Where to sat in Rome, Florence and venice

Alice Check out RS Italy Guide for affordable and fairly centrally located hotels. Although some will suggest an apartment, for first timers, I suggest a hotel since you can use the front desk staff to answer all of your questions. For example, local market, laundramat, good inexpensive dinner, nearest train stop, etc. Rooms for 3 or 4 people are difficult to find. European hotel rooms are small and often every room is different. You can look for "family rooms" or email hotels directly as some do not list them. These rooms go quickly. FYI, you cannot just add one more person to a room. Prices are really by the number of people not by the room. Besides there isn't any more space for an additional person! You might also check out RS Europe through the Back Door which has lots of info about the European way of doing things. Such as small hotel rooms. I don't think I have ever heard of a hotel with 2 queen size beds like we are used to in the States. Or their 1st Floor is really our 2nd floor. Or the teeny tiny elevators, if they even have them! Very fun but sometimes disconcerting, if you dont' have the heads up from Rick! Great for you to be traveling with your college kids.
Bobbie

I just used bookings.com for a number of hotel reservations. For one thing it keeps them all in one place, they were very easy to cancel if I found something better and they have a phone number that you can call anytime for additional questions answered. I was travel with 3 other friends, so we needed a larger room with 4 beds. I could email the hotels directly for specific questions, but still track everything through bookings.com (did not appear to be any more expensive as I did check other options)

I suggest venere.com for hotels in all three cities. If there are 4 of you traveling you'll have to book a quad room, there is no way around this. It is required by law that they take the passport information of everyone staying in the room so be sure to look for the appropriate size room in each city. For Rome, the most expensive areas are the city center near the pantheon, piazza navona and trevi fountain. The less expensive areas are the termini and vatican areas. These two areas are still within walking distance to the sites, transportation and restaurants but they are not as charming as the city center. For Venice the most central areas are around St. Marks and the rialto bridge. Less expensive areas are cannareggio and Dorsoduro. You don't mention a budget and "not expensive" means different things to different people so it's hard to make any specific hotel recommendations. All rooms will be clean but be aware that rooms in Europe tend to be on the small side. Donna

Alice, are you leaving in less than 6 weeks? October is still a busy time of the year and you will have your work cut out for you. After using any of the hotel booking sites to find what is still available, and I also like venere.com, you can do a quick check on TripAdvisor for traveler reviews for any hotel that you are considering.

since you have four adults, you may find that you will need to get 2 rooms. Take a look at renting apartments. In Venice we have used www.veniceapartments.org with good luck . www.viewsonvenice.com also gets good reviews. Other folks like to use www.vrbo.com

Hotel Al Piave, which is just a few minutes walk from St. Marks, has a few family apartments and suites, I don't know what your budget is, but Venice is expensive. These apts/suites are about 260-300 euro per night. Location is great but I don't know what you consider "not expensive" to be in Venice. The give a Rick Steves discount and have stellar reviews.

Definitely get the RS Italy book. It will be the best money you spend on your vacation. And for future reference (and for future posters) you'll get better results if you define "reasonable" in euros or dollars. Very few people want to stay someplace that's "unreasonable." Happy travels.

In Florence you can save quite a bit (to compensate for Venice) by staying at the Archi Rossi hostel. It is well located, clean, and they have rooms for 4 with private bath. Or you and hubby could take a double with bath and put the students in one of the dorm rooms. Book directly through their website.