...Ok, Flights are now booked and confirmed. Into Paris 10/13 - 10/16 fly to Venice 10/16 booked into the Stuck Hilton from the 16-19. Train from Venice to Florence on the 19th staying there until the 22nd (nothing booked yet) . However, the 19th is a special birthday (for my wife) and I'm trying to decide if I would surprise my wife with a extra night stay in Venice with a romantic dinner in Venice or spend the day on the train and try to scramble in Florence, for a romantic dinner there after travelling and trying to check in to a new hotel. Which posses a number of new questions...

In Venice, we arrive at Marco Polo airport. What is the best way to get to the hotel from the airport ? Can anyone recommend a different hotel in Venice for one night (over looking the Canal) as well as a highly recommended outdoor restuarant in Venice over looking the city or Canal for her special birthday.

Barring that, if we travel to Florence can we get some recommendations for hotels in Florence as well as a romantic restuarant in Florence to celebrate...

Leaving Florence on the 22nd by train to Siena. Spending 5 nights in Tuscany (3 Siena,2 San Gimignano) Very excited about that portion of the trip. Train from Siena to Rome on the 27th-30th back home on the 31st.

Need help with hotels in Rome as well...

Thank everyone so much for all your help and getting us this far...

Peter

P.S. doing this quickly between red lights please excuse spelling errors...

peterh,

Best wishes to your wife on her birthday!

There are a thousand better located hotels than the Stucky Hilton (in a very isolated setting and not convenient to anything). I strongly recommend you re-book elsewhere. I would find something in Venice proper - folks here can give you many, many suggestions for something better. What's your hotel budget for Venice?

For Florence, go to google maps and look at staying in the area between the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo. Then type "Hotels" in the search box and click on all the red dots. There are many, many hotels in all price ranges in this zone. Find a few that look good to you and come back for comments.

In Rome, do something similar. Go to google maps. Draw an imaginary line in your head that runs from the Pantheon south to the island in the river (Isola Tiberina) - search for "hotels" in this whole area that runs from your imaginary to the river to the west.

One Rome hotel, similar in class to the Stucky Hilton on La Giudecca island you looked at, is the St. George (5 star): http://www.stgeorgehotel.it/

A little less expensive are the Hotel Ponte Sisto - http://www.hotelpontesisto.it or the Hotel Teatro Pace - http://www.hotelteatropace.com/

What is your budget for Venice / Florence ?? There is an excellent B&B which is both charming and romantic in Florence just north of the Duomo....the Relais Grand. Look on Venere. Should run about 100 euro.

For Rome...look at the Seven Kings Relais. They have a website and can also be found on Venere.

Peter: are you foodies looking for a memorable meal, or just looking for a romantic/upscale/beautiful place where to dine?

Not sure what your budget is -- personally I think Venice is a very romantic city and that is where I'd want to spend an anniversary. I prefer Locanda Orseolo with a room on the Orseolo Canal side, or I would consider their sister hotel, Al Ponte Antico, right on the Grand Canal "behind" the Rialto. You could get recommendations for a special dinner. Of course many other options exist for lodging.

Getting to Venice proper also depends on time and money. Water taxi if they will drop you at or very near your hotel is pricey but very nice. There are other methods that cost less and take longer.

I see Franco is on the case and he will have excellent recommendations for you.

In Rome we liked Albergo del Senato right at the Pantheon but you have many, many options here. (Personally I preferred staying and dining in the Trastevere area.)

Franco, yes we are foodies and we would enjoy an upscale beautiful place to dine... either in Venice or Florence.

Annw, thank you I will check out the Orseolo... the Al ponte was sold out for that time, I was hoping spend our entire stay there but they only had one of four nights open.

nyvic, thank you I will check these out in Rome as well...

As far as budget goes under 450 Euro seems right for the location... In this instance it's more about the places rather than the price.

Peter

Hi Peter,

My husband and I are doing a similar trip in 4 weeks for my 50th BD! I'm counting the days! Here's what we're doing....

We are starting out in Venice for 4 nights. We've been there before and we took a water taxi to our hotel. It works fine and we will do it again. We'll be staying at the Europa Regina Hotel which is a beautiful 5 star Starwood property right on the grand canal. They have a gorgeous romantic rooftop restaurant...they filmed a scene there in the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley!

Since we will be in Venice on my Birthday, I researched romantic restaurants with views and I selected and reserved the "Grand Canal" located in the Monaco Hotel. http://www.hotelmonaco.it/customers/...s/en-index.htm

It looks like the perfect place to have a memorable birthday dinner. The next night, we're going to see an opera, La Traviata, at La Fenice!

We're then taking the train to Florence as well. It's only a 2 hour train ride on the high speed train. We'll be staying at Palazzo Magnani Feroni. It's a beautiful all suite Palazzo that has a beautiful rooftop terrace bar with amazing views of Florence! http://www.palazzomagnaniferoni.com/palace.phtml

I'm still researching restaurants, but so far, these are a few on my list to try: *Il Profeta, La Grotta di Leo, Vini e Vecchi Sapori, Osteria dei Baroncelli. Haven't made any reservations yet, but will soon.

Have a wonderful time and I hope this info helps!

Diane

diane: The "Grand Canal" looks great. Any idea what the prices are like? I've actually walked by it and wondered about it.

peter: Re your wanting to spend an extra night in Venice and where to do it. We once stayed at the Principe. It's near the train station -- not a great location -- but there are rooms with balconies on the canal. The hotel itself is OK but not spectacular. I thought of it because of the balconies and its proximity to the train station for your departure day.

Well, being foodies doesn't make this an easy task. Venice has no restaurants for a birthday dinner for foodies. Period. Yes, it's unfortunate... but Venice restaurants are either beautiful, upscale, and not really worth the money, serving just ok food (or not even) for huge sums; or the few that are really good (never exciting, though) are rather simple to outright simple and thus not for a special birthday dinner.

OTOH, the train travel to Florence is perhaps not a perfect birthday program, but that's of course up to you. In Florence, if you decide to go, I recommend you take her to Cibreo, http://www.edizioniteatrodelsalecibr...id=12&Itemid=2. That's a place like you're hoping for: memorable food, the mainstay of traditional Tuscan cuisine (almost died out under the influence of tourism), a beautiful restaurant.

Two more options spring to my mind; both would mean staying in or near Venice, but dining on the mainland. Either you pretend to leave Venice, but instead of going to Florence, go to Villa Condulmer for one night, http://www.hotel-villacondulmer.it/i...=1&lang_id=eng. I've no idea how to get there without a car, but I suppose it wouldn't be a problem by bus from Piazzale Roma - or on your wife's birthday, you might want to take a taxi; given your hotel budget, it wouldn't break the bank (not very far from Venice, a 20 or 25 minutes ride). This means to gamble to a certain extent, though. I've never stayed at the hotel, but the villa is so extremely beautiful, it's more than likely that the hotel rooms will be, too. Plus I didn't eat there since the current chef has been responsible for the restaurant. I was there several times at the time of his predecessor, and the food was just excellent, and surprisingly reasonably priced for such a stunningly beautiful setting. The new chef was sous-chef under the old one, and I've heard the food has become even better thanks to him - but I can't confirm from my own experience.
The other (third) option would be to stay in Venice, but leave town for dinner (by taxi, in this case there's no other reasonable option), and go to Al Cason on the outskirts of Mestre, www.alcason.it/. In this case, I can testify to the quality of the place, which is quite certainly the best fish restaurant I've ever been to in my whole life. Expensive, but T-E-R-R-I-F-I-C. Taxi back to Venice after dinner.

Franco - Have you eaten at Locanda Cipriani on Torcello?

DH & I stayed at the Hotel Ponte Mocenigo. It is not right on the Grand Canal, but you definately feel like your are in Venice when you stay there.
http://www.alpontemocenigo.com/

notbob we loved that place, mostly for the ambiance it is true but the food was fine.

notbob, yes I have, several times. The place is beautiful, and even more beautiful is the boat trip forth and back. But it's not a place for foodies. The food is just average, just ok, and from what I have heard, it has been getting worse recently. Btw, it may interest you or Peter or somebody else to read http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...estaurants.cfm

Franco, I just read your food/restuarant posting from 2006. Very impressive.I have now cancelled one of the nights stay at Stuck Hilton and now plan on staying two nights in Venice (18th and 19th)before leaving for Florence. I would love to hear recommendations for accomadations on Venice proper either on the Grand canal or a canal with a great experience. Can you or anyone recommend an obsolute must stay hotel experience in Venice...

Peter, I never book hotels in Venice, just apartments so to cook myself with the wonderful ingredients from the Rialto market. From what I hear from my Venice acquaintances, the Gritti is THE place for who can afford it. For the two nights that you could stay there, it's within your price range (440 € per night for the "basic" room category).
I'm not sure, however, whether I would change hotel within Venice. Also the Molino Stucky is of course in Venice, just in a not-so-great location. Honestly, have you checked Villa Condulmer? You can view the different rooms as soon as you click "book now", and give your dates. The rates are about 150 to 250 € per night and room...

We just returned from Venice and loved the Locanda Orseolo. We had a lovely room overlooking the canal. It was really fun just to hang out the window and watch the gondolas go by. And the front desk staff was incredibly helpful, along with delicious breakfast!

In Venice, we ate at Alle Testiere, which was very good. Delicious seafood and nice service.

In Florence, we stayed at Antica Torre de via Tournabuoni--another fabulous hotel, in a great location. Gorgeous rooftop terrace for breakfast, and to look out over Florence--wonderful views.

I have to recommend a place that we went to that was right near our hotel (off of the via Tournabouni, a big shopping street with Ferragamo, Prada, etc). It was called La Decima Musa, and my husband and I agreed that it was the best meal we had during our trip to Italy. It was a small place, not crowded, and not outrageously priced either. But the food was just so interesting, delicious, and beautifully prepared. We sat down, and they immediately offered us two free glasses of prosecco. I ordered a lasagna, which was the lightest pesto lasagna I've ever had--the pasta sheets were incredibly thin and it was delicious. My husband got squid-ink ravioli filled with lobster meat--out of this world! He also got the duck, which was delicious as well. The service was also some of the friendliest and best we'd received as well. As we dined there, we promised ourselves that we'd share it on this forum when we got home!

http://www.ladecimamusa.it/eng/index.html

lacohn, I'm glad the meal at La Decima Musa was so very good, and I certainly don't want to belittle it - but since Peter said they're foodies, I HAVE to add that what you had was no Tuscan fare; it was a fancy food Italian restaurant that could have been in New York City, Singapore or Berlin, as well. It's very easy to determine: there is almost no pasta in Tuscany, and no ravioli or lasagne at all, so any place serving a variety of pasta, or ravioli, or lasagne, is not a Tuscan restaurant.

I personally think Florence is every bit as romantic as Venice. Ever wander the streets after everyone's gone to bed? You've the Piazza Signoria to yourself. You can wander around the Uffizi, wherever you want. I've done it many many times and never had a problem although I am constantly aware of my surroundings as a person needs to be day or night. All to yourselves, and if you are smart about it, it's perfectly safe just leave your passport and money at home. Venice is interesting but I think it's really over priced. However, I stay in cheap hotels that are family run and clean...about 95 euro a night at most as we go every year. The fancy hotels have nothing on these hotels, just an opinion. For $440 a night, add up a few nights and one could have a rental for the whole winter in quite a few great places with mild winters. Plus it's small so there's not a whole lot to see. If you really want to do romantic.....book a dinner at an old villa in the Tuscan countryside and look out over the wine goves and green hills. Just my opinion but Venice is crowded crowded crowded and way overpriced although I go back there now and again. One other thing, Siena has a great market, it goes on and on; it is well worth trying to time out. Three days might be a bit much for Siena as it's nice but quite small. Cool fountain in the main piazza.
We never eat anywhere without talking to the locals. The dollar amount has very little to do with the food you are going to get. In most places, I found the more expensive restaurants to have far far inferior food to much less expensive places. Ask the locals and look for where they eat. That's where you're gonna get the really good food.
Hotels often have deals with restaurants, each recommending the other so be careful with that.
It's not about how much money one spends. It's about how much one knows of the place beforehand, how one is received by the locals and how much one takes the time to take things in. Again, just an opinion. I went to Italy once and didn'
t care how much I spent. It's the least favorite of my trips. I got nothing from it. Our best times have been on the cheap, sitting and talking to locals all night and drinking wine.

We all travel differently and personally I don't agree that "The fancy hotels have nothing on these hotels" stated above.

I have stayed in both luxury hotels and basic ones and my enjoyment of the trip overall was not tied to what I paid. However, given my personal tastes, I prefer to book the nicest hotel I can afford and am willing to work hard to find the best deal. I want a comfortable bed, a nice bathroom and enjoy the amenities of a good hotel.

I also do not agree that " I found the more expensive restaurants to have far far inferior food to much less expensive places. " I find that a very sweeping generalization.

I have had some very memorable meals that were budget stretchers and others that have been enjoyed in rural farm area in Tuscany. As a foodie, I go to Italy primarily for food and wine and over the course of 19 trips there are dining experiences at both ends of the price spectrum that I will not soon forget.

I do agree with Steve31 that Florence is every bit as romantic as Venice and I actually prefer it, but beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.