Lodging Update

I'm using the Rick Steves 2006 Italy book as my main guidebook. He lists several hotels by city, ranking them by price, and he has secured deals at almost all of them. One of the places listed in the Rome section is a website for finding bed and breakfasts, www.cross-pollinate.com. I went to the site, and was pleased to discover that they don't only have listings for B&B's, but also for apartments. The ultimate way to pretend to be a local. I've reserved my apartment for Venice. It comes with living room, double bed, private bathroom, and...it's non-smoking. It's also only 60 euro a night. Here's the website of the place I've reserved: http://cross-pollinate-com.ithost.ch/info.asp?id=278&kind=1&city=venice. I'm planning on making my Florence and possibly Rome reservations through here as well, although in Rome I might stay in an inn run by nuns...we'll see.

Also, I apparently lack the ability to count, so my countdown was off by a few days. There's only 125 days left.