Venice in June-need help
 

My wife and I are planning atrip to Venice the last week of June to Venice. I have a few questions That I hope someone can help us with. 1) With the whole Iraq situation what is the attitude towards americans in Italy? 2) How is the weather in late June early July? Is it too hot or too rainy? Where do you recommed to stay? we prefer 3-4 star hotels. <BR>Thank you for all your help<BR>Dpao

We vacationed in Rome &amp; Venice last month. The attitude toward Americans was quite friendly even though several antiwar demonstrations were occurring. I haven't been in Venice in the Summer so can't comment on the weather. I can recommend the Antico Doge hotel which we liked very much. Nice hotel in a good location.

www.lacalcina.com<BR>Pensione La Calcina<BR>3-star favorite on the Guidecca canal

I'm staying at the hotel Ala in Sept. lots of positive comments on this board- www.hotelala.com<BR>la dolce Italy<BR>Fluffy

I was in Venice this past December before the war broke out so can't really answer questions 1 or 2 although I did see some anti Israeli grafitti when we were there. <BR><BR>I have heard some people complain about mosquitos in summer so bring repellent &amp;, to be safe, I would choose a hotel with a/c.<BR><BR>There are hundreds of hotels, pensiones, b&amp;bs etc. in Venice. The first consideration is location. Many prefer staying in the San Marco area to be within easy walking of Piazza San Marco, the Doges Palace etc. Others prefer to be in a quieter neighborhood. The website venere.com is a good place to browse hotels &amp; prices. Why not pick a few options &amp; check them here on rants &amp; raves or by doing a text search. <BR><BR>In addition to the ones already mentioned, some other popular ones are the Flora (3*), Locanda Barbarigo(4*),Pensione Accademia (3*),Ca' Pisani(4* I think), Hotel Ala.

We were in Venice early last July, and it was quite hot ( mid to upper 80s, some days hitting 90s) with a few late day thunderstorms. We stayed in the Lido, and would come back from Venice in the middle of the afternoon for a swim, either at the beach, or sometimes at the Westin Hotel.<BR><BR>Have a great time, and bring plenty of mosquito repellent!

I second the recommendation about using venere for hotel-finding..you can also cross-check vener's rates with discount sites like discounthotels and SRS-world hotels. Also agree with the mosquito repellent and getting a hotel with a/c IN THE ROOMS..make sure. Paying to stay in some poor way out of the way place just isn't worth it and espite what others may say you do spend at least 8-10 hours in your hotel room out of each 24 and you want your stay to be memorable in a positive way. Venice is NOT cheap...try getting a coffee at Florian in St. Marks..and while on that subject..make certain you do at least one visit to St. Marks in the evening AFTER most of the &quot;tourists&quot; (except you, that is!) have left..it is absolutely magical.

We stayed at the Hotel Ala this February and loved it. The hotel is conveniently located (very, very close to the vaparetto stop) and is right on a canal. Our rooms were lovely (we traveled with our kids and had connecting rooms), the breakfast was fine, and the price was right. We would definitely stay there again.

I was in Venice last June during a terrible heat wave and Venice was miserably hot. We stayed at the Antico Doge after hearing great things about it but it was miserably hot as well. The room never even came close to cooling off and opening windows did not help because of the intense heat outside. I hope the weather is better for you because our trip suffered for it. Didn't visit the Doges Palace because we couldn't stand outside in the line to get tix. Didn't take a gondola ride because we would have melted!! The humidity was incredible. After I say all that, I did love Venice and think I have talked my husband into trying it again sometime. Maybe stay at a hotel with a pool!! Ciao!

We were in Bavaria and along the Mosel River during the heat wave last June and it was miserably hot and humid as well. That was one strange experience. We'd checked several weather sites on the web, and all the 10 day forecasts were for highs in the upper 60's low 70's. It hit 100 one day--the tour boats on the Mosel had to hose the metal decks down because they were too hot to walk on. We fared better than German and other Northern European tourists because we experience Maryland summers, but god it was so hot and humid. We had to go shopping for shorts and T-shirts as we were expecting those much cooler temps.

The Hotel Colombina is a lovely hotel in Venice (33 rooms). 4 Star.<BR>Take a boat to the Islands of Murano and Burano - even if you are not interested in lace or glass, its a lovely peaceful sail and the islands are lovely.

Venice will be hot and humid in late June...but what a wonderful time to sit out at any cafe and watch life go by until (and after) the sun sets! Everyone has mentioned great hotels..there is a lovely new hotel called San Angelo that is situated on the Grand Canal, well located, but not in the midst of heavy traffic (close to Campo San Stefano)<BR>You also might want to consider renting a huge apartment for less than it would cost you to stay is a 3 star hotel. There are apartments available with locations on the Canal as well.

Spoke with a friend who recently returned from her trip to Italy. In Venice, they stayed at the Capri, a 3-star hotel in the Santa Croce area. It was an easy walk from the train station and in a quiet area away from the hustle bustle of San Marco. I looked it up on the web &gt; &gt; &gt; http://www.corihotels.it/

In addition to the Carlton Capri, that site also lists the Carlton Grand, a four star hotel --- and significantly pricier. However the Carlton Grand is offering an internet special and if your travel dates coincide you could get a good deal there; for example, I keyed in dates during May and they had a room for 150 euros per nite (usually priced at 232 euros).

1. I don't believe that the italians have an anti-american attitude.
2. the weather will be hot and humid. The only place that you may have AC will be in your hotel. No AC in most places.

Returned recently from Venice, where we were for the worst of the combat in Iraq. The attitude is (or was, at least) very much anti-war, with numerous rainbow-striped &quot;PACE&quot; and &quot;PEACE&quot; flags draped pretty much anywhere you could drape something. Lots of other rainbow-striped things on sale: umbrellas, scarves, etc. Fashion is fashion, after all.

Not much in the way of directly anti-American sentiment on show, but you have to remember that Venice is very much aware of its dependence on tourist dollars, and so anti-U.S. graffiti is removed quickly. Almost all of your face-to-face interactions will be with individuals who are interested in you from a financial point of view, and they will not go out of their way to make you uncomfortable.

I speak Italian and am happy to chat at length with strangers, but even then only once found somebody who was even the least bit challenging. As I'm anti-war and not even remotely a fan of Bush it was actually pretty rough going for this guy---he really wanted to get into an argument, and it just wasn't going to happen. This individual was Italian but had only lived in Venice for a year and was not related to the tourist industry at all (worked for the World Health Organization, actually).

Expect warm and humid in the summer. A/C a must, but I'd consider staying on the Lido if you're there for a week (which I encourage) as you'll have access to a pool and the beach, and the issue of spending absolutely every possible moment peering at art will not seem so important. There are several very upmarket places on the Lido; a search on venere.com will show them. Do consider mosquito repellant---they were an issue (indoors, actually, while we slept) in early April.

We stayed at the Locanda Barbarigo, by the way, quite nice (though it's hardly a four star, as somebody says above). I describe it in detail on my trip report, Venice with Kids (click on my name and it will come up).