Italy Travel Forum

I will be in London the end of August and wanted to do a short (5-6 days) trip to Italy. I dont want to be moving from hotel to hotel....so I narrowed the places down to Florence and Rome as our two main stays. We thought we can do day trips to other areas like venice, naples etc...

We are on a budget...so I am looking for some reasonable accomodations in both rome and florence. Also, would you recommend us flying in from London vs taking the train.

Any suggestions would be welcome....i need help planning this trip.

Thank y'all.

Joy

Do try to fly: if you go by train you really will use up and awful lot of your available time travelling to and from. Also accept that you won't have time to see even a fraction of both Florence and Rome in such a short time: you can only get a taste of each.

Don't try to fit in the other cities as well, because you would do nothing but travel from place to place. It would be a waste of time, imo. Save them for the next visit: Florence and (epecially)Rome have more than enough to occupy you for much more than a week!

Check UK budget carriers' fares on www.whichbudget.com and www.harefares.com You have left it a bit late for really good fares (and you are travelling in the UK chool holidays, so even budget fares are higher). Remember to factor in cost of transport to/fro the airports. Also be aware of the very strict check-in for budget airlines (a couple of minutes late and you will miss your flight, with no refund) and of strict hold baggage limits (20kg for most, 15kg for Ryanair).

If you want to explore the train option, look at:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml

for train times/routes/details across Europe. You have only the Eurostar option for getting to France: look at www.eurostar.com (book as soon as you can, for it works like a budget airline...fares go up the nearer you get to departure date).

For onward fares you will need to look at the individual country's website. www.sncf.com for France, http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html for Italy.

It pains me to say it, but flying really is your best option in this case. Fly ro Rome or to Pisa (for Florence...easy bus or train ride to get there), then take the train to the other city. No need to book train tickets in advance for this.

Look at www.venere.com for acccommodation in Italy (and elsewhere). It's a reliable site with honest guest reviews which is used by many VT-ers (including me, many times).

www.booking.com is also good, but Venere has more accommodation choices in Italy (it lists b&bs and apartments too).

For this short trip you might also do well to look at the possibility of an all in tour - flights, hotels, transfers between airports and hotels etc and some all in or optional extra day tours. not the sort of thing I usually recommend but I keep seeing what look like very good offers advertised in our national press.
You could try googling "guardian readers holidays" but if you think it is an idea you would like to pursue get back to me here and I'll look out some info for you.

(My computer/modem is down and I am on a slow dial up connection at present on our holiday laptop!)

One of the hotels I really liked in Rome was actually a convent, Instituto Il Rosario. Here's a link to reviews. http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/hotels/review.asp?n=convent+casa+il+rosario&s=colosseo

Reservations are made through email, irodopre@tin.it, or telephone, +39 06 6792346, rather than an online booking service. I'm not sure what doubles run (since you mentioned 'we') but a single room with the bathroom right outside was 40 euros a night. Bath inside was 52 euros a night. The only negative that they have a curfew of 11pm, which actually becomes a positive since it means most people who come back late at night making a lot of noise don't stay there. Also, this hotel was located in a great location within a few minutes of the forum and other attractions, but was set on a quiet street. It even has an inner courtyard on the roof.

Definitely take the advice of the other posters and cut down the list of cities. You'll enjoy your vacation so much more if you're not constantly spending your time traveling between cities. Italy is definitely a place to go back to so you can see the cities you missed on your next trip.

Thanks for the response. I will google that information....but if you see a package that would include the transporation/hotel and throw in some tours as well,let me know. Doesnt hurt to have a look.

Thanks so much for offering to help.

Hello Joy - thanks for your response on the Forum.
I have got a few ideas after sifting through my newspaper brochure collection. Florence and Rome are not coming up as a 2-centre trip at the end of August but I have a couple of other ideas.
What would be you absolute date - begin and end for a trip to Italy? And can you give me some idea of your budget - pp for the trip? I don't suppose I need to tell you that the $ is not good against either the £ or the Euro now!
I have been looking at www.travelsphere.co.uk if you want to get an idea of available options.
Regards, Barbara