Karen,

Not only are the hotels more reasonable, but the restaurants are more reasonable as well. Radisson often has an overnight in Venice on the itinerary, so it is feasable to add just one night in Venice and feel you've had a longer stay.
We stayed at a terrific hotel in Rome called the (pardon my spelling here) the Inghelterra. Much less than the hotels nearby and located about 2 blocks from the Spanish steps. I describe the location as next door to Valentino and across the street from Malo. We found a restaurant called Alla Rampa with 10 euro veal dishes. I remember I had Linguine alla Vongole, a veal dish and we shared a bottle of wine. Eric had a pasta dish, a fish course and we shared the wine. The total bill was 50 euros. This restaurant is also right near the Spanish Steps. To put this into perspective, a Bellini at Harry's Bar in Venice, which comes in a small orange juice sized glass, was 18 euros. At that time the dollar and Euro were even. Last I looked, a euro onkly bought 70 cents. OUCH!

Nancy