Planning: Where to stay?

Planning and research are fun and exhausting at the same time.  There is a plethora of resources, advice, Pinterest suggestions etc. that were used to narrow down the hotels we'll be staying at on our trip.  It is an extra challenge to coordinate all the details of a trip yourself vs. going on a planned tour but fingers crossed the locations/hotels we've picked will serve us well.

Resources used:

• Prior Experience (I liked the location near Roma Termini train station of our hotel, Royal Court, during my 2001 trip so we focused in that general area for Rome.  I don't have the best memories of our Florence hotel, so looked for other options this time around).
• Blogs, Pinterest
• Expedia, Trip Advisor, Oyster (great site with reviews and room pictures of most hotels), Booking.com

Rome:
The reviews/ratings and roof top garden drew us to the Hotel Diana Roof Garden in Rome.  This is where we'll spend our first two nights.

Florence:

After much research and reading reviews, finally settled on Casa del Garbo in Florence.  This small inn is located right in the Piazza della Signoria, right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.  We'll be in the heart of Florence with the below view out the front of the hotel for the next 3 nights of our trip.

Venice:

Next stop is Venice for 2 nights.  Again, after much research and comparison "shopping" decided upon the Best Western Hotel Olimipa in Venice.  After reading what felt like millions of reviews and studying a map of Venice this seemed like a great option.  It is close to the Santa Lucia train station, so we won't have to wander too far and over too many bridges with our luggage when we arrive.  

Santa Marinella:

Heading back down south, I mentioned in a prior post, the plan is to head to the beach for a night. The hotel options in Santa Marinella are limited, but the Hotel Villa delle Palme looks beautiful and is right on the water!

Rome:

Final hotel, final evening in Italy.  We will be back in Rome, and decided to save a few dollars (we'll have some extra gelato!) and stay somewhere different from where we'll be the front end of our trip.  Also for nostalgia sake, we'll spend our last night in the Hotel Royal Court where I stayed in 2001.   The location is perfect near Roma Termini train station and I have fond memories of their cute courtyard and cappuccino with breakfast.