Hotels used in the BEST OF ITALY 17 DAY TOUR

You need to contact the Rick Steves office for that information. Their staff rarely sees questions here and your posted in the review section anyway. It is my understand that their tours use a variety of hotel and it can vary from one tour to another even when it is the same tour. Not sure what the hotels have to do with the trip one way or another. Our experience with their tours when we have crossed paths with them is that the hotels are all 2 and 3 stars. Almost always very close to the city center so that walking is convenient.

We took that tour several years ago, so the hotels used could have changed. They do use a variety of hotels in some of the towns. But, to give you an idea, on subsequent trips, we’ve run into a RS tour group at Hotel Ala in Venice and one in Siena at Albergo Chiusarelli.

What we learned during our RS trips is that location is priority Number 1 (after safety, of course). Being in the heart of a historical area saves so much time and has a great ambiance for your trip. Enjoy your time! We have returned multiple times to Italy since that great Best of Italy trip!

You will not find a list of hotels on the website. It varies from tour to tour.

When we did the best of Italy tour, we ran into the best of Europe tour at the train station platform in Monterosso the day we departed. Never saw them while there so the were 'somewhere else',

I would really like to research the hotels for a better idea of the trip.

I must be a bit dense, but what do you expect to learn about the trip, from the hotels? If you have an RS Italy book you can read descriptions of the hotels he recommends. They are the hotels used for the tours

Not all the hotels had elevators so if stairs are a problem, then you need to contact the RS office to see if you can be accommodated.

Our experience with their tours when we have crossed paths with them
is that the hotels are all 2 and 3 stars.

We've not taken any RS tours but worth mention that the star ratings are most probably not based on QUALITY but on the European model of amount of amenities offered by each property. A modest, well-kept and and well-located 2-star hotel with few extras may be highly preferable to a battered, badly-located 4-star with a lousy restaurant, tiny elevator, insufficient air conditioning, etc.

I have been on this tour and can state the hotels were comfortable and centrally located. Also, some single rooms were quirky like mine in Venice. But all hotels were clean and had comfortable beds and provided good breakfasts. The hotels are generally small and family run, I found the staff to be helpful too.
I enjoyed the tour tremendously.

Desiree,
I understand wanting to know about the hotels ahead of time.
I suggest that you watch the RS video about hotels and look through the scrapbooks.
I posted photos of all the hotels we used on this tour. You can find the link on my trip report thread.
You won't know the exact hotels for a particular tour date until a few weeks prior to the tour start.
Here is a list of some of the hotels from my tour:
Villa Cipressi-Varenna
Hotel Seelaus--Alps
Hotel Ala--Venice
Hotel California--Florence
Hotel Pasquale--Monterosso
Hotel Chiusarelli-Siena
Altarocca Wine Resort
Hotel Aberdeen--Rome

If your want "a better idea of the trip," I suggest that you browse through the tour alum scrapbooks. This year's entries includes one for the 17-day Italy tour. The scrapbook archive has a lot more.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks

I've run into Rick Steves tour groups twice at Pensione Guerrato in Venice, most recently in June 2018.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond! I appreciate all the tips and suggestions and will be exploring them all.
My husband loves history, architecture and people, but is not a lover of travel and has a difficult time out of his environment. My research is to help him feel more at ease on this possible trip.
Again, thank you all!

Rick has some hotel names here: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/rave-reviews-tour-hotels And I note that he says there is a tiny chance you might, once, have a bathroom down the hall.

Now that I'm older, I would comment that some superbly located, affordable hotels (not necessarily referring to Rick's choices) come with earplugs in the room. That's because they are not air conditioned, and there can be street noise in old, narrow streets - possibly cars, but more often groups of people. That's an occupational hazard of "living-local". But it's a deal-breaker for us.

Don’t worry about sharing bathrooms on Best of Itsly. I think the only tours that still have the possibility of shared bath accommodation are 21 Best of Europe (Switzerland if you stay in Stechelberg) and the Scandinavian tour. To check, go to the tour page and click the category “Physical Demands”.

Best of Italy does not have shared bathrooms listed as a possibility.

The hotels we stayed at on the Best of Italy tour were excellent. From what I have read in other postings, the hotels vary from tour to tour. If I were to return to Italy, I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at the same hotels. Their locations were excellent.

I put two, 10 minute videos of our tour on YouTube. I think you will be surprised on the variety of scenery that we experienced on this tour. I had been to Rome and Florence previously, and was totally blown away on how pretty Italy was. My favorite city was Venice. If you go on this tour, you will love it.

Turn up the volume while watching the videos.

https://youtu.be/c5mdy0OzRC4

https://youtu.be/MZia6oOs8iA

If you have any questions, you can send me a personal message and I will try and answer them.