1. Booking Yourself
It is not easy to get quality accommodation in Italy. Can I say my last words – “Believe you me”! ( having seen thousands of hotels in Italy). You might strike pot luck but is it worth the risk? If you wish to be in the historical center- the “Centro Storico”. one needs to book early as you are in competition with the rest of the world. Remember Italy is only a one hour flight from Spain, France, Germany, 2hrs from England so every weekend you have commuters from these countries – a lot of people!
You might be given a the last available room where you cannot walk around the bed, with a bathroom where the shower sprays the whole room and the toilet does not flush properly etc. and guess what they did not tell you – no parking or entry with car into the historical center which means you have to walk miles with your heavy suitcase or catch a taxi- sorry they forgot to mention that…!!!
We have stayed in rooms like this when spot checking a new unknown hotel that has a wonderful internet site and no not cheap but it says it is close to everything when much to our distaste it is situated in a horrible, noisy industrial back street and to top it off the air conditioning does not work properly in the dead heat of summer. See the statue crying up above – this is what you will be doing if you book yourself ha ha !!
What the heck is the historical center?
We know where the historical center is, (the center of all the action-the place to be!!) of all our towns listed here on www.pfitravel.com. The internet hotel booking sites often say – only ten minutes walk when in fact it is half an hour!! Get your walking shoes on!! As all the booking sites are all computerised – does a computer care if you are booked miles outside the city? PFI Travel does!!
If your hotel is outside the walls of the historical center -buonanotte!! – this means travelling into town every day by train. eg The last train and bus in Roma at night also finishes at 11.45 which means you have to leave by 11.00 pm to get to the station- yes – absolutely pathetic public transport for a major city!
No! No last minute! don’t do it!!
Italy is not the county to do a last minute booking also due to problems with the language. It is difficult to phone and to park etc. It also depends also on the standard of accommodation you wish to stay in and whether you are willing to take the risk. …Often when an English speaking tourist rings up last minute the hotel might add on an extra 50 euro for substandard accommodation. Unfortunately foreigners can be seriously ripped off in Italy if you are not careful as they figure they will never see you again and they know that you are tired and hungry and desperate for a room. Watch out for taxi drivers too. Ask the price before you get in!!
Don’t Believe everything you read on Tripadvisor either…..
I have seen bad reviews about great hotels by wingers on Tripadvisor which is owned by expedia.com which sells hotels. Those hotels and B&B which do not sign up to Expedia are not allowed to respond to adverse comments on Tripadvisor and so are severely disadvantaged. PFi is against monopoly and blackmail.
PFI does not approve of blackmail. There has been a class action against Expedia for this by European hotels. Also there are whingers the whole world over, who can never be satisfied no matter how good the business is so don’t necessarily believe what they write!
Passion for Italy Travel books quality accommodation of all levels where we have inspected the rooms and and we only work with trusted managers who train their staff well and whom we know, will treat our clients well. Experience makes a good judge and we have seen thousands of hotels in Italy. Some of the terrible stories we have heard from people who have done it on their own make us very upset because if they had only booked through us they would have had a much happier holiday. We don’t agree with no value for money!
2. We know what is current in Italy- don’t go when….
Last year 25 million tourists went to rome. We are talking about the most popular tourist city in the world. For special events at the Vatican, Rome can be inundated on the day with an extra few million tourists and then even walking around is difficult. If there is a fair or festival on in the major Italian cities like Milan eg a industry conference or trade fair or fashion week, etc, the prices double overnight. We can tell you when and where not to go….!!
Also if there is a special event like the regatta in Venice, major exhibition openings, concerts, the Venice Bienniale opening, Venice film festivals, George Clooney wedding etc Venice is completely booked out as both Venice and Florence are very small cities.
In Florence the population of locals is only 300,000 people so the city is easily booked out for a major event such as the fashion moda, a marathon can also block off the whole historical center and you can’t get to your hotel for half a day! Yes alas this does happen in Italy to poor innocent tourists!! Italy is a bit crazy and to travel here you have to go with the flow. PFI will educate you how to go with the flow – yes breathe!!
3. We know how stressful it is to travel in Italy
We work to alleviate the stress for you. We book the trains for you at time that we know will give you enough time to get from the hotel to the station eg in Venice so you don’ have to get up at the crack of dawn….. We want you to have a holiday – you know – relaxed and peaceful… We try to make it easy for you because believe us – we have been there before you and we know yes the torture of making a mistake – it can ruin your day and cause a fight with your travelling partner….!
We give you lots of tips for travelling that only comes with experience. No matter how many times we have traveled – there is always some hitch in Italy. We will warn you of the snares and the pitfalls (mainly caused by the lazy bureaucracy in Italy at every office whose main intention is to make life difficult for poor unsuspecting travellers who can’t speak Italian.) eg if one forgets to validate a regional train ticket before you get on the train you can be fined 30 euro and on the ferries in Venice.
4. After all the above are you convinced?
Lay down your head, stop searching on the internet as you are probably giddy by now with the choices…. and simply book with PFI Travel. Now you can relax – ah! We know it all and will do it all for you. Don’t worry be happy – you know that song… It is supposed to be a holiday so don’t give yourself more work to do- you have enough!