Hotels in Italy

From historic five-star deluxe inn to simple, homey one-star mom-and-pop pensions, you can find hotels to suit every taste and budget in Italy

You know the drill. This is the classic option for a place to lay your head whilst traveling. Doesn't mean it's the best—and rarely is it the cheapest (I've got two dozen lodging alternatives to hotels here)—but there's nothing wrong with a good ol' hotel room.

Heck, I've made much of my living over the past decade recommending hotels (along with restaurants and such) in travel guidebooks. Hotels are such a standard and widely chosen option, there's a whole section of this site devoted to how they work, how to find the best ones, the tricks to get a better/cheaper room, and the differences you'll find between most American and Italian hotels. You can read all about that here.

How to find a good hotel

Use your guidebooks, ask friends who have gone, peruse sites like TripAdvisor.com, and look at the better booking engines. I've partnered with three excellent booking engines that do things differently.

Unlike most other booking sites, these three include hundreds of choices in each city that are in the cheaper price ranges (the one- and two-star tourist hotels ignored by most major booking engines), plus they lists apartments, farm stays, B&Bs, and other non-hotel options.

My favorite booking engines are:

  • PartnerBooking.com (www.booking.com) - Put it this way: when I had to book a trip to Sardegna this past fall for a magazine assignment, I canvassed various guidebooks and websites looking for just the right hotels...and ended up finding (and booking) every single one of my hotels with Booking.com. It's that good. It also has lots of nifty, user-friendly options, like arranging results for hotels according to neighborhoods, or their proximity to particular sights.
  • PartnerHostelWorld (www.hostelworld.com) - Yes, its the premier independent booking site for hostels, but it also includes cheap hotels, campgrounds, and other budget options ignored by virtually every other search engine out there.

Reid's Recommended hotels

I've also begun posting my own hotel picks in every price category for Italy's major cities—a time-consuming task, but at least I've got Rome, Florence, and Venice largely finished.

Back when I was writing guidebooks, I spent a frightening amount of time touring European hotels. Depending on how large the city, I'd see anywhere from two dozen to more than 100 hotels, a never ending process of badgering desk clerks to let me peek into rooms, bouncing on beds, turning on taps (hot water? check.), repeatedly opening and closing windows to see how well they kept out traffic noise, and furiously scribbling notes. (I also spent an inordinate amount of time politely nodding at linen closets, hotel kitchens, conference rooms, and other bits of the hotel useless to my purposes but that overeager owners or managers felt it was vital that I see.)

Then I'd take my notes and my laptop back to my hotel (or a convenient pub) and spend hours crafting intricate, 300-word descriptions of the top 50 or 60 inns in each city, including laundry lists of obscure amenities and obsessive details on the decor, because this is what the guidebook editors required of me.

Not only was this excruciatingly dull, it was fairly useless to the travelers using the books. After having seen—and, over ten years of updating multiple editions of each book, stayed in—hundreds of hotels in dozens of towns, I finally figured it out. You don't need lengthy articles on 60 different places in Rome where you might spend the night.

Reid's Recommended hotels
• Rome
• Florence
• Venic

No, far more useful would be to know, right off the bat, the top four or five hotels where you'd want to spend the night. The places that offer great value for your dollar no matter what the price range—whether a $20 hostel or a $500 frescoed suite. Hotels where it really is worth booking ahead for a room. In short, the hotels where—having sampled them all—I, myself, would stay if given a choice.

It doesn't matter what you prefer in a hotel—quirky & cheap, amazing location, rooms with a view, classic comfort, elegant, or designer. We've got choices for everyone.

People are always asking for my personal recommendations of where to stay in Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, etc. Well, I've finally posted them, the hotel shortlists I've long e-mailed to friends and family. When I need a room—for myself, my parents, my buddies, or my Boy Scout troop—these are the places I call. These are, in short, the best hotels in Italy.

More hotels in Italy


Those are just the most popular places. To see a full list of hotels in cities, hill towns, ski resorts, beaches, islands, and countryside accommodations all across Italy, click on the map below:

Map of hotels in Italy

Tips & links

Hotel links & resources
Other lodging links & resources
Useful Italian
Useful Italian phrases and terms for lodging

English (Inglese) Italian (Italiano) Pro-nun-cee-YAY-shun
Good day Buon giorno bwohn JOUR-noh
Good evening Buona sera BWOH-nah SAIR-rah
Good night Buona notte BWOH-nah NOTE-tay
Goodbye Arrivederci ah-ree-vah-DAIR-chee
Excuse me (to get attention) Scusi SKOO-zee
thank you grazie GRAT-tzee-yay
please per favore pair fa-VOHR-ray
yes si see
no no no
Do you speak English? Parla Inglese? PAR-la een-GLAY-zay
I don't understand Non capisco non ka-PEESK-koh
I'm sorry Mi dispiace mee dees-pee-YAT-chay
     
Where is? Dov'é doh-VAY
...a hotel un albergo oon al-BEAR-go
...a B&B un bed-and-breakfast oon bet hand BREK-fust
...a rental room un'affittacamera oon ah-feet-ah-CAH-mair-ra
...an apartment for rent un appartamento oon ah-part-tah-MENT-toh
...a farm stay un agriturismo oon ah-gree-tour-EES-moh
...a hostel un ostello oon oh-STEHL-loh
     
How much is...? Quanto costa? KWAN-toh COST-ah
a single room una singola OO-nah SEEN-go-la
double room for single use [will often be offered if singles are unavailable] doppia uso singola DOPE-pee-ya OO-so SEEN-go-la
a double room with two beds una doppia con due letti OO-nah DOPE-pee-ya cone DOO-way LET-tee
a double room with one big bed una matrimoniale OO-nah mat-tree-moan-nee-YAAL-lay
triple room una tripla OO-nah TREE-plah
with private bathroom con bagno cone BAHN-yoh
without private bathroom senza bagno [they might say con bagno in comune—"with a communal bath"] SEN-zah BAHN-yoh
for one night per una notte pair OO-nah NOH-tay
for two nights per due notti pair DOO-way NOH-tee
for three nights per tre notti pair tray NOH-tee
Is breakfast included? É incluso la prima colazione? ay in-CLOO-soh lah PREE-mah coal-laht-zee-YOAN-nay
Is there WiFi? C'é WiFi? chay WHY-fy?
May I see the room? Posso vedere la camera? POH-soh veh-DAIR-eh lah CAH-mair-rah
That's too much É troppo ay TROH-po
Is there a cheaper one? C'é una più economica? chay OO-nah pew eh-ko-NO-mee-kah

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