Hotels
The Rick Steves selected hotels for My Way Italy met Rick's criteria and ours - central to the activities, easy access to public transportation, breakfast selections, English speaking and personable front desk staff, spotlessly clean, comfortable beds, and reasonable amenities. Some were contemporary in decor and others were old world style, but all met our needs very comfortably and were included with our tour.
Milan |
For the pre-tour hotel in Milan, Denise researched hotels suggested in the current Rick Steves guidebook and found Hotel Garda which was located only a couple of blocks from the Centrale train Station. We booked a basic room in the business class hotel where we were comfortable after learning how to turn on the air conditioner in the room. A metro station was located at the end of the block along with a bank ATM and quick sandwich and pastry shop. Our bed was comfortable and the bathroom very up to date and modern.
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Venice |
Hotel Ala is located on vaporetto stop Giglio and then a very short walk down a narrow lane to the small piazza where this beautiful old world hotel is located on the left of Campo Santa Maria del Giglio. We followed the hotel attendant who dealt with our heavier bags and directed us to our room up the elevator, more steps and around several turns to our very nice and large room. It was lit with a traditional Venetian glass chandelier but required the traditional room key to turn on the lights. This was one of the large "real" keys that we would leave at the front desk when we left the hotel and ask for when we returned; quaint and fostered greeting the hotel desk staff regularly helping to improve our 'boun giorno', 'buona sera', and 'buona notte' .
Lake Como |
The Royal Victoria Hotel (pictured above) in the lakeside village of Varenna boasted elegant public rooms and delightful outdoor terraces and views of the campo or the lake. Our comfortable room overlooked the campo with a view of one of the local churches to the side. The breakfast offered a variety of food choices and seating inside or out on the terrace. There's even a small lakeside beach. Very relaxing.
Cinque Terre |
The Hotel Palme is located about two blocks from the Monterosso al Mare train station up a side street only about a block. This was the most contemporary decor of our hotels and our comfortable room overlooked the palm tree garden.
Florence |
Hotel Accademia while in a great location was probably our most basic room even though it overlooked a gelato shop. We did have to walk up a long flight of stairs just to get to the beautiful landing and lobby, but it was very clean and had a small wet room. They were short-staffed one of our mornings and so breakfast was a little bit of a challenge on that day.
Assisi |
The Hotel Umbra in Assisi had the most wonderful courtyard where we enjoyed a happy hour with the other tour group folks and breakfast in the mornings. Our large comfortable room had a peek-a-boo view of the valley below Assisi and a very large wet room for the bath. Tucked into a small side alcove off the main street, it was very private.
Rome |
Hotel Aberdeen located only 2 blocks from Republica Piazza and across it to the Termini was another hotel where the lobby was a few steps from ground floor. This hotel also locked its doors at night and we had to ring the bell for entrance after 10pm. Our room was large and actually had a sitting area with an extra sofa bed. We stayed here the extra day after the tour ended and were quite comfortable. The staff was very helpful with arranging early morning transportation to the airport for us as we left Rome.