October Honeymoon in the promised land.....need help!

My wife and I stayed at Hotel Residenza in October, 2011. It is on a quite piazza and a leisurely 10 minute walk to St. Marks Square. A great location. It has alot of old world charm. The room we had was large and simply furnished. The included breakfast was served while you were seated on overstuffed couches or chairs. The breakfast was simple continental and adequate. The price is good for Venice.

What kind of price range are you aiming for? On the rooftop terrace thing, maybe I'm being negative, but we did that once, and it wasn't very interesting. Not much of a view, the service was very slow, and the terrace was full of Americans rather than Romans. All of your Rome hotel choices are not very centrally located. Would you rather have a view, or whatever services you're seeking, or a location that's closer to the sights you want to see? Especially in Rome, I enjoy much more sitting in a gorgeous piazza (Pantheon, Campo d'Fiori, or Navona) with the view of the piazza and great people-watching; consider whether you might be more likely do this than seek out a rooftop terrace. Are your flights already booked? If not, it would make more sense to fly open jaws, into Venice and out of Rome, rather than backtracking. If you're committed to the 6:30 flight, consider staying IN Rome that last night anyway - you can always sleep on the plane.

Lexma nails it with her suggestion to go open jaw (aka "Multiple cities" on airline websites). You want to minimize time spent traveling between destinations. But I'm guessing you're already locked in. Do you have the RS Italy book? It's especially great for first time travelers to Italy. It will also help you save a good bit of soldi (Italian for "coins"). :-) Happy travels.

Cadence, First of all, congratulations! I have a few comments.... As some of the others mentioned, I would also strongly recommend using "open jaw" flights. With such a short trip, it would really be a good idea and would maximize your touring time. You could (for example) fly inbound to Milan and outbound from Rome (or vice versa). As some of the others mentioned, having a balcony view in Rome often means a view of a bunch of buildings, with nothing too "scenic" at all. A balcony view with good scenery will likely be somewhat "pricey". You're probably only going to be in the room at night, so how much value will a balcony view be? I'd suggest choosing Hotels based on convenience for the the sights you want to see. I usually stay in the Termini area, as it's somewhat central and the transportation options are great. You can find good recommendations for Hotels in the Italy Guidebook, in various parts of each city. It would be a good idea to pick up a copy of the book soon, as there's a wealth of information on touring (and also on saving money and avoiding queues). The only Hotel on your list that I've stayed at is Hotel London in Milan. It's a really nice Hotel and the room was not overly luxurious but very comfortable (I had a "single" and those tend to be more "basic"). As I recall, Rick recommends skipping the breakfast and finding something on Via Dante (the breakfast room is really small). If this is your first trip to Europe, you might also find it helpful to read Europe Through The Back Door. Good luck with your planning!

The best hotel in Rome with a rooftop for drinks and dinner is the Grand Hotel Minerve right on the Minerve Piazza and maybe 100 feet from the Pantheon. What a view! If you get tired of the Victor Emmanuel monument, you can glance over at the dome of St.Peters. Wow. But it is pricey. We stayed at the Hotel Fiume on Fiume Piazza recently. Moderately priced, big rooms and balconies. Quiet neighborhood with tons of little trattorias and bars. Also has a rooftop terrace and free wifi. These things are tops on my list, as is the free hot breakfast with fresh squeezed OJ that you squeeze yourself. Also, the bus stop for the 62 bus to all the sights is across the street. Close to walk to Villa Borghese, an absolute must if you love High Renaissance sculpture. Just a wonderful place.

Re: the Marcella Royale in Rome. I stayed there about 5 years ago. It does have a rooftop terrace for breakfast and my room was quite nice; however, I would not stay there again. I really did not care for the location. I'd suggest you choose a hotel in Rome in a better location.

Cadence, A few points to mention regarding RS Guidebooks. You can also order them from this website, and the delivery will be much more reliable than what you've experienced so far. As I recall, ETBD uses UPS for shipping? Most of the books are also available in E-book format, which can be downloaded in a few seconds. However, the 2012 versions are usually up to three months behind the print versions, so not all of the 2012 E-books will be available yet. Regarding Hotels in Rome, you might have a look at Hotel Sonya or Hotel Aberdeen. I've stayed at both and would certainly recommend them (I last stayed at Hotel Sonya in late September). Cheers!

Thank you all so much for your advice. I haven't bought anything yet, you need money for that and it seems to be scarce around these parts =) I considered doing the open jaw, I have a couple of things that I definitely want to do and there are specific dates for them (the Chocolate Festival in Perugia starts on the 19th and runs for 2 weeks I think, and the opera at La Scala is 19th, 22nd, 24th, 26th). So I have different itineraries in a notebook, but I am completely open to suggestions. Fantastic advice for Rome. I guess a balcony there would be overrated and $$$. Rooftop terrace advice makes sense too, save that for Florence. Fiancee is a bit of a history buff and I thought staying somewhere near colo/roman forum would be cool, but then there's nothing else there but those sites. Plus, tons of tourists. Just want most bang for buck I think. Thank you for the input on the Venice and Milan hotels. Wasn't sure just looking at sites and tripadvisor, overwhelming much??

Price: Just trying to be reasonable, not bankrupt us. I would love to stay in places that are 5 star luxury, but as the saying goes, champagne taste on a beer budget ;-) Trying to stay to $200-250 per night for Rome MAX, under $200 for all other cities, Florence being the only splurge I think. I know the actual city is lovely and full of things to do, but I think staying in the Tuscan countryside (even if it's only 20 minutes outside of the city) would be ideal. Guidebooks: Yes, have the Italy 2012 book coming to me, hopefully. I ordered it from Barnes and Noble just after Xmas and it got lost in the mail, so it's hopefully arriving by the weekend. I did look through the specific city ones and the dvd for Italy, haven't read through Europe through the back door. As for flights, I have found TAP Portugal with 1 stop each way for about $950 in and out of Rome. If you have any advice how to get it just as cheap with no connections - just direct - I'd appreciate it. I am a BAD flyer. Thank you!!

try using kayak.com or one of the other big search engines for flights. I put in 10/14 to Venice out of Newark and returning from Rome 10/28 to Newark for 972. Choose the multicity option to enter your flights. I get the same price for r/t to Rome

Cadence, I have read your post a few times and can not quite figure out what month you want to leave. One of the posters has you leaving in October (must have known when the chocolate festival is, right?). Are you leaving in Oct? When we went to italy in 2010, we booked our flights for end of November, coming back 16 days later in December. We flew into Milan and out of Venice. Our tickets cost less than $700 each. We booked our flight in June, figuring it was the right time to take the bait, which was a good call, as the ticket prices went up and stayed up. So I book tickets anywhere from 4-6 months in advanced. But I watch airfare like a hawk prior and study the prices. $950 doesn't seem that bad from the east coast but it may be a bit too early to take the bait. And like most posters have said......consider an open jaw ticket. Any loss of time backtracking in Italy is just too precious to lose, especially when you are staying in an airport hotel. Not too romantic. Our last day was in Venice, in an awesome hotel with a balcony over a small canal (Al Ponte Mocenigo, room #5). I also enjoyed Hotel Sonya. big room, view of opera house and central to many sites and termini station. Wasn't as awesome as our other hotels in Siena, Florence, and Venice, but I was probably awesome for Rome. Decent breakfast too. Edit: Duh...the title of the post states October. So disregard the beginning of my post.

Kelly, thank you for the info! Everyone, appreciate the suggestions on open jaw/multi-city. Truthfully, it's easier and similar pricing for r/t Rome. So we are ok with it, the itinerary has us ending at a Rome airport hotel only to sleep and scoot. We will have had a fantastic trip and will be ready to head out by the time we get to that last pit stop. I could use some hotel selections for the Florence region if anyone has any. Even outside of Florence would be ok, just need to be able to get there by public transpo. Any more Rome ideas?

For Florence, We loved hotel loggiato dei serviti. Our room 12 was an unexpected upgrade given to us for 95 euros at the end of November. 2 levels, 2 baths, living room, view of the square and not too far from the Duomo. We looked forward to coming home every night and even ate dinner in our room because it was so fabulous.