When to make restaurant reservations?

I don't think there is anything magical about the timing of reservations. Do it now. If it is too early, the restaurant will tell you so. Since we are not as well organized as you are, we do most of our reservations the day before or sometimes the day of.

I’ve never called for reservations in Italy earlier than the same day or at most the day before (rarely and only if it was a larger group) and in many cases I don’t even bother to call, I just show up, especially if it’s just me and my wife and it’s not a special occasion like New Year’s Eve dinner.

How many of you are dining together?

It is rare to need a res more than 24 hours in advance and often same day works out. I used to call at 6pm for an 8pm res except at Pizzeria La Pratolina in Rome. Call at least 3 days in advance. And La Zucca in Venice is notoriously hard so a week in advance is a good idea. Sometimes online reviews will suggest how far in advance and some restaurants will take an email res.

Thanks, everyone.

It’s just two of us.

Normally when we go on vacation in the U.S., we will make our dining reservations for places we don’t want to miss out on 2-3 weeks before leaving. It sounds like this isn’t necessary in Italy? Even for very well recommended places?

I hope this isn't an obvious thing to say, but it pays to find out now what days and times each restaurant is closed --- we have had to change our plans more than once because the place where we wanted to eat was closed all day Tuesday or was only open for dinner on Sunday or was closed for a holiday we weren't aware of.

We usually travel to Italy in the shoulder seasons or in winter, so I can't give much advice about reservations --- the day before or day of is often just fine. Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio in Rome in late March on a weekend was almost full according to their own website, but we could have still made a reservation the day before (it was raining hard, so we walked half a block to Perilli's instead).

It depends - I was just told Alle Testiere in Venice was booked for a date in late May, so a month ahead was too late for that particular place. CoVino only had a 9:45 timeslot on the same day, and I needed earlier. Other places seemed to have full availability, and I could probably wait until the day before. If theres somewhere specific you want you can do it now. I don't think it's "too early", just earlier than necessary for many places.

If one of your choices happens to be Sostanzas in Florence I would reserve early. 2 years ago I tried to reserve 2 weeks out for a friend and wasn't able to get the day they wanted.

I think I will try to make some reservations in a week or two just to be sure. To avoid troubles with the time difference and international calling fees, would it be appropriate to ask my hotel to do this before we arrive? I have been able to correspond with all of them via email.

Also, we will be in Florence on and leading up to the Festa della Repubblica on June 2. Does that make a difference in terms of when we want to have these reservations solidified by?

If I knew which restaurants in Florence, I would have a better idea. The trattoria Sostanza is very popular but it is also very small with maybe 5 tables in total, hence the need to reserve. Others are rarely full.

One of the Florence restaurants we have picked out is Vini e Vecchi Sapori, which I know is very small and popular. Would you call a few weeks in advance for that?

It depends on the day of the week, but if not a Friday or Saturday (or before holidays) a day or two before should be sufficient for two people.
You will be sharing the table with strangers, in case you are not familiar with those types of trattorie.

I agree with recommendation above in Florence for Vini e Vecchi Sapori. Was there is March. Great food, friendly service and moderately priced. I'd go back.