Realistic Budget for Italy Trip, both time and money

Four nights Rome, three nights CT, two nights Venice should do it. Plus one day to get back to Rome. Some will suggest not enough time for Venice, but I don't care for the place and it's expensive as all get out.

Probably four grand for the trip would be sufficent for meals, fees, grub, and hotels. Use venere.com for hotels in Italy. Pick places with a guest rating of 7.5 or higher (with a goodly number of raters) and you should be happy, even with the lower-priced spots.

The train-and-goat-cart crowd will be along shortly to tell you about transportation -- I'm a rabid car person.

Hi Liz - In Rome spend three days at -
http://www.hotelforte.com/en/index.htm - My friends Emanuel and Emanuella man the front desk at will take excellent care of you. Located directly at The Spanish Steps it is easy walking to The Via Veneto, The Trevi Fountain, and The Roman Forum
Train it up to La Spezia and then take the local to The Five Villages - Please check out Carla's website for her rooms in Vernazza , directly on the harbor - http://www.nerinarooms.it/
Please walk the trail - At the very least, the section between Manarola and Riomaggiore called La Via dell'Amore(lover's path) - Relatively flat and paved - about a mile long with a Cafe halfway for a cold drink.
Over to Venice and - http://www.hotelcasanova.it/
Located directly behind The Piazza San Marco - my friends Franco and Stefano man that front desk and will again take good care of you. Nice free breakfast, free water taxi tickets to Murano, where you can watch the glassblowing and - NO - there is no high pressure sales contrary to what some may suggest to you. Then you can continue on to The Island of Burano for lunch - The Island is famous for lace and embroidery and is very picturesque.
Price for all above - approximately $5000

Ciao, greg

By 10 days, do you include your arrival and departure days? Is there any way you can extend your stay? All three of those locations are so wonderful that it would be great to spend more time. Especially if the 10 days includes your arrival and departure days, you might want to consider limiting your stay to two destinations.

Definitely fly open jaws - on airline websites it's often called "multi-city" - where you fly into one city, and out of another.

Train travel has flatter rates than air, but do vary somewhat. Often "famiglia" fares will be available, which are cheaper, and I think 12 year olds qualify the family for the family rate. Go to the trenitalia.it website and put in some random dates to check fares - the fare structure only lists dates 60 days out, I think, but you can at least get an idea of what the fares would be.

We took our 10yo daughter to Rome and Venice (and a bunch of other places in Italy) last fall, and we paid 199 Euros/night for a triple room in Venice, and 210/Euros/night (190 Euros if we paid cash) for a triple in Rome. Breakfast was included in both places, the locations were extremely convenient, and both were clean and comfortable. You could probably find cheaper places.

For accommodations, suggest you look at Santasuassana.org for convents and monasteries, and for the CT, definitely use Rick. One caveat is that you can "over-church and over-museum" a 12 year boy unless you hit spots like the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum(mummies, ancient warrior civilizations and/or fit down time for a football game or other sport. Doing too much could add additional stress to a trip you don't need. If you stick to the convents, ect, I think you could get by at around 300 Euros a day or less, however, time is wasting to get rooms at those kinds of places any time of year. To give you an expample, my wife and I will be staying at a former convent with a super breakfast 5 minutes from the Vatican for 95 Euros a day and a convent in Assisi for 60, but you will have to use internet and fax to contact--and don't fret if they don' reply promptly--they are Italian! I would look at DK's top 10 Rome and Venice for good local places to eat--have never been disappointed. Good Travel.

We have two boys (12 and 15) and the four of us will be traveling for the first time in Italy this spring. We are staying at apartments for our entire trip, which I'm thrilled about. It will help us save money on both accommodations and food since we can cook for ourselves. Although some apartments are only available for weekly rentals, you will easily be able to find apartments in Rome, CT, and Venice (we are going to all three) for even just a couple nights. We found a lovely apt. in Venice for four for just 150 euros a night, which is a great rate for Venice. Feel free to send me a private message if you want more apartment info. Have fun planning!