Venice 2 Nights, Florence 4 Nights & Rome 4 Nights... WHERE DO WE STAY?
 

My fiance and I are honeymooning in Venice, Florence and Rome for 10 days. We havent picked any hotels yet in Italy. What areas do you recommend we get our hotels in?

We would like to be centrally located so we can move around easily. We are first time travelers to Europe so your advice would come handy!!

Looking forward to your recommendations... Thanks all!!

Welcome to Fodor's. There are lots of threads here with similar questions - if you do a search you'll find additional information. Also, if you want specific hotel recommendations (not just areas), it will be very helpful if you provide your budget per night in euros.

Venice is pretty small, so most places in the main city (not the Lido or Mestre) will be fine. I stayed here, thanks to a recommendation from Fodorites, and really loved it, but location isn't as big a concern in Venice as in other cities. It would be nice to be near a vaporetto stop, but the city is very walkable.

www.aitagliapietra.com/booking-ENG2010.htm

In Rome, I really loved staying near Piazza Navona. We walked everywhere. Trastevere is also a great neighborhood and gets recommended here a lot. Staying near the main train station (Termini) or the Vatican are convenient for those areas, but not so much for getting to the rest of the city.

It's been too long since I've been to Florence to help there.

We went to Italy for our 10th anniversary. We stayed in these places and love each one:

Venice: http://www.cortegrimani.com/ Great apartment, lots of room, close to everything, less than 5 minutes to San Marco

Florence: http://www.sleepinginflorence.com/le..._florence.html In the pedestrian area close (but not too close) to San Lorenzo market. Very convenient. It's a walk-up if that makes a difference.

Rome: http://www.vrbo.com/32035 Quirky 2 story apartment with great view. You can walk to Colosseum. When we were there the nearest subway entrance was closed, but it should be open by now and very close.

Gee I can't believe it's been 7 years since then!

My three favorite Italian cities. I could blab on here but instead will direct you to my website which has write-ups of our travels to these very cities fairly recently. Also links to reasonably priced places we stayed. You must have two full days in Venice the most romantic and beautiful city and I live near San Francisco.

http://www.rimerson.com/

Rob

Venice Pension Academe
Rome anywhere near train station
Florence stay outside the city in it is very nice

My favorite in Venice, Hotel al Ponte Mocenigo, a welcoming place and very close to the San Stae vaporetto stop, 5-minute walk in a quieter direction from the Rialto Bridge.

http://www.alpontemocenigo.com/

I would start with some research here, or at www.slowtrav.com or www.venere.com.

Search here using one city at a time--" Rome hotels".
Theer are hundreds of posting for each city.

Congratulations!

When I read honeymoon and first-time to Europe, I'd lean towards suggesting "special hotels" (memorable) rather than an apartment. What is your budget per night and perhaps we could give more specific recommendations?

What's your budget?

I also recommend hotels for a first visit. Hotel staff can be very helpful with restaurant recommendations and reservations, directions and tickets, etc. Once you have visited a city and apartment is very nice but for a first visit a hotel is better.

We like the Pensione Accademia in Venice and also the Hotel Ala. In Florence we like the Tornabuoni Biacci. In Rome, a hotel near the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. The Albergo Senato is great. We recommend not staying near Termini. The area is not the greatest and it is a good distance to major sights.

Will second the recommendations of Al Ponte Mocenigo in Venice and the Albergo del Senato in Rome. I was at both last summer and they are both terrific, clean and central. If you add your budget, it would be helpful to suggest more places.