hotel reservations

I used venere.com to book all hotels in Italy 2010. It allows you to search by city area, price, and guest comments. I read all posted reviews and looked at pictures when choosing. EVERY place that we booked was exactly as stated via pictures and reviews. Good luck.

Depending on your budget and cash flow, if you reserve directly with the Italy hotel, they will not charge you until you arrive. You then have the option of reserving a hotel without paying. Therefore if something does happen and you need to change your plans, instead of the hassle of getting your money refunded, you just contact the hotel and notify you cannot stay any longer. (you usually need to give the hotel a 3 day heads up) Sometimes they have the option of per-paying and will give you a discount. When you book with a 3rd party travel site you will be charged at the time of booking and they may charge more then the hotel, since they need their cut of the cash.
Therefore what i have been doing is using rick steves travel books as a starting point, then looking at Tripadvisor.com to see recent comments on the hotel/motel/B&B, then contacting the place directly and reserving.

Do you have a copy of RS Italy Guide Book yet? If so, great.
If not, I would suggest you get one as it is full of very useful information that we are using to plan our trip to Italy this coming September.

What's the question? Are you wondering if you need to make advance reservations for that time of the year?

Got a PM from Diane saying that she's worried some hotels, b&b etc might be closed for season. Diane, it really depends on where you're going. The seaside resort places will indeed be shut down by November, but the other towns/cities will still be going.