Find accommodations in Italy on the fly?

Question

A girl friend and I will be traveling to Italy in August 2007 for a week and we want to see places between Veniza and Rome. I've been 30 years ago and just drove into a town and found a room in a guest house or Zimmer, she is the type that wants to book all her accomodations ahead of time. Is it still possible to find good lodging in family run guest homes in most towns, that is acceptable as far as clean and resonable, especially if your from the US?

Answer 1

My inlaws did last year, in Tuscany I think. They booked the first couple nights and winged it after that. They went by car; it would've been harder without one.

Answer 2

I lived in Florence a couple years ago and when I traveled we regularly called a day ahead to make reservations for hotels, museums, restaurants, trains, ferries, etc.  Having one of those guide books like "Go: Italy", for example, helps a ton because you can call hotels, etc directly, plus they often have other important numbers local agencies that have all the info you need for your trip to a particular city (plus ways to buy advanced/discounted tickets to all kinds of stuff).  Travel guides like that help guide you to the type of place you want to stay and things that might interest you.  It's easy to find clean, fairly decent rooms, but they are often a lot smaller than what Americans are used to.  

Family run guest homes can be a really good (and cheap) way to travel, but it might be difficult to locate those opportunities ahead of time if you dont speak the language and dont have any specific referrals from friends/family.