If you're planning a trip to Rome next year, you'll have to set aside a few extra Euros if you're staying in a hotel. Yes,  a new hotel tax, which amounts to a maximum 3 euro per person charge for folks staying in a 4 or 5 star Rome hotel, is being levied, as explained in the Italy Travel Blog.

Getting "nickel and dimed to death" is not pleasant on any vacation, but tourists get to choose where their money goes, so time will tell if Rome will rake in the desired benefits from the new tax. Will you pay or go elsewhere? It's not a clear-cut choice. After all, there are a plethora of free things to take up your time in Rome (fewer and fewer these days, but still).

Why not tell us how you feel with this (silly) poll? (Yes, I have designer handbags on the brain this morning after Christmas oddness and visiting the family, sorry!)

If you're still going, plan your travel well and you'll have a great time.

Rome Travel Planning: Rome Neighborhoods Mapped | Rome's Climate | Rome Travel Essentials

Recently, the folks at Wine Travel Guides Blog had a chance to evaluate the wines and Heuriger, traditional wine taverns run by wineries around Vienna. They came away with a very favorable impression, of both the wines and the atmosphere. I've always liked Austrian wines, which are produced almost exclusively around the Austrian capital, and am glad to find out the Vienna is in the process of positioning itself as a wine capital.

See: The unexpected great wine capital in Austria

Austria Wine Travel--find out where the Austrian wine regions are: Austria Wine Regions Map

It seems like lots of folks got iPads for Christmas. Martha and I did. Did you know that Lonely Planet was quick out of the box to offer some of its most popular European guide books to eBook format so you can read them nicely on the iPad? Check it out: Lonely Planet Discover eBook Travel Guides for your iPad (Buy Direct).

Word just in from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport:

As of today, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is offering free WiFi throughout the airport - both before and beyond passport control and even up to the gate itself. The new service means passengers can connect to wireless internet from any device with login access, free of charge for a full hour. Users can simply select the available 'KPN' network on their laptop or PDA and then launch their internet browser. On the login page, users can choose from either the free, time-restricted service under 'Free WiFi' or the premium service, offering higher speeds, under 'Premium WiFi'.

There is also a new, 18 hole golf course being built on airport property. It'll be ready mid-2012. Get out your Mashie Niblick and start practicing for those between plane tee-offs.

And just in case you get unexpectedly amorous in Switzerland, do you know that Zurich-based Swiss AIDS Federation is offering quick delivery of condoms via bicycle?