti on a quiet traffic-free plaza, and loved it. Favorite memories include early-morning walks along the Arno and across the river to the less-touristy side. We saw the city entirely on foot (take comfy shoes!) -- didn't pick up the car until we left for San G. Can't wait to go back! <BR> <BR>Ann, this reply is for you. We stayed near San Gimignano at the Hotel Pescille, and loved it. It was featured on the "Room with a View" page of Conde Nast Traveler magazine; the hotel is south of San G. and has a wonderful view of the town's towers and walls. Bonus is, the Pescille is quiet and restful and has a lovely garden with pool, vineyards all round. They also had an excellent restaurant. It was a short drive to San G, less than an hour from Florence (?) and a good base for exploring Tuscany. Buon viaggio! <BR> <BR> <BR>

you sound like your flying high. good for you. i guess you didnt take an organized tour? did it all on your own. what is the small Michelin guide? Hotel: Antica do Pozzo is this in San Gimignano? Is Carpacco Caldo & Chiribiri there also? We are also planning to go to Italy (planning for all of my life). And would appreciate any tips you can pass on. Thanx

Ann, Florence is about 50 miles from San Gimignano ... 1 1/2hr drive at the most. <BR> <BR>Rosemarie, the hotel Antico Pozzo is in San Gimignano.

Yes, I'm flying high! What a country...Italia! OK, to answer some of your questions: What did I love about Italy? The people! Especially in Rome...so friendly, helpful, wonderful. Take the time to learn a little Italian. I lived with "Just Listen and Learn Italian" tapes for four months, and it was so helpful and fun to be able to converse a little. Many speak English, but often, especially in side towns like Orvieto or small restaurants, they speak NO English, and it is helpful to be able to know how to book a room in Italian. And FUN! Or on the train, or whatever. I found them at Barnes and Noble for $29. I loved the food, the scenery, the cities, the side discoveries...can't wait to go back! Meeting the people...Luigi on the train to Venice, Simone in the little store in Orvieto, seven-year old Sala, Enrico who kissed your hand! All the people who helped you figure out how to get your ticket to the underground and the girl who gave me a 500 lira coin when I didn't have the correct change..."No,no, I just give it to you!" In Rome, which I love, I stayed at LeGrande when I first arrived. Very nice, and just a short walk from the train station...linen sheets and pillowcases (aahhhh...) marble bathroom with a marvelous tub for soaking, old-world charm, keys on tassels, and shutters opening onto a garden, and a great staff. They are closed the remainder of the year for renovations, I assume for the crush of tourists for 2000. I can't imagine what they have to renovate...it was wonderful to me. Found them through Sheraton, but they do not feel like a Sheraton. Sister hotel is the Excelsior on Via Veneto. They are expensive, but maybe you can find a deal. THEN, we moved to a little pensione, Hotel Tizi, I believe it is, which my son found in his Let's Go guide, and I can also recommend it as a better-priced alternative...90,000 lira per night (double), if I remember correctly, and the area was fine, though northeast of Termini station. Our room was very clean and run by a nice family, more of a family atmosphere. It is near the little restaurant, Cantarini Cantini, which I also found in the red Michelin guide, and the area was fine. Our last night, we stayed in Hotel Due Torri, near Piazza Navona. It was nice, though in a tiny little alley. Recently rennovated and good for the money...great location. It is recommended in Karen Brown guide, if that is any indication! Loved Piazza Novona area...the Pantheon, etc. See the Carravagio's (three of them and they are FREE) in the little church between Pantheon and P. Navonna...S. Franchesi?...they are marvelous! The red Michelin guide I found in B. and Noble also...in Italian, but it doesn't matter...recommendations on hotels and restaurants. For Ann...loved San Gimignano. It is touristy, particularly during the day, but I liked it. It is small, very walkable, beautiful views, fantastic food. I really like the Hotel L'Antico Pozzo, inside the walls of the old city...very pretty and good location. They have a website...sorry I cannot remember the web address, but you can probably find it by doing a search on this site. As I said, they were full, so we stayed in Hotel Bel Sogorno, also within the city walls, and very nice and helpful. Great restaurant, overlooking the beautiful countryside and we had a very nice room. Have heard good things about Hotel Pescille, I believe their sister hotel in the countryside. You can stay somewhere like this, or Villa Vignamaggio outside Greve and then wander with your car and go into Florence, and even Siena. I am not sure how far San G. is from Florence, but is all not far and very do-able. I was a little intimidated about driving in Italy, but it was nothing...even leaving Florence was fine, though it is a little tricky getting the car back to Fumicino airport...unclear signage and there were rental cars sort of veering everywhere and stopping in the median and trying to figure it all out, but you can do it! We were just wandering, and actually came to San G. from Siena, not a long drive, and we stopped at Monteriggioni on the way...which also, by the way, has a very nice 4-star hotel, Hotel Monteriggioni, which you could do side-trips from. Yes, I would choose a romantic, quiet villa or location over Florence, although I am sure there are some great quiet locations there as well, overlooking the city maybe. I just didn't find them. Yes, Ann, this was my first trip! Can't you tell? Loved Venice and my room at the Accademia there...no. 18 overlooking the garden. It is a lovely, quiet area. Rosemarie...yes, we did it on our own, no tour. I personally would not want to take a tour. What if you don't like a place, and you have to spend four more hours there? How would I ever have discovered Villa Vignamaggio on a little country road? It was intimidating at first, but it all worked out great for us. Besides, I don't want to see Italy from a tour-bus window with deisel fumes and 48 other Americans! How would I have discovered Simone in the little store in Orvieto who advised me with her broken English and my broken Italian which was the best local champagne to buy to take home with me, and her mother Flora and the delightful six other Italians in there who were buying their pasta to take home and cook and the man who said "Belladonna" and eating at the little restaurant where NOONE spoke English and meeting Sala, the seven-year-old black-haired beautiful daughter of the owner who was "waiting tables" with her little pad and pencil, and being able to ask "Come si chiama?" and leaving her a 1000 lira "tip"? Enough of that! I do wax eloquent, don't I? Be patient! In San G., yes, Chiribiri is a little tratoria off the main street on P. della Madonna, I think it was. When you are coming up the street from the little park area, maybe it is San Giovani?, to the left there are some little steps leading up into a sort of courtyard and it is a tiny little place, maybe known mostly to the locals, very good and great proprietor who does not speak English, but the waitress did. Sorry I don't have the phone number here...am now at the beach and left all of that at home. If it is any indication, they were turning away plenty at the door or asking them to return in 15 minutes. Sorry I was unclear about the Carpaccio Caldo...I hope I have spelled that correctly!...this was an appetizer we ate at the restaurant Bel Sojourno (good restaurant). Be aware that Carpaccio is...thin filets of raw beef, covered with cheese...this was served hot at Bel S., and I was not aware that it was raw...not sure that it was...but ordered it the next day at Chiribiri and it was definitely raw...so be aware! Good luck, Ann, and all, on your trip. You are going to have a blast. Do remember to just go with the flow and not get uptight on any snags and not just try to see every museum but experience the place...and GET COMFORTABLE SHOES!!! Many others know tons more than I do...this was my maiden voyage...but yes, I do have the wonder!

A friend is just back from Florence and Rome and there were riots and they were robbed and spit on. They hid in their hotel room until they could get to the airport. Not a good experience. Because of this we have cancelled our plans to go to Rome and Venice and will concentrate on Spain, France and Switzerland. If you go, be careful.

Karie: <BR> <BR>You are the first person who had the same experience with Florence that I did. I too stayed right in town and it was crowded and noisy not at all beautiful!!! I can't figure out what all of the fuss about Florence is, outside of the museums. I figured it was just because the rest of Italy is so fabulous that Florence pales in comparison (I especially liked Verona, Venice, Bellagio, Assisi and Rome) but maybe it's because we stayed in the wrong part of town. I just assumed people that liked Florence hadn't seen much of the rest of Italy.

Those of us who love Florence aren't looking for peace and quiet. The entire city of Florence is the best art museum in the world. It's not just in the museums, it's in the churches and palaces. If art and architecture isn't a passion for you, then Florence probably isn't going to be your cup of tea. But for those of us who are more interested in art than scenery, there is nothing like Florence. We're going back very soon, and I can't wait.

But the architecture in all of the cities in Italy is beautiful, not just Rome. Verona in particular had a more Old European flavor. And Bellagio--nothing can compare. Venice--outstanding! Aside from the Uffizi gallery, I didn't find anything in Florence that wasn't at least as good elsewhere in Italy.