I just wanted to send a BIG thanks to everyone on this board for all the advice I received by reviewing posts made concerning Rome, Florence and Venice. I made my hotel, resturant and tour selections primarily based upon suggestions made on this board, and had a great time!

We only had one problem during the trip...in Florence our camera was stolen in a laundymat (we just looked away for just one second and poof it was gone!). The good news, however, is that my husband had downloaded our pictures the night before so we still have them. It was a wonderful trip, and I hope to return to Italy in the future. Thanks again to everyone and I thought I would just pass along my experience in Florence in the hopes of saving someone else from having their camera stolen.

Hi taxmej, having your camera stolen is upsetting. Thankfully you did have your photos downloaded. I have had friends lose regular cameras one way or another including all their photos on the film in the camera. That is always so heartbreaking. Of course the time I took about 20 photos of various friends in Italy who had gathered together for a long luncheon I certainly was heartbroken...no film in the camera! Didn't discover that until the next day. I will never live that mistake down, LOL.

Sorry to hear about the theft of your camera. I'm glad that you did not let the incident ruin your trip, or plans to go again.

This can happen anywhere. A customer of mine had her purse stolen in the USA. She put it under the table. There were four people at the table, and it disappeared through their legs and no one noticed.

I agree with everyone...this could have easily occured in the US (I had my purse stolen in a gym in Los Angeles a few years ago!) It goes to show that you just have to be careful with your personal belongings. I love Italy and it didn't cloud my view of the country or the people. Also, I stayed at the following hotels:

Hotel Santa Maria (Rome)
Hotel Silla (Florence)
La Calcina (my spelling may be slightly off - I'm still recovering) If anyone would like my views on any of the hotels, just let me know.

I live in fear of this -- having known a fair number of people who have had their camera stolen and two who just left it somewhere accidentally; so I take more than one FlashCard with me, and most of the time have a laptop with me to download daily, as taxmej does.