Dear Chris,

We are following with great interest the trip you are planning for you and your Dad.  We, too, are planning a European trip during the same time frame.  Your tips to plan the transportation first have been most helpful.  Although we have the going and comiing from/to the USA down, we are still planning the rail within Italy.  The trips we want to take are Venice/Milan (the Last Supper–we already have tickets), Milan/Florence for 3 nights, Florence/Pisa (Monday), Pisa/Rome for 4 nights.

We are still are looking for places to stay in Florence and Rome during the time frame May 2-4 in Florence and May 5-9 in Rome.  When I enter the dates we want for the low cost housing, the price jumps from about 60E per night to about 120E.  Do you have any tips on inexpensive rooms/B&B in Florence and Rome?  We would like to stay near the main train stations, or near the main sights.

Also, we want to see David and the Accademia and also visit the Ufizi galleries in Florence.  Do you think it is necessary to get tickets from the USA?  I found a site that only charges 3E service fee, but most of it was in Italian, and was difficult to use.

Your tip to visit Pisa on Monday, because most of the museum buildings in Italy are closed  was good.  We put Pisa on our itinarery for Monday May 5!

Thanks for all you tips and info,

A.&D.

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Hi A.&D.

In terms of your train transportation once you are over there;  Judging by where you say you are going a rail pass seems more expensive than point to point tickets.  As for my trip (which is similar as you know) the average price for point to point came up close but cheaper than a rail pass for 4 days travel in Italy.  That being said you can get an idea of the  price and if you want buy the tickets on line at www.raileurope.com .  Personally, I would, and am going to just wait until I arrive in Europe and buy my tickets as I go.  I’ve always found the best plan of attack is to get off the train in the city you are arriving in and before you head to your hotel, book the next leg of the trip.  Running into a language barrier is seldom a problem and usually fixed by writing down the date you wish to travel (day/month/year),the time (24 hour time), the destination and hand it to the person behind the window.

Now in terms of accommodation.  I’ve been doing a bunch of searching for my own trip lately and I have found a couple that I can recommend based on price and online reviews (which I don’t put too much weight on) but I have not stayed at these yet.  So…don’t blame me if they end up being horrible.  That being said I’ve booked some of them so we can share horror stories when we get back if your up to it and it goes that way.

In Florence check out Hotel Losanna. I will be paying 55 euro for the same time frame and the place is fairly central.   Another, albeit a few euro more expensive Hotel (but closer  to the city center) that was recommended to me by a trusted source is Hotel Dali. Lastly a place I stayed a few years back, Hotel Ferrettii is more expensive but very close to the Duomo and run by the most charming lady.   If all these fail, hop on the travel forums and ask for other recommendations…someone is bound to have a suggestion.  Also, be sure to use www.venere.com for hotel searches.

Rome is a different story.  I have had the hardest time finding cheap accommodation that isn’t booked already.  For me anything over 60 euro for a double is out of my budget right now and frankly these do not exist in Rome.  So, what I  am doing is staying at one of the campgrounds outside the city.  Tiber camping is easy to get to and camping is not necessarily sleeping in tents.  You can rent a mobile home type bungalow which for a few extra bucks has a shower and toilet en suite.  You can also get the same set up without use of the en suite shower for a few bucks cheaper and just walk down to the clean public showers at the campground.  There are restaurants, swimming pools and convenience stores (although the hours weren’t all that convenient).  If this does not sound like it’s for you I’ve also been in contact with a nice  guy who rents a B&B in Rome.  The place was going for 90 euro for two people and is centrally located.  I was about to book the place myself but opted to save the few extra bucks.  The contact’s name is Rodolfo.

The sights in Florence have never been an issue for me.  I’ve only been there in the summer and have always gotten in to see what I wanted to see.  That being said, I’ve also waited out in the hot sun in a line that ran around the corner of the Accademia to see the David statue.  If you are going to be on a big time constraint you may want to book ahead and loose the 3 euro but I would not go so far as to say it is necessary.

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