help! my family of four (kids 11 and 13) is going to italy in april/may. we are having trouble finding reasonably priced but decent hotels with quad rooms in rome, florence, capri and sorrento. any ideas out there? also we are planning about 2 or 3 days on capri to relax, hike, etc- any thought or alternatives? thanks!!!

We have not gone yet, but have booked a quad room at the Albergo Cesari in Rome for this March (we will be travelling with our kids age 9 and 12). It has received good reviews on tripadvisor.com, including a few people who specifically said they had stayed in the quad room and enjoyed it.

We had a quad room in Hotel Duca D'Alba (Via Leonina 14) near the Colosseum. It was compact but quiet, clean, good breakfast and a friendly and professional staff.

However, after our positive experience with apartment rental in Paris last year (kids 10 & 12), apartment will be our first choice from now on. Much more sq. ft. per $$. I've seen lots of good apartment recommendations for Rome on this board. Do a search here or check our SlowTrav.

We had a very nice room two summers ago in Rome at the Hotel Mozart which is just a short walk from the Spanish Steps. We were one adult and 3 children, ages 12, 10, and 8. OUr room was air conditioned, had a very nice bathroom, and a terrace with table, chairs, and lemon trees. Breakfast was included and was served in a lovely room on silver and china by women in lace caps and white aprons - my kids loved that!

In ROme we stayed in a quad at the Albergo Santa CHiara (3*, 2 room suite), in FLorence, Hotel Casci (2*, 1 large room). Both were very nice, excellent locations, good breakfast, and would stay at either again.

Due Torre in Rome also has quad rooms and seems to be well recieved here.

For apartments in Florence look at
http://aceri.firenze.tele2.it

Try these -- I stayed in triple rooms (which were essentially quads). Great locations, great prices. I especially recommend Soggiorno Pezzati in Florence. It's a small pensione run by Daniella. She is wonderful. The location and price cannot be beat!!!

Rome --Fawlty Towers -- http://www.fawltytowers.org/

Florence -- Soggiorno Pezzati -- http://www.soggiornopezzati.it/default_EN.asp

With our children, we stayed in quad in both Rome and Florence. In Rome, try the Hotel Miami. Not smack dab in the center, but a great location...walkable to everything. The room was very nice, quite large, and had a wonderful marble bathroom. The staff were very helpful and friendly, and great with the kids. In Florence try the Hotel Casci. It is very close to everything, but quiet. Again, the staff were incredible. Both hotels are places we would definitely go back to.

Hello
We stayed at the Hotel San Carlo in Rome in the Spanish Steps area. The ONLY drawback was that there is no elevator so you have to do stairs. But we didn't mind. Very clean, very nice and great location. we paid 250E for a jr. suite.

We stayed at the Hotel Bellettini in Florence in June, 02. We had a quad room, which was up in the attic. Our friends were in a triple on the main level (which is 3-4 floors up).

I have read many times that their annex rooms were very nice. Our rooms were in the main hotel. The quad room was very spacious with three beds, cost was about $130 E (remember this was June, 02), a very good value. It was up two flights of very narrow stairs from the main floor. The room was very warm and you couldn't cool it down with the air conditioner, temp in Florence then was 90F+, but you shouldn't have a problem in April/May.

You may want to do a search because there are other threads about Hotel Bellettini. If you have a specific question maybe I can help.

The quad room we had in the attic was quite large. It had one double (which may have been Italian double of two twins pushed together, don't remember) and two twins for our two teens.

Space wise, I'd say it was large enough for your family.

The stumbling block may be the bathroom. There was one very small, typical Italy-sized bathroom. It was opposite the entry door to the room which was three steps down from the main room area. The bath had a very small shower stall with sink and toilet.

If you plan to use the bathroom for private dressing etc. it could be a problem.

We were there only one night and the room was fine, a bit warm though. Certainly nothing fancy, but a good value. Hope this helps. Dee

In March 2004 our family of four stayed at the Albergo de Senato, which is literally 30 feet away from the Pantheon. We loved it so much I wouldn't even look elsewhere if I went back.