Reckoning

Let me first say I feel like such a loser constatly asking questions, but this is something I really have never done and you all here are SOOOOO much help!!

We are going as a suprise to the wife to italy in March (2nd-20th) to rome, bologna then venice with day trips from bolgna to florence, parma and other places (not sure were).
I have booked the airfare and the hotel for Rome, have a place to stay in bolgna for free and will have my venice hotel done shortly.

Now the questions! What else do I need to prearrange(museums and such? Tours?) Can I trust my hotel to make reservations? I am staying at the daphne Venetro.

Thanks again for any and all help, I will crawl back under my newbie rock now.

2Italy

No, you're not a loser, just inquiring. Asking questions is really good because you get a lot of good feedback and ideas. Ask away, that's what the forum is for.
You need to decide what museums or tours you would like to do in each city. The Borghese Gallery needs to be prebooked, and it's a good idea to prebook other museums such as the Secret Itineraries tour in Venice.
Once you decide, you can ask questions about how to book them on this forum. There are often a couple of options to book such reservations.
Many hotels make good reservations with a lot of tours and museums.
Good luck. Ask away!
[email protected]

suze

Everyone plans ahead of time to different levels. For me I get the plane ticket and make hotel reservations. I figure out everything else after I arrive.

SusanP

In Italy, for certain places, you will waste a lot of time in long lines if you don't reserve ahead.

Venice:
Secret Itineraries of Doge Palace, call 011-39-041-520-9070.
St. Mark's Basilica, to walk past the long line, reserve at www.ala.it/eng/booking/sanmarco.asp

Florence:
Especially since you're only going for a daytrip, if you want to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery without the long lines, call 011-39-055-294-883 for an English-speaking operator who can make both reservations for you.

Rome:
Borghese Gallery requires advance reservations. Do this at www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm
The Scavi Tour, a fascinating tour under St. Peter's, also requires advance reservations. [email protected]. Do this one NOW, as it sometimes takes a long time to get your confirmation.

Have a great trip!

SusanP

I was going to add that I had my hotel in Siena, the very highly regarded Palazzo Ravizza, make dinner reservations at Cane e Gatto, something I was very much looking forward to. When I got to the restaurant, they didn't have my reservation. I don't know if the hotel or the restaurant goofed. I know plenty of people have their hotel do it, but I would no longer trust one to make a reservation that is important to me.

ira

Hi R,

No need to apologize for asking questions.

You might find this thread helpful:
Helpful Information: Italy 2
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34568596

SusanP

ttt for Reckoning.

jillyf

My husband and 2 adult daughters stayed at Daphne Inn during our Rome stay in October. They could only accommodate us for 1 night but arranged for tours and Gallery reservations even for the days we had to book elsewhere.
When we arrived they had print outs of all the tours they had organised for us.
Very important to get them to book Galleria Borghese as we saw many people turned away . We took a guided tour and she was very interesting. There were also audio guides. It is well worth seeing and the walk through the park was lovely.
Communication with Daphne Inn by email was also great before our trip.
They were very happy to help us with tips about tours, restaurants and transport

Reckoning

Thank yo uall so much for al lthe help as usual!!

Melissa5

Hey Reckoning, asking a lotta questions makes you a winner...you win a great trip, and then when you come back you can answer question for us!

Hotel Silla in Florence made our museum reservations and e-mailed me the reservation numbers. It worked out great.

Have fun!

dcd

My wife and I spent 4 wonderful days last March being spoiled by the fine folks at the Daphne Veneto. They were recommending IKON tours which is one of many agencies offering tours to Rome's highlights. (I may not be spelling "IKON" right because I can't pull anything up on them.) We had pre-booked all our tours via contextrome.com and therefore didn't try any of the IKON tours. But other posters here have said good things about this particular company. I quizzed the owners of the Daphne about IKON and they had nothing but good things to say about them. I'm sure they would be happy to pre book tours for you and I would definitely trust them to follow through. If I remember correctly, IKON has small group tours, "small" being defined as a maximum of 20-25 people per tour or something like that. Context Rome limits its tours to 6 people but charges more. We really enjoyed the Context Rome tours. If you do a search here for that company, you will see that they are highly recommended. If you email the Daphne about the tour companies they recommend and their websites, I'm sure you'll get a prompt response. Enjoy the trip!! By the way, the Daphne's restaurant recommendations were great.

dcd

PS Thanks to a recent thread on Rome tour companies, it's "Icon" tours, not Ikon.