Anyone willing to share some ideas on where to stay in Rome, Venice, and Florence for a first time 10 day trip in early April? This is a once in a lifetime trip for me and my family (two adult children in mid 20's) - We plan to stay a few days in each area or maybe only one night in Venice (due to cost) - we are hoping to stay in confortable but reasonably priced hotels, apartments, or B&Bs - many thanks for your expertise!

Hi V,

You chould be able to find pensiones in Venice for about 80-100E/night.

Try www.venere.com

I strongly recommend 3 nights in Venice. Bettter yet, skip Rome and split your time between Venice and Florence.

In Florence, I can highly recommend the B&B Peterson - www.bedinflorence.it

Also, please share your idea of "reasonable." Whats the most you're willing to pay?

We stayed at the Hotel Pierre in Florence--amazing central location, nice hotel with good breakfast and spacious rooms with beautiful bathrooms. Email them and see if you can get a good rate.

In Rome we stayed at the Hotel Ponte Sisto which we booked through reservationitaly.com and got an excellent rate which the hotel itself woudn't match. We loved the location near Campo di Fiore and the hotel is beautiful and has an excellent breakfast.

There are so many options! Since we were traveling in December and I was concerned about rain and cold weather, I wanted to be located very centrally so we could easily walk where we wanted to go.

It would probably be cheaper to get an apartment for the four of you, I wish I had done that last year instead of two hotel rooms for our family. Here is a website for apartment rentals ,http://www.romesweethome.it/.
Also, in Venice there is http://www.lacalcina.com/, and in Florence http://www.hotelcasci.com/index.htm.
Both of these seem to be very popular on this forum. We are staying at both of these in May(without the children). Good Luck with your planning and have fun. Genie

I'll strongly second the apartment idea, but you may have one obstacle: brief stays.

It appears you're going to stay fewer than 5 days in each place, and many apts. want a minimum one-week rental. However, you could go to a site like sleepinginflorence.com and take a look at what's available. Anything managed by Gianna in Florence is good, based on my experience. Sorry, can't help w/Rome and Venice.

Hi vineyard,

You will probably need to use hotel or at least small inns with the short stays. One nice thing about using www.venere.com is that you can plug in your parameters and sort by stars, location, or price! It's very useful.

Buon viaggio!

We are renting one of the San Lorenzo apartments from Sleeping in Florence in April, and although I have yet to stay there, I feel confident in recommending them.

Folks here and over on Slow Travel give Sleeping in Florence very high praise, both the apartments themselves and Gianna, the owner. I can certainly say that Gianna has been a pleasure to deal with; prompt in replying to emails, professional, and very warm. All of this matches exactly with all the good reviews I've read, so I have no doubts about the quality of the apartments.

The San Lorenzo apartments are not fancy, mind you. However, from the pictures and reviews, they are immaculately clean, fresh, and comfortable. The location is great and the price surprising reasonable.

One caveat, which may or not be an issue: there is no lift, and they are up a couple flights of stairs (I'm not sure if any of the other apartments on the Sleeping in Florence are more physically accessible)

They are starting to book up for April, so I would recommend making all of your reservations as soon as possible, where ever you decide to stay.

Have a great trip!

(I'm in my late 20's, and going to be traveling with my parents and late 20's sister, too. And in April!)

I meant to also suggest this place for Venice:

http://www.alcampaniel.com/

I found it by seaching the boards here for budget accomodations in Venice. We aren't going to Venice on this trip, afterall, but I've bookmarked the website for the future.

We were very happy with our stay(in 9-05)at Hotel Pendini in Florence.- would definitely stay there again. It is located on Piazza della Repubblica and has charming good-sized rooms, good beds, & adequate breakfast. My sister's family of 4 was also pleased with their stay last June. They booked a family suite that was less euro than 2 rooms. www.florenceitaly.net