Stay in Italy Using Interval International - REVIEW

[smep013]

Hello All,

A while back, I promised a review of my stay using II in Italy. Here it is!

My husband and I used 146 points to stay 7 nights in a spacious studio at the wonderful Palazzo Catalani Resort in Soriano (Viterbo) Italy. Soriano is the name of the small village where the resort is actually located, Viterbo is the closet "larger" town.

We called to book this through Member Services in January, 2008 and were notified in February, 2008 that they found a match for us. We checked in June 27 and out July 5, 2008. From start to finish, the stay was noting short of amazing. The resort is great (only 16 rooms, very cozy and very intimate), staff is friendly, helpful and dedicated (and do not get in you way), and the town is so neat! Aside from the people in the resport's 16 rooms, there are NO TOURISTS! It was charming, just like you would imagine an Italian village to be!

We loved every minute of our stay here and would spend another 146 points for a week in a heartbeat!

From Soriano, we took day trips to Florence, Assisi, Siena and to various small towns in Tuscany and nearby our base of Soriano. We rented a car, and it was delivered right to our resort. Parking was close by and free. If you did not have a car, it was easy enough to get to other cities by train. There is a train station in town, about a 10 minute walk from the resort.

If you have ANY questions about Soriano and our Italian adventure, please feel free to message me.

We LOVED IT!

And it was very very easy.

Thanks!
Stacey

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Thanks for the review, It give me hope that someday we might use our points for something other then Disney World.

 

[ACDSNY]

Wonderful report! I love hearing about II exchanges!

 

[Joan S.]

Hi, Thanks for such a wonderful review! I would also LOVE to travel to ITALY one day, and you are right 146 points is VERY reasonable for a studio. How many could the studio sleep?? And did they have any 1 or 2 bedroom units?? Thanks, Joan

 

[tomandrobin]

Glad to read about your positve exchange experience. The way the dollar has become so "cheap" now and the exchange rate terrible, you got a good deal. Hopefully you didn't get chrushed on the airfare.

Please post some pics. That is the best way to help share the experience.

Thanks for taking the time to post your experience.

 

[aurorafan]

It sounds wonderful! Thank you so much for posting the review--I love reading about exchanges--how they work and how the experiences are

 

[MBELSANTI]

HI,

Thanks for your report! Can you tell us how the room was set up...were there 2 double beds? How did you find out about this resort? Can we access info on the DVC website II link? Did they have a pooL? I ask because when I went 5 years ago none of the resorts had pools. I guess they are not like our hotels here in the US.

 

[mouseclick1]

I have looked at that exchange online many times - it looks wonderful! Did you find the language to be a barrier at all? I have read elsewhere that very little English is spoken in the town. I know you didn't say you went to Rome, but I was wondering if you knew how easy/hard that would be to arrange? Is it close enough to do in a day trip?

I would love to see some pictures if you have any to post. Thanks for the report!

 

[kid-at-heart]

I am glad you had a great visit. Thank you for sharing.

 

[thumpermom]

I have been recently looking at the properties in Italy and France. Thank you so much for the report. It's so hard to visualize everything from the small pictures!

I'm a newbie and am a bit confused about how the points are calculated, especially for a studio. I have seen the point charts for one and two bdrm, but not for studios and can't find dates for "seasons".

Would love to hear more details!

 

[wildernessDad]

It looks like you were near Milan. So, you did a day trip to Florence from Milan? That's pretty far, even by train.

Ahh, Florence. Did you go to Vivoli's for gelato? The gelato there is the best in the world.

 

[smep013]

I have looked at that exchange online many times - it looks wonderful! Did you find the language to be a barrier at all? I have read elsewhere that very little English is spoken in the town. I know you didn't say you went to Rome, but I was wondering if you knew how easy/hard that would be to arrange? Is it close enough to do in a day trip?

I would love to see some pictures if you have any to post. Thanks for the report!

Hi! No pictures yet - I have all 1700 on CDs and have to figure out the best way to get some posted here. I have had no luck posting pictures on The Dis. Any advice would be appreciated!

As far as language goes - we had NO ISSUES at all. I had a little book to help with words and this helped, but we were able to communicate everywhere we went with out issues. The people are so friendly and willing to help. It was a non-issue.

We stayed in Rome for 4 nights AFTER our trip in Soriano (out of pocket), but I will say that folks staying at Palazzo whom we met made it to Rome on the train in less than an hour and had no problems. In fact, we left Palazzo and were in Rome in less than an hour by train. Should be a snap.

This was all pretty easy for us - and we had never travleed abroad. If we did it - you can too!

 

[smep013]

HI,

Thanks for your report! Can you tell us how the room was set up...were there 2 double beds? How did you find out about this resort? Can we access info on the DVC website II link? Did they have a pooL? I ask because when I went 5 years ago none of the resorts had pools. I guess they are not like our hotels here in the US.

We had one king size bed. I'm not sure if there are studios with double beds or not. I did not ask.

There are 1 BRs as well. I visited one and it was spacious, about the size of a 1BR in WDW.

There was not a pool, but there were many Community Pools nearby. We actially visited a spa in Viterbo and it was quite nice - swam in the pool there for a few hours one night. (Had to pay, but it was so hot it was worth it!)

 

[smep013]

It looks like you were near Milan. So, you did a day trip to Florence from Milan? That's pretty far, even by train.

Ahh, Florence. Did you go to Vivoli's for gelato? The gelato there is the best in the world.

No Milan. It was too far. It was a 2 hour car ride from Soriano to Florence - so we headed back South (Home) after our day in Florence.

 

[kimberh]

I love Italy~ I can't wait to see some pictures. We have only been brave enough to take cruises to the Med.

 

[bonnielynn]

Cant wait to see the pictures...Can you tell us who you rented the car through... details.. life is in the details!

 

[smep013]

We asked for a referral at the resort - and they called Hertz, which is who they deal with. The call was made at 9AM Monday and the car was delivered to us by 1pm. It was that simple. Signed the paperwork and off we went. They picked the car up from the parking lot after we checked out. It was very easy.

 

[bonnielynn]

Wow that does sound simple... and you had no problems getting around or a language barrier? I would love to go to Italy!

 

[kikiq]

This a trip my daughters and I would like to take and it's great to hear how smoothly it went for you.

Now someone out there help her load pics, I would but I also am Dis photo challenged. I did it once and can't remember what exactly I did.

We'll be at SSR Aug 2 - 9. wave at the Chinese family with the Italian redhead<G>

 

[abeyst]

What a great review, thank you!! I'm so glad you had such a great time. I'd live to go to Italy in a place just like you did - a small town with no tourists. I didn't know it was an option until now! (Although I'd have to be paying more points to go another time than the summer! I can't even handle WDW in the summer unless I'm in a pool!)

Pics: Load your pics on a web site like shutterfly or ofoto. Then go to the tech board FAQs thread and they'll give step-by-step instructions for loading photos.