I finished booking our hotels for the trip. Using Venere.com it was very easy to find an affordable hotel. The site provided pictures and reviews from other travelers. It was great being able to review the hotel from the perspective of another traveler rather than the typical description hotels write for themselves. One restriction that I had in choosing a hotel was that Jae insisted on having a private bathroom. In some hotels that could be a 30 euro difference!!
Deciding where to stay was hard in the beginning, which part of town do I want to be near? What sights, what restaurants. In the end I decided that I wanted all the hotels to be located near the train station. I figured it would be easier to get off the train, drop our stuff off at the hotels and then go play. Venere made this very easy, you can search for hotels by areas of the city. This is made simple by a cartoonish map that showed all the main attractions within that city.

I booked 3 nights in Rome, 3 in Florence and 2 in Venice. Venice was the most expensive. Another thing I liked was that I didn’t have to pay upfront, but pay when you’re there. They do charge your reservation credit card if you don’t show up.

Searching took a few hours, I wanted something cheap, but not too ghetto, and a place that also got good reviews. Needing a private bathroom kinda guarantee a two star and above accommodation =P But in the end I was pretty satisfied with the prices I got, they range from 60-120 euros which I think was pretty reasonable for those three cities.

Planning is always the most tedious part of traveling. Maps, guide books, schedules, arg!! I have three! Three maps of Rome!! Makes me almost just want to go and get a packaged tour, to have someone that will tell me where to go, what to do. But, unfortunately this isn’t a tour, this is my trip. As must as I’d like to leave it to the winds to take me around, there needs to be some plan, some idea of what should happen on what day. So, I armed myself with pencil, pen and a handful of stickies and got to work…
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So far… I don’t have much…
I’m debating whether or not to pre-book the museum tickets. It seems like if you buy them before hand you don’t have to wait in line, you just go, pick up your tix at the time you bought it for and go in. But the problem is that first, you need to be there at the scheduled ticket time, and second, many museum tickets require you to buy through a third party vendor…. One that charges a hand and a foot to provide such a service. Should I save the money and wait in line or should I save the time so I can see more things???? Do I want to hit every museum possible?
In the end I made the required reservation for the Galleria Borghese in Rome from the museum’s site. And pre-purchase tickets for the Gallery Academia in Florence also from the museum’s site so I didn’t have to pay extra. All the other places… .I’d rather save the money =P

Museums
List of museums, hours and price of admission
RomeGalleria Borghese (Reservation only)9-7 Closed Mondays 8.5 euro
Vatican8:45-4:45 8.45 euro
Colosseum8:30-7
FlorenceGalleria degli Uffizi8:30-6:50 Closed Mondays $21
Galleria deli Accademia8:30-6:50 Closed Mondays 7.5 euro
VeniceAccademia Galleries8:15-7:15 Closed Mondays 6.5 euro
Palazzo Ducale9-5 11 euro

Packing List - Electronics
· Camera
· Camera charger
· Portable storage unit
· iPOD
· iPOD charger
· Tripod
· AC adapter
Small Flashlight