U.K. and Ireland - London to Italy for a weekend - any suggestions?

Hey guys, I am an American who is currently in London for work and wanted to take a trip to Rome for a weekend with a few co workers. I have been looking at airfares on kayak.com and found some decent prices (in the range of £100-£150 round trip).

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about getting a cheap flight, where to stay cheap (hostels, etc) and what to see/do. We are all around 21-23 in age so we definitely want to go out to a club/bar at night and would like to do some sightseeing during the day. We get out of work at 5:00PM on Fridays and we werent sure if it would be better to fly out on Friday night, and stay 2 nights at a hostel, or if it would be better to just fly out early on Saturday (but we would have to worry about transportation to the airports, etc). We would come home and come home Sunday afternoon/night and try to get some more sightseeing done Sunday if possible.

Any suggestions would definitely be helpful - thanks!

whichbudget.com will show all the cheapo boys who fly down there.

However, if you're squeezed for cash remember to factor in the cost of getting to the airport when you compare flight prices. Heathrow on the tube is £20 cheaper than Stansted on the Stansted Express, for example.

You may have more joy with your other questions in the Italy forum. In general, on weekends away from London I prefer Fri (or Thu eve) to Sunday rather than Sat-Mon, because in much of Europe all of the museums close on Mondays. Sunday shopping restrictions are also still in force in many places, especially Germany - apart from Berlin, you don't want to be in a German city centre with a full empty Sunday to fill. Not sure what the Italy situation is, though.

How about Bologna?

Find out what's going on here:
http://www.link.bo.it

And pick flights accordingly.

Gorgeous city, fantastic nightlife (when the students aren't on holiday) with plenty of things to do, and the arches means it doesn't matter if it rains that much. One of the greatest places in Italy for food.

Also cheap accommodation compared to other Italian cities. (The prices in Rome are staggering!)

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Have you thought of a weekend in Valencia (Spain)? I organised a weekend here for over 50 young co-workers once, we got transport, flights and 4 star hotel for under 120GBP a head a few weeks before Christmas (it was our office Christmas party). Valencia is nightlife capital of Spain, has some gorgeous architecture - traditional and modern, and very, very reasonable hotel rates when there isn't a convention going on (there's a surfeit of quality hotels in the area). Food is pretty good too!

Easyjet (yes, i know) are very cheap to go there, normally being around £60 return per person.

Try and book somewhere close to the centre, then you can avoid having to use the Metro - Rome is so close together that anyone fit and able bodied can easily walk to all of the attractions, and how many you cover in a day is obviously to your own preference.

The Trevi Fountain, St Peter's Basilica and the Pantheon are some of my favourites. Consider buying a Rome city pass before you go (google for it, around £18 per adult), it'll save you money and time queuing.

Taxis from Ciampino (probably where you'll fly to) are very expensive, but you can pre-book the bus for about £8, which drops you right in the centre I believe.

As someone has already mentioned with regard to Sundays - Rome is obviously a very religion influenced city, on Sundays a lot of places will be free (which means mayhem!), and a lot of shops closed. If it were me I'd sightsee all day on Saturday, go out Saturday night, and then wonder around seeing some of the 'outdoor' sights such as the aforementioned Trevi fountain.

Food and drinks are expensive, but if you live in London it's all pretty similar - you could certainly get by on £100 per person for the two days.