Hi everyone, I am so glad we found this site!! We are a family of five from Halifax who will be travelling to Italy (Tuscany region) this coming August. We found an awesome flight on Condor from Halifax to Frankfurt and will probably be connecting on Lufthansa to Venice before heading to an agritourismo near Florence for a week followed by another villa near Pisa for a week, after which we will be heading to ROME for a week. That is where we need the help...where does a family of 5 stay in Rome on a budget? We also could use a reccomendation for accomodations in Venice on a budget. Any suggestions??/ We have stayed in hostels before but would probably prefer apartment type accomodation. Looking forward to some interesting suggestions. THanks in advance. Beth and family (kids 13, 11, 7)

Hi Beth and welcome to Slow Travel!
You'd better post your question on the Italy forum as more people will see it there!
You can also have a look at the ST Classifieds section and Reviews in the Italy section.

Hello Hello!!

This is so cool - we are a family of four (kids 17 & 11) from just outside Halifax (Enfield) who are travelling to Florence and Venice in July!! I also took advantage of that fabulous Condor deal - isn't it an amazing price?!

Look forward to "talking" to you on the boards.
Anne

Hi Beth, Having just booked our accomodation in Rome in September, I have to say that the reviews on this site are invaluable. I did find, however, that a few places are already booked for the fall which I found surprising?

Let us know how it goes.

Hello, Beth, and welcome to Slow Travel from a fellow Canadian!

As suggested above by Giulia, it would be best to open a discusion on your trip in the Italy Forum.

To do this, go to the Italy Forum, click the "New" button at the top of that page, select then "Discussion" and create a new discussion with an explanatory title, for example: "Family of five-needed suggestions for Rome and Venice budget accomodations".

If you have other questions, it is best to deal with them as separate discussions, with each topic under its own title.

Hi, Beth,
Welcome to Slowtrav!
I stayed in a very economical rental in Venice this past October. Here's the VeniceBy website and here is Marco's website. I rented the 2 bedroom apartment for 11 days, and it was a good choice, I think. One bedroom has a queen bed, the other has a smaller bed, and there are 2 futon/hide-a-beds in the living room.
It is comfortable but not luxurious, has a good kitchen for meal prep, a dining room, a bathroom and a huge living room. It is located on the 3rd floor of an old palazzo, with a good hike up and down the stairs to the street and back again!
There's a cool history to Marco's B. & B. It was his family's home for many years and when his parents retired, he took it over and started a B. & B. There are 3 B. & B. rooms and the apartment. The rooms are named after the family members who slept there, when it was his family home.

It is located an easy walk from everywhere...I walked a lot in Venice, wandered, got lost, found myself again, went to an evening presentation of 5 members of the symphony orchestra playing in Santa Maria Formosa, walked to an Internet spot, to St. Mark's, to Arsenale and via Garibaldi, to Sant Elena...lovely!

If you email Marco, please tell him that I mentioned his B. & B. to you...there's a little thing that happened in Florence a couple of years ago...my favorite leather shop and Mario, the owner, started giving a 'friend of Brenda' discount to anyone who went to his store and told them I'd recommended him! Now, Marco is also offering to give a 'friend of Brenda discount'to anyone who stays with him! How cool is that, I ask ya?

In Rome, we stayed at Dolce Roma in the Colosseum View 1 apartment, and it was great...not economical, but a good location, a very nice 2 bedroom apartment and for a week, we blew our budget!

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go." ~ Truman Capote
Brenda

Welome Beth!
You have a great question! I too want to hear the answer. Which place are you staying at in Florence? I have been looking into agriturismo sites...so many to look at. Just need to find the PERFECT one.

i have used the rental company,,rentalin rome.com..we had a great apt near campo..they were easy to sue, have a car service,reasonable for any budget..i took my family for first time..i lived in rome and woudl stay near pantheon,pza navona or campo-location and has verthing you need in the traingle

Where are you staying in Rome if you dont mind me asking??? We are mind boggled at all the options/ We will be there for three nights before flying to Germany. Thanks for the info...looking forward to talking to you more...Beth



Hi Beth, Having just booked our accomodation in Rome in September, I have to say that the reviews on this site are invaluable. I did find, however, that a few places are already booked for the fall which I found surprising?

Let us know how it goes.[/QUOTE]

We are staying at the Agriturismo Bella Vista...picked out by my inlaws who have not stayed there before but are seasoned Italy travellers. ANyone stayed there before??? Looks great on the website.
Beth

quote:

Originally posted by Limoncella:
Welome Beth!
You have a great question! I too want to hear the answer. Which place are you staying at in Florence? I have been looking into agriturismo sites...so many to look at. Just need to find the PERFECT one.

Hi Beth, We're staying at one of the apartments of Dolce Roma - the studio near the Forum. However, her other 3 apartments are all two bedroom/two bath units which appear to sleep 5 or so. Here is the website http://www.dolceroma.it/index.htm

I have found Natalia very easy to deal with over the net- she just today sent us our confirmation that she received our deposit. If you do a search on SlowTrav reviews of Rome apartments, you will see that she gets lots of compliments.

I would suggest that you start checking out Rome locations fairly soon as I found when doing some preliminary checking, a few places were already booked for September.