Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 139

i 12 TRAVEL Holiday bin Crowns Plaza os Broadway Ins the city's largest Indoor hotel pool (50 feet), with water aerobics. The health chib has been expanded ts a second floor. Continued Rome Florence Venice Mario Perillo 10 Days From $1659 including Alitalia Take it from Mario, the best time to see the wonders of Italy is Off-Season, November to April. It's bargain time, shopping time and the weather's fine. Enjoy 10 escorted days in Grand Style and save $1800 a couple.

Mario takes care of everything! First Class hotels, breakfast and dinner daily, fine restaurants, airfare you fly Alitalia got to really, really dllitalia "Rate from NY or $1739 1114 to 327. 410. All per pcnon, Air fupplement from $330, Miami $270 sightseeing, escort, everything and but you've hurry! Bolton $1639 to $2199 from 328 to between the nondescript corner entrance and the seventh-floor lobby-lounge-restaurant area is so dramatic its like stepping into a budget version of Oz. The Novotel also has one of the nicest features youll find in any Manhattan hotel: a flower-filled, outside-terrace dining area. Along with the adjoining inside space of Cafe Nicole, the terrace offers fabulous views of Times Square (making the Novotel popular on New Years Eve and during the Thanksgiving Day parade caU for details long before those dates).

The hotel opened in 1984 and was totally refurbished two years ago the lobby already i undergoing a sprucing up though its appealing even with construction staging here and there. Still to come is a fitness room cm the conference floor above. There are 474 specially soundproofed rooms, most sleeping uwr. Rooms (and hall windows) firing west on high floors offer views across the Hudson. This New York outpost of the French chain Accor, whidi also owns Motel 6, attracts loads of European visitors and has tal ambience at good prices.

The weekend package rate of $149 per couple daily includes breakfast, parking and late checkout. Kids under 17 stay free. Hsllday hm Crown Plaza. 1605 Broadway (at 49th Street), (800) 243-6969. Another familiar name new to the area also offers a superb Times Square vantage for New Years Eve.

You can drive right into the building, then tbi the escalator up to the second-floor lobby restaurant area. The Crowne Plaza has the citys largest indoor hotel pool (50 feet) with water aerobics. This year the health chib was expanded to a second floor in the 46-story hotel. There are 770 rooms and 25 Crowne Plaza-Club an the top -four floors constitutes another limited-ac- renovation in June and celebrated by hosting state delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July (Gov. Mario Cuomo stayed in the penthouse).

Even the exterior of the hotel is eye-catching, and the lobby, which has tripled in size, has pleasing art-deco overtones. Glass-enclosed Streeters New York Cafe is on the Seventh Avenue side; Hudsons Sports Bar is scheduled to open in mid-October. All 1,750 guest rooms have been refurbished, as well. The Towers is like a hotel within a hotel (express elevators zip guests to the 213 rooms and suites on floors 44 to 50, each with a spectacl-cular view). The weekday rate is $179 per couple ($209 in the Towers).

Weekends the daily price drops to $135 ($149 with breakfast), $165 in the Towers. Up to two kids under 18 stay free. Shsratsa Masha ttas, 790 Seventh Ave. (between 51st and Sited Streets), (800) 325-3535. Diagonally across the street from the Sheraton New York, this smaller (650 rooms cm 22 floors), more upscale and slightly more expensive property (formerly Sheraton City Squire), opened in February after a $47-million refurbishing.

To share its celebratory mood, the hotel is offering the use of its glass-enclosed, four-lane lap pool and fitness center to guests of any Manhattan hotel through the end of the year. Bistro 790, off the lobby, has an innovative menu. Daily rates start at $194 per couple, weekends they also drop to $135 daily ($149 with breakfast) making this a slight-ly better deal than at the Sheraton New York because of an extra $20 savings. Up to two kids under 18 stay free. JtoNtsL 226 St, (at Broad--way), (800) 221-4542.

The difference double occupancy. Chicago $180, LA land only ratea Our 48th year PBIIUdlbURS PariSo Plaza. Wooddiff Lake, NJ 07675 Italy Hawaii Bahamaa For free brochure see your travel agent, mail coupon or call: 1-800-431-1515 1-800-341-2222 Also ask about our deluxe all-ladusive vacations to Hawaii and the Bahamas. -5 EUROPE 181,000 Sunday Newsday readers have visited Europe in the past three years. Jo reach them with your travel' offers, advertise in this section..