A bunch fo ???'s

Rena: I hope that together different Helpline members are able to answer all your questions--the multiple question posts are sometimes challenging for us to tackle because of their complexity and we're all volunteers with limited time. Sometimes it helps to break the posts up into one or two questions each. I will try to answer one of your questions now:Paying for gas: We have not had reports of people paying with Chevron cards, the gas station brands in Italy are different than here. We have had reports that sometimes American credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard don't work in gas stations. It's an important detail because with gas costing $8/gallon (it's in euros per liter over there), if you pump €60/$100 of gas (in a manned pump then pay station) and then your credit card doesn't work, you would want to have enough cash to pay for it.

I'll tackle the question about booking hotels:

We have used Tripadvisor (an absolute wealth of information!) to select hotels and then made reservations directly with the hotels.

I like Tripadvisor for checking out quality of hotels and then I contact them directly, usually get a better price going that route.

I'm not sure what train site you're using, but the Trenitalia website only shows the straight 20% reduction for Amica fares. Many Americans have reported problems booking tickets on the Trenitalia website. The Amica fares are available up to midnight the day before you leave, so you can always purchase them there. However, they are limited in supply, so there's always the chance they'll be gone.

Venere.com is a good site for hotels. Like trip advisor, they have a lot of customer reviews. You can sort by date and price and see what is available, saving you a lot of time. I've booked rooms through them without any problems - they use your credit card to hold the room but don't actually charge you until you are there. As others have mentioned, you can often get a cheaper rate contacting the hotel directly, but I haven't felt the rate I got on venere was that much more expensive so I've booked through them mostly for convenience.

Not being able to buy tickets on-line through the trenitalia site just drives us American bonkers. My advice is not to sweat it - just get your tickets when you arrive in Italy. Since I arrive in a city through its train station, I save myself a trip and buy train tickets at that time and been able to get the train I want as well as the Amica discount.

Hi I have never seen a "gas company" card listed at a gas station. We always us the capital one visa. Go to www.slowtravelcom and there is a great article about how to pay for gasoline in italy and how to pay your tolls on highway. We found it very helpful b/c of photos.

I have always used online sites to book hotels in italy. There are two types;one where you prepay and one where you secure reservations. I use venere.com and booking.com for the latter. They are also cancellable at a click of a mouse. www.otel.com is prepaid for a good rate. They too allow cancellations but they credit your cc later. If you have any questions you can email me.

Suzan