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73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
Indispensable...
If you're heading off on a tour of Italy, I thoroughly recommend purchasing this book.The book proved invaluable to me, offering useful accomodation information as well as detailed maps of the places I visited. My journey consisted of a tour of Italy's more famous cities- from Pisa to Florence, on to Rome and Napoli, down to Pompeii and Sorrento, eventually heading...
Published on 23 Sep 2003 by chrisjparr
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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
Good - but not exceptional
This is a good guide book, as all the guide books in the series, but I did expect a bit more from it. I travelled around Italy together with my husband the summer of 2005, and we used this guide book a lot. But it is a guide book, nothing more. There are quite a bit of things that have changed since the book was last edited, but this is expected. We are planning to send...
Published on 21 Jul 2005 by Ann-Katrin B
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73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
Indispensable..., 23 Sep 2003
If you're heading off on a tour of Italy, I thoroughly recommend purchasing this book.The book proved invaluable to me, offering useful accomodation information as well as detailed maps of the places I visited.My journey consisted of a tour of Italy's more famous cities- from Pisa to Florence, on to Rome and Napoli, down to Pompeii and Sorrento, eventually heading north to Venice. For this journey, the book was superb, although I have heared criticisms of the book if you are considering heading further off the beaten track. All in all, I found this book indispensable while I was in Italy, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone embarking on a city tour of Italy.
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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
Good - but not exceptional, 21 Jul 2005
This is a good guide book, as all the guide books in the series, but I did expect a bit more from it. I travelled around Italy together with my husband the summer of 2005, and we used this guide book a lot. But it is a guide book, nothing more. There are quite a bit of things that have changed since the book was last edited, but this is expected. We are planning to send the findings we did to the editor, so that it can be added or changed in the next edition, perhaps.
We felt that the book focused too much on churches, castles etc, and a lot of really interesting things were missed - like the local food markets, which we love to visit. There wasn't much of "different" or "special" recommendations, it was just focusing on the "What to see if you are a tourist", while what you remember are the things "sticking out". You can only look at so many churches during three weeks...
You could also find that the author(s) recommended one area in the top part of a column, but further down it was the other way around. It was obvious that the text was not written by one person only, but by several, and then compiled into one lump of text. I was aware that several people helped writing the book, and for a guide book I believe that is good, but the texts should be kept separate. Now it became very obvious at times that two people with different opinion had written parts of one text.
These guidebooks do not at all talk about how life is for the locals, if there are any "local speciallities" in regards to food and whine etc. Considering Italy is one of the best food countries in the world, I think this is a pity!Funny is that we actually managed to end up at one of the hotels that the book recommended, although we didn't plan for it. I didn't realise we were at the recommended place until the day after we checked in. Some parts I might want to read more carefylly next time... It was an excellent little place, though, and we really enjoyed it! So, in short: Get this guide book, but don't let it be your only guide, make sure you stop by the local touristinfo and pick up some info as well! And have fun in Italy!
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49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Good General Overview, 21 Feb 2001
By A Customer
I found this book to be quite insightful especially when describing the history of a particular place or region. Italy is a varied a vast country which is hard to some up in one book...but this certainly makes a good attempt.I found it very useful when visiting cities and sourcing food and accommodation. The recommendations were excellent! V.good with details pertaining to travel ie. trains, buses, planes etc. Just lacking a little when getting into the ares which are off the beaten track but will give a very good indication of what is on offer when visiting Italy. I would reccommend to tuck this into your backpack.
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43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
Not at all comprehensive-Lacks information outside of cities, 11 April 2000
By A Customer
Great if you plan on just hitting the cities of Italy-Not so good if you plan on going to the lakes or mountains. Pathetically little information given on the Lakes District.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
If You're Going to Italy, You Should This Guide with You, 4 Mar 2009
Lonely Planet guides belong in every backpacker's backpack, every traveler's suitcase, every armchair traveler's bookcase as they give travelers of every stripe, the real deal and the wannabes, accurate and in depth information in an easy to find format and they don't read like they were written by somebody who failed creative writing. Not only do they give you the info you need to find what you're looking for, but they make it interesting as well.
I have twenty something Lonely Planet Guides and I've been to maybe a third of the places they represent. I have been to Italy, but that was years ago. I went with my parents on a tour bus through Europe. You know one of those "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium," kind of tours. I travel a lot and I'd like to go back to Italy. I'd like to spend some time in Tuscany, know the back corners of Rome, hang out in Milan, ride in a gondola in Venice. Maybe next year.
Two weeks ago I got this guide, along with the Lonely Planet Guide to Argentina, and I've devoured them both, marked them up with a yellow highlighter, folded page corners, made notes on various pages, enjoyed the heck out of them.
If you want to travel to Italy, knowing a bit about her culture, her history, her background will make you not only a more informed traveler, but will help to endear you to the people you might meet along the way. As one who goes out of her way to meet new people, I find that a little language learning helps too. If you make an effort, and the Lonely Planet guides will certainly help you with that, you'd be surprised to find how many people will go out of they're way to make sure you enjoy their country and you'll have a lot of wonderful memories to take home with you.
I know, I spent last summer in France and though it is a modern, developed country, I poured over the Lonely Planet Guide to France before I left and I spent three months studying French with the Rosetta Stone Language course. A lot of Americans I met there complained about the ugly French, how they didn't want to know Americans, how they avoided them like the plague. I didn't find that at all. In fact I found a country full of friendly people and I made some fast friends there and I have to say that I owe a lot of it to the people at Lonely Planet and thanks to Lonely Planet the next time I go to Argentina, I'll be ready.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
ITALY, 2 Oct 2009
A very comprehensive coverage of Italy, which is dealt with region by region, and then town by town. How accurate it is I will discover later.
The backgrounds to each region's history and points of imterest are enlightening and informative.
My problem with the book is its size,and although it offers suggested touring programmes, I would have preferred a rating system of places to visit similar to the Michelin green guides. As I intend visiting Italy for a number of weeks it is a task to decide what to visit (apart from the obvious) without reading over 900 pages.
If there had been a more up to date Michelin I may have bought it instead.
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19 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
Dissapointing from Lonely Planet, 30 Aug 2004
I have bought Lonely Planet books many times before and found them really good, but this book was not very helpful. There is two much information on the cities and hardly anything about the beach areas or areas out of the cities. When I am on holiday I would rather have fun than read 35 pages about monks in the 13th century.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Biased book, 22 Sep 2009
This book makes no mention of the racist plice in Italy- almost mitigating their despicable behaviour- only buy if you are of caucasian origin.
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9 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
FAB!!!, 5 Mar 2004
I really enjoyed this book and found it very helpfull and with great tips and info to my TRIP to Italy/
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A very good book...but I would recommend that one gets the latest edition., 19 Oct 2009
I was a bit low on cash at the time. So rather than buy the latest version, I paid a fraction of the price for a 2004 edition that was in decent condition. The Lonely PLanet guide is indeed an excellent one. I was in Italy for 7 days (2 days in Rome, 3 days in Florence and 2 days in Venice).
For starters, the guide is easy to carry about and refer to. The information within it is adequately comprehensive and very well organised. I had no trouble in getting the info I was looking for even in the rush of a bustling town square. What to do, where to stay, useful tips and even tourist annoyances (the last two sure came in handy!) to look out for make it a good read for both seasoned as well as rookie travellers. I had 6 hours to kill at the airport prior to my flight there, and this is the book that I had for company. By the time I touched down in Ferrari-land, I had formed a rough idea of what I was going to do each day....and I had an absolutely fantastic trip!
Overall, a great book. If you're a bit tight on the budget, go for it. However, I would recommend the latest edition because its got all the latest info in terms of telephone numbers, new places to stay or eat and even things to do.
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