Just got back from my first (and hopefully not last!) trip to Italy. Here's the lowdown on where we stayed, what we did, etc:

Hotels:
Rome -Residenza Cellini (fantastic hotel -extremely nice people -best cappucino of the trip)

Florence -Tourist House Ghiberti (great location, free internet in all the rooms)

Venice -La Calcina (great views -right on the Giudecca Canal)

Favorite Restaurants/Pubs:

Rome -Ristorante Colline Emiliane (Via degli Avignonesi, 22)

Rome: Flanagan's Pub (Via Leonina)

Florence -Il Ritrovo (Via de' Pucci 4/A) thank you Ira for recommending on the forum. The chef and his wife welcome you like you are locals and the food is wonderful.

Florence -2nd and 3rd runner up: Osteria Dell Agnolo and Osteria Porcellino

Florence -The Old Stove Pub (they have a frequent pint card -buy 10 and get the 11th free!)

Venice -La Piscina (restaurant at La Calcina) they have a 22 Euro set price menu for guests that was quite good.

Favorite Rome Sights/Activities:

Vatican Museums/St. Peters -go in the afternoon if you can (there were no lines at all when we went at 1:30pm; climb to the top of the dome for an incredible view of the city and St. Peters Square)

Through Eternity walking tours -Rome at Twilight and Ancient Rome (great guides, especially our guide for Ancient Rome who recited Marc Antony's speech from Julius Caesar in the Roman Forum! I would recommend a guided tour for the Colosseum and the Forum -we wouldn't have got as much out of it without the tour)

Other churches visited: Santa Maria Maggiore, St. Peter in Chains, St. John Lateran (my favorite other than St. Peters), and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Passion relics)

Best city views: St. Peters dome and the terrace above the Piazza del Popolo

Florence sights:

Duomo museum
Giotto's Tower (our guidebook suggested climbing to the top of the tower instead of the Duomo and then you have a view of the Duomo -they were right, we got some great pictures of the dome)
Baptistery (incredible mosaic)
Accademia
Uffizi
Bargello (it's interesting to see the "other" Davids after you see Michelangelo's David)
Brancacci Chapel

Best View: Piazzale Michelangelo (not as far a walk as it looks on the map and well worth it!)

Venice sights: the city itself!

St. Mark's Square/Campanile
Grand Canal -we took the #82 vaparetto down the Grand Canal

General tips:
Count your change in Venice. People tried to rip us off on 3 seperate occasions (twice buying tickets for the vaparetto -they would "forget" to give you your change).

When you go into a self-service cafe, you order and pay at the cash register and then bring the receipt to the counter or bar to get your coffee/sandwich. We "broke protocol" the first place we went for lunch, but then figured out the drill.

I can't stress enough making reservations for the Accademia and the Uffizi in Florence. The lines to get in with no reservation were almost 2 hours long. We had reservations and waited maybe 5 minutes at the Accademia and walked right into the Uffizi at our appointment time. We emailed our hotel in Florence a week before and they made the reservations for us. You pay a reservation fee, but it is well worth it.

Good shopping -in Florence, there is an outdoor market just south of the Piazza della Repubblica. I got two beautiful leather purses (one for 20 Euro and the other for 55). Also got a pashmina scarf for 10 Euro.

We traveled by train from city to city. We bought our tickets on the Trenitalia website before we left. You just bring your confirmation email with you on the train.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I love to reminisce about the trip!

A good concise report.
While your guidebook has a point about getting a good view of the duomo climbing the tower in Florence, you miss out on a closeup view of the magnificent mural on the dome interior you get when climbing the duomo.

Thanks for sharing, Kendra.

Glad you liked Il Ritrovo.

"The chef and his wife welcome you like you are locals..."

Sure they would welcome you like you are locals. They have to because locals don't go there.

We ate there once, with average food (one can get better food at the same or lower prices in Florence) and every party that walked in were clutching a RickSteves or Fodors guide. It's almost a like a local Italian restaurant here in the US where the owner/chef spoke English with thick accent and the portions of the dishes are American size. To each his/her own and obviously some people here are contented with these kind of places. But there are a LOT of much better locals-only restaurants in Florence than this tourist-trap.

Dear ez,

Sorry you didn't care for Il Ritrovo.

The night we were there, we were the only people not speaking Italian.

Someone else reported that a busload of Americans swamped the place one night (it's very small).

A succeeding report noted that one night Marco locked the door because the place was getting full.

>...there are a LOT of much better locals-only restaurants in Florence than this tourist-trap.<

I seem to have missed your report on Florence restaurants. Can you give me the link?

Hello EZL:

>But there are a LOT of much better locals-only restaurants in Florence than this tourist-trap<

IMO, making this statement is like walking into a bar, throwing the first punch, and immediately walking out -- leaving the melee behind.
I'm going to be in Florence this summer, as I'm sure will others who visit this board, and I, for one, am "content" only with fine dining. Assuming, as I do, that your conclusion above is offered in good faith to us "here", would you kindly identify some of the Florence restaurants of which you speak as being both "better" and devoid of tourists? And when you say better, would you kindly enlighten us on the criteria that you use to reach that conclusion? Do you mean food quality, variety and freshness? service and staff attitude? atmospherics? portion size? other?
By doing us "here" this service, other Fodorites can vet your choices, hopefully with a little less invective than you used with Kendra's good faith and earnest effort. In the end, your contribution should benefit all who look forward to a visit to Florence. Looking forward to your detailed response! Gradyghost

grady:

My opinion on Il Ritrovo is based on my personal experience. I have no problem with somebody hyping it up as much as he/she wants. In the same way, and remember that this is a public message board, I don't have problems with others dismissing other's reports. Note that I stated "To each his/her own and obviously some people here are contented with these kind of places." Obviously, I'm not one of the contented ones. Either you live with it, or dismiss it.

Now, since this is a thread about somebody's trip report which, unlike you, I have no intention of hijacking, and you want information on my prefered restaurants in Florence, then provide your email address and I will send you a list and some details (as far as my notes will allow me).

Can't we all just get along!!

Correction: It's Finnegan's Pub in Rome, not Flanigans (must have been thinking about Cocktail).

Kendra -- would there by anything you would do differently "next time"?
We are heading to the same areas in October. I have just started the planning!

I haven't been to Il Ritrovo, but my experience in Italy (and in France, for that matter) is that if one dines at 8pm or,even later, there are many fewer non-Italian tourists. Bus groups generally don't arrive at 8 or 8:30 for dinner, anywhere.

Kendra ~ great trip report. Glad to hear that you enjoyed your Through Eternity tour, we have been planning on using them. I'll rest easier now. Thanks

Kendra -- I have a few more questions..want to take this off the thread?
[email protected]

Hi mishka,

The questions you ask might be very helpful to others.

I hope you continue this on board.

Hi Mishka,
The only thing I would do differently is we went to the Capitoline museum in Rome, and next time I would skip that and go to the Borghese Gallery (heard a lot of good things about it from people on our walking tour).

Through Eternity was great; both groups were small (about 8 to 10 people). Unlike some other walking tours we have taken, the guides had good personalities. They weren't just droning on with fact after fact. You could tell they really loved Rome and enjoyed "showing it off".

The whole debate about Il Ritrovo has made me think about what I consider the difference between a place that is "touristy" and one that has been discovered, so to speak. I consider touristy to be some of the restaurants in Rome that had signs outside saying "We speak English" or had pictures of the food on the menus. I think Il Ritrovo and some other places have just been discovered by a lot of tourists. There were a lot of other Americans there the night we went (and it was after 8pm). But I thought the atmosphere was real. Plus, I've never been given a free grappa at an Italian restaurant here at home!

It is nice to feel like you've made a real discovery with a restaurant, but if the food and atmosphere are good, I don't mind dining with my fellow tourists.

I studied in Florence, and I had never heard of this restaurant (il Ritrovo) until coming to this site. I am not one to go to restaurants in Italy (or elsewhere for that matter) that are overrun with American tourists, but that's me. If someone else likes it, why, that's all that matters.

Kendra-I found your comments about the shortchanging in Venezia interesting. I just got back a little over a week ago, and I found the Venetians to be scrupulously honest in returning change, as I count it all out when it's returned to me. Not to negate what you are saying of course, just that I'm surprised that you had that experience.

Kendra: Although Shakespeare's Julius Caesar speech is alot more poetic , I thought you might like what possibly was the actual speech given.
Many historians believe that it was a well thought out plan of Marc Antony to swing the Roman people (the mob ) over to his side, after a peace/armistice was agreed upon by the Conspirators, the Senate and the Caesar Loyalists. And it worked!
Cassius Dio (150-235AD) recorded the speech 2+ centuries later. Either it was recorded at the time (44BC) word for word which isn't too far-fetched considering how important it was. And it came down to him intact or his version is just an overall generalization of what was said or he made the whole thing up . Regards, Walter

"Yet this father, this high priest, this inviolable being, hero, god, is dead, alas, dead not by the violence of some disease, nor exhausted by old age, nor wounded abroad somewhere in some war, nor snatched away irresistibly by some supernatural force: but plotted against here within the walls--the man that safely led an army into Britain; ambushed in this city--the man who had increased its circuit; struck down in the senate-house--the man that had reared another such
edifice at his own charge; unarmed the brave warrior; defenceless the promoter of peace; the judge beside the court of justice; the governor beside the seat of government; at the hands of the citizens--he whom none of the enemy had been able to kill even when he fell into the sea; at the hands of his comrades--he who had often taken pity on them.
Where, Caesar, was your humaneness, where your inviolability, where the
laws? You enacted many laws to prevent any one's being killed by personal foes, yet see how mercilessly your friends killed you, and now slain you lie before us in that Forum through which you often crowned led triumphal marches, wounded unto death you have been cast down upon that Rostra from which you often addressed the people. Woe for the blood-bespattered locks of gray, alas for the rent (cut) robe, which you assumed, it seems, only to the end that you might be slain in it!"

Marc Antony then holds-up Caesar's cut and bloodied toga for the crowd to see and the inflamed Mob riots.
The Civil War basically begins against the Conspirators and their allies at that moment.
~14yrs later Marc Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide.

Thanks Walter; I enjoyed reading the real speech!

Spygirl: unfortunately we did have a few issues with change in Venice (which from an article I read on slowtrav.com is not uncommon). Twice we received the wrong change which we quickly pointed out and another time the ticket seller for the vaparetto conveniently "forgot" to give us our 10 Euro change. None of the three times seemed liked an honest mistake to us. Venice was the only place we had this problem and I was simply cautioning people to make sure they are not taken advantage of.

Kendra, I hadn't read your report until today. Good info. I'm glad you liked Colline Emiliane. We ate there on our final night in Rome in 2001 and had a terrific meal.

Enjoyed your report Kendra. We have a trip planned for July 2005. Could you elaborate on menu at ll Ritrovo. Thanks.

IMHO there are many aspects to choosing a restaurant recommended by another tourist if you want to avoid tourists.

That tourist has been there so it is not a virginal non-tourist place.
If it is good tourists will show up.
If it is bad tourists will still show up.
If it is cheap .....
If it is near a tourist center....

The only way to avoid tourists is to go where one has never trod before and then keep it to yourself. It doesn't mean it will be good, but it will likely be tourist free, until you have been there.

Hmmm, my writing is a little convoluted.