Kathy

Our family is considering travel to Italy next spring or early summer. I have been researching hotels in Rome, Florence, and Venice on this site and others. I have found several in each city that sound great, but would like advice from any of you who have traveled with your families to these cities. Our children are older, ages 16-22. They have traveled with us to Europe twice before and love the experience - they enjoy the different culture, food, etc. They also do not need, or particularly want, American style hotels. If any of you have recommendations for suitable hotels that would welcome families, we would appreciate it. In our previous trips we used 3 double rooms or a double room and a quad. The kids enjoyed being together in a quad room. Thanks in advance.

elvira

In Venice, we stayed at the Albergo Santa Lucia (guestinitaly.com) and had two huge quads, each with a really big bathroom. It's on a quiet side street, except for a party across the way where people were singing arias, which was just too cool for school.

Rex

My (slightly qualified) recommendation for Venice is Bonvecchiati - - had a good experience with 3 and 4 kids to a room in 1998 (11 of 'em all total - - daughters, nieces, nephews and boyfriends). Only reason for hesitation is that I have been back there since, and the hotel is trying to "move itself up" a bit - - in both price (to pay for the various renovations?) and "class" (haven't gotten "stuffy" yet - - but is that next?). <BR> <BR>And a pleasant enough place I canNOT recommend is Hotel Marconi - - right by Ponte Rialto - - we checked it out and found that their definition of a quad room is the same as a double room with extra beds pushed in to make essentially wall-to-wall mattress. I think that there may be some other nice things about the hotel, but a reservation for a "quad" room here needs to have this caveat in mind. <BR> <BR>Last of all, I have also stayed with kids in Lido at Pensione Stella - - a necessary budget concession to get an extra night in Venice on the itinerary - - but I do NOT otherwise recommend staying on Lido. But they treated us fine there. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

Leslie

We liked the quad room we had (room 102) at Albergo Santa Chiara, in Rome, also the breakfast and the location. Recommend it highly. <BR> <BR>Stayed at the Hotel Marconi in Venice, too. We liked our quad room though we didn't have a view to speak of. While it wasn't as large as our room in Rome, we thought it was quite comfortable and nicely appointed. Only their lobby and hallways disappointed...need fresh carpeting. Then again, this is a 500 year old building!

mRJ

we stayed in quad rooms (family of 4) at: <BR>rome: Santa chiara, www.venere.com/it/roma/santa_chiara/ <BR>Venice: Hotel FLora, www.hotelflora.it <BR>Florence: Hotel Casci, www.hotelcasi.com <BR>