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Help! Planning without the book... not by choice...

Posted by (San Francisco, CA, USA) on

Hi folks... I am Barcelona on business right now and was planning to go from here to Italy for the first time sometime this weekend and leave from Rome on the morning of 6th, giving me approx 8 days in Italy. I was thinking of spending time in Florence and Rome, and possibly going briefly to Venice and possibly also Cinque Terre. Unfortunately, my Rick Steves Italy book was in my luggage which was lost by the airline on my way to Barcelona.

I would love some advice on places to stay in the above cities, any types of "city passes" like the Museum Pass in Paris to help save money and avoid lines for major attractions, etc. If I thought I might find an English language copy of the book somewhere in Barcelona, I'd be less concerned, but I was hoping to spend this week planning out that trip. Of course, now, I'm dealing with the lost luggage, buying new clothes and still want to plan this trip, so any help you can provide would be very, very much appreciated.

Thanks!
Stu

Posted by
241 posts

Just read on this website. There is much info here, and topic headlines are generally accurate. As stated on post today about Bologna, beware of flying discount air carriers. They don't necessarily use the closest, most convenient airport.

Posted by
705 posts

Get onto trip advisor and venere for your hotel bookings. Suggestions for hotel - Pensione Accademia in Venice and Pitti Palace in Florence. Both reasonably priced and well located. Rome I'm looking for a decent hotel for my next stay too.

Venice has a pass which is for all the museums around San Marco Square which is apparently good value. I didn't get it but have read about it on this site. They also have a pass for about 12 - 15 historic churches which is good value. It's the only place I have been to where you have to pay to get into a church.

With the time you have I would do Rome, Florence and Venice and leave out CT as you would be pretty pushed to get it all in. These towns will be easy to negotiate by train.

Posted by
1127 posts

3 cities in 8 days doesn't give you a lot of time in any city. Since you are flying in/out of Rome I would limit the trip to Rome & Florence. Rome has the RomaPass that combines transport & sights. Details at www.romapass.it.

Where to stay? Rome, Nicolas Inn www.nicolasinn.com. Florence, Il Villino, www.ilvillino.it.

Posted by
11 posts

Actually, I am flying OUT of Rome but flexible as to how and where I enter Italy if that helps at all... Thanks!

Posted by
3580 posts

If possible, fly into Venice, take a train to Florence, then another train to Rome. WWW.venere.com is a good website for finding rooms. I stayed in Hotel Enza in Florence in April and liked it. Hotel Aberdeen in Rome and Hotel Tivoli in Venice are places I've stayed in the past year; both are budget-priced and nice hotels. Make generous use of this website for more info. If you prefer the CT to Venice, fly into Pisa (it's closest to the CT) rather than Venice, then take the train to the other two cities.

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