Explores one of nature's most perfect suntraps, with its Neopolitan climate, diverse landscape and dazzling coastlines - gets to grips with glamorous Portofino - seeks out the noble palaces, art-filled churches and medieval quarter of Genoa, home of pesto and Italy's busiest port - visits the museum of the Antarctic and the biggest aquarium in Europe - stays at the most charming hotels and dines at the most stylish restaurants and bars - tours the elegant city of Turin and the Alpine landscapes of the Valle d'Aosta. 'Italians are famously anarchic behind a wheel. The only way to beat locals is to join them by adopting an assertive and constantly alert driving style. All drivers from boy racers to elderly nuns seem to tempt providence by overtaking at the most dangerous bend...'
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Review
'Cadogan guides are always strong on Southern Europe' -- Wanderlust Magazine
'Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, guidebook writers par excellence' -- Simon Calder, Independent
'Humorous, informed... irresistible' -- The Sunday Times
'Overall the top marks go to Cadogan' -- BBC Radio 4
‘Cadogan are the pick of the bunch’ -- Daily Telegraph
'Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, guidebook writers par excellence' -- Simon Calder, Independent
'Humorous, informed... irresistible' -- The Sunday Times
'Overall the top marks go to Cadogan' -- BBC Radio 4
‘Cadogan are the pick of the bunch’ -- Daily Telegraph
From the Publisher
Written by Italy experts Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, this book is a perennially popular Cadogan title. It’s easy to see why. Containing the most up-to-the-minute listings and travel advice available, the book is an essential practical companion, as well as being a witty and entertaining guide.
Dana and Michael know the region like the backs of their hands, and pack the book with stories and anecdotes about culture, art and history. For a guide that’s as illuminating as it is useful, this is the one to take.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There seems to be only 2 or 3 books around which cover this region of Italy in any detail. This one is clearly written with the most passion and genuine local knowledge.
The historical background to the region is very detailed and, for a travel guide, not too dry. The suggestions the writers make e.g. places to eat, historical buildings, markets, I have always found to be accurate and trustworthy. The book is laid out intuitively too, starting in the west and working east through the region making places easy to locate.
I think the key to really enjoying this region is exploring. This guide makes good suggestions but I've usually found there's quite a lot more to discover than this book lets on. Perhaps that's a good thing.
One complaint about this book (and other guides to this region do a far worse job of this...) would be related to the quality and usefulness of the maps.
Many places simply aren't deemed worthy of a town centre map, a shame, especially with bigger places, such as San Remo. The maps that are supplied, Genoa for example, are detailed but practically unusable because there's no grid or key. The guide may mention a fine restaurant on a certain street but how are you going to find that street? (And Italy has lots of small, hard to find streets!)
The historical background to the region is very detailed and, for a travel guide, not too dry. The suggestions the writers make e.g. places to eat, historical buildings, markets, I have always found to be accurate and trustworthy. The book is laid out intuitively too, starting in the west and working east through the region making places easy to locate.
I think the key to really enjoying this region is exploring. This guide makes good suggestions but I've usually found there's quite a lot more to discover than this book lets on. Perhaps that's a good thing.
One complaint about this book (and other guides to this region do a far worse job of this...) would be related to the quality and usefulness of the maps.
Many places simply aren't deemed worthy of a town centre map, a shame, especially with bigger places, such as San Remo. The maps that are supplied, Genoa for example, are detailed but practically unusable because there's no grid or key. The guide may mention a fine restaurant on a certain street but how are you going to find that street? (And Italy has lots of small, hard to find streets!)
Format:Paperback
Amazon.com lists 152 results for Facaros and Pauls - Facaros alone only gets 97 - but I suppose we're talking mega-reeditions here. I wasn't familiar with the team (something about the Cadogan guides' design put me off) but I have to say they deserve every star going for their good-humoured yet far from flippant overviews of Ligurian and, more briefly, Genoese history, a complicated and to me jaw-dropping story less well known than other parts of Italy because Genoa, for all its wealth, did not commission great art - it did not embourgeoisify itself; atmosphere, though, it has in spades. Do the duo keep up this, frequently lol, standard throughout the range? Example: at the time of reunification 'a constitutional monarchy was established [in Rome] but part of the problem was a Savoy* attitude that tended to regard Italy as an annex to Piedmont.' Or take this quiet put-down cited by a fan of the 2008 edition: 'Domodossola, best known these days as the largest town in Italy beginning with the letter D..' And did you know we appropriated the Genoese flag? You heard! Read Facaros and Pauls for more..
* Basse Savoie aka Piedmont (at the foot of the mountain) is basically greater Genoa. They were probably right, Milan should have become the eventual capital and Rome left to rot in the Club Med belt
* Basse Savoie aka Piedmont (at the foot of the mountain) is basically greater Genoa. They were probably right, Milan should have become the eventual capital and Rome left to rot in the Club Med belt
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
best book on piemonte,italy!
14 Feb 2011
By italian
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
full of details and pictures!! great buy, very informative. an absolute must if you visit this area in italy.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a deeper understanding of Italy
12 Jan 2007
By Reader Views
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (1/07)
Being back in USA after the fabulous European trip last month makes me feel vaguely blue and lethargic. It is difficult to muster much enthusiasm for anything when the weather is grey and drab; all that one wants to do is to get under the covers and dream of the Mediterranean sunshine. The good news is that I do believe I found the cure for the winter blahs. Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls have written a number of great travel books, and the last I've read, "Italian Riviera & Piedmont" is no exception.
Their writing summons images of sunny, wonderful Italy. If you open the book at random, the section you stumble upon is bound to make you smile. Let me give you an example: "Specialties of the Riviera, or the Marriage of Popeye and the Olive Oyl..." What a wonderful way to describe Ligurian cuisine. The authors go on and describe not only what kinds of foods are traditionally eaten in the area, but also why this is so. Some of the information will probably be quite surprising to most of the readers. If nothing else, it is bound to make you hungry!
As always, their writing is refreshing and wonderfully insightful, slightly irreverent, always informative and never boring. Take, for example, their brief introduction to the city of Turin: "Detroit without the degradation; the absolutist capital of the Savoys; a stately, masculine Baroque city of porticoed avenues and royal squares; the home of the Holy Shroud, of Juventus, vermouth, an endearingly outrageous Mole and the centre of the black magic in the Mediterranean - Piedmont's capital, Turin (Torino, pop. 900,000) is not your typical Italian city. Positioned midway between the pole and the equator, its winters are colder than Copenhagen's; its most renowned museum is Egyptian. It straddles the Po, so close to its source that the water is almost clean. One of its nicknames is Grissinopoli (`breadstickville')."
Such wonderfully colorful and imaginative descriptions do not take away from down to earth, practical information at all. Facaros and Pauls have obviously mastered the art of form not taking away from the function and function not taking away from the form. The guidebook covers all of the usual, necessary facets of travel. History, art, architecture, food and drink, practical advice on how to get ready for the trip and detailed descriptions of the areas encompassed in this book (Riviera di Ponente, Genoa, Riviera di Levante, Turin, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta) are all very detailed and exceptionally useful. Even for such a relatively small area the authors included information on over 450 places to stay and over 400 places to eat and drink. The photography section conveys some of the intriguing beauty of the areas visited. Over 20 maps included in the book will prove extremely useful for the individual travelers for sure. They are detailed and very easy to read. At the end of the book authors included a short linguistic section with some useful words and phrases as well as a glossary. And if this book provokes a desire to know more about this particular part of the world, the authors also compiled a great list of suggested further reading.
I would highly recommend "Italian Riviera & Piedmont" to anybody who desires a deeper understanding of Italy, particularly the areas described within. As for myself, I will certainly look for more books written by this talented team.
Received book free of charge.
Being back in USA after the fabulous European trip last month makes me feel vaguely blue and lethargic. It is difficult to muster much enthusiasm for anything when the weather is grey and drab; all that one wants to do is to get under the covers and dream of the Mediterranean sunshine. The good news is that I do believe I found the cure for the winter blahs. Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls have written a number of great travel books, and the last I've read, "Italian Riviera & Piedmont" is no exception.
Their writing summons images of sunny, wonderful Italy. If you open the book at random, the section you stumble upon is bound to make you smile. Let me give you an example: "Specialties of the Riviera, or the Marriage of Popeye and the Olive Oyl..." What a wonderful way to describe Ligurian cuisine. The authors go on and describe not only what kinds of foods are traditionally eaten in the area, but also why this is so. Some of the information will probably be quite surprising to most of the readers. If nothing else, it is bound to make you hungry!
As always, their writing is refreshing and wonderfully insightful, slightly irreverent, always informative and never boring. Take, for example, their brief introduction to the city of Turin: "Detroit without the degradation; the absolutist capital of the Savoys; a stately, masculine Baroque city of porticoed avenues and royal squares; the home of the Holy Shroud, of Juventus, vermouth, an endearingly outrageous Mole and the centre of the black magic in the Mediterranean - Piedmont's capital, Turin (Torino, pop. 900,000) is not your typical Italian city. Positioned midway between the pole and the equator, its winters are colder than Copenhagen's; its most renowned museum is Egyptian. It straddles the Po, so close to its source that the water is almost clean. One of its nicknames is Grissinopoli (`breadstickville')."
Such wonderfully colorful and imaginative descriptions do not take away from down to earth, practical information at all. Facaros and Pauls have obviously mastered the art of form not taking away from the function and function not taking away from the form. The guidebook covers all of the usual, necessary facets of travel. History, art, architecture, food and drink, practical advice on how to get ready for the trip and detailed descriptions of the areas encompassed in this book (Riviera di Ponente, Genoa, Riviera di Levante, Turin, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta) are all very detailed and exceptionally useful. Even for such a relatively small area the authors included information on over 450 places to stay and over 400 places to eat and drink. The photography section conveys some of the intriguing beauty of the areas visited. Over 20 maps included in the book will prove extremely useful for the individual travelers for sure. They are detailed and very easy to read. At the end of the book authors included a short linguistic section with some useful words and phrases as well as a glossary. And if this book provokes a desire to know more about this particular part of the world, the authors also compiled a great list of suggested further reading.
I would highly recommend "Italian Riviera & Piedmont" to anybody who desires a deeper understanding of Italy, particularly the areas described within. As for myself, I will certainly look for more books written by this talented team.
Received book free of charge.
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