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Sarah Hyun (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I've been living in Rome for about a month and a half now and I would consider the LP book average relative to other books I've seen. Most of the places to sleep and eat are overly expensive. I don't know about the average traveler, but as a college student backpacking through Europe, I hoped to find meals that were maybe at max $25 (which you can totally find if you're smart about it).
Best thing to do when you're looking for a place to sleep is www.hostelworld.com where people leave comments about where they stayed.
The LP also has a lot of reading and is informative, but I tend to prefer pictures here and there so that they're are easy to find.
P.S. Some of the prices mentioned in the book are not up to date. check before you go. |
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Marco (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I love Italy, it is my favorite country in the world - besides Australia
This book provided me with plenty of helpful tips that made my last trip there better than any previous one. The best parts of the Lonely Planet guides are the boxed text sections, in which local knowledge tips are given. Also, Lonely Planet assumes you don't want to stay in 5-star resorts and lie on a beach for the whole trip; that you want to maybe rough it a little and see as many things as possible. This guide will help you do just that. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I've been to Italy several times... Rome, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Milan, some of the hill towns, etc (most recently last April). Here are my reviews of the best guides to meet your exact needs... I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later... this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
I traveled in Italy from Feb 3 to April 5, 2001 and I took both this book, LP, and Let's Go Italy (LG). LG gets the nod for layout. It's very clear and user friendly. You can find what you are looking for quickly. LP's double column layout is densely packed with information but is often confusing. In LG, at the beginning of the treatment of a new place, they tell you how to get there and away to and from all of the likely places. They tell you how many trains and buses there are. This feature was very helpful in planning my itinerary. Just ask fellow travellers where they've been that was good and LG tells you how to get there. LP on the other hand buries transportation info at the back of each place and it is often skeletal or misleading. The writing style I found to be very uninspired, so much so that I suspect that the author didn't bother to go to many of the places. That would account for why their street directions are so poor, but I didn't think much of LG.s either. (I have to admit that I'm not as good as some at figuring out the streets of a new town.) Lp often ignores seasonal changes in timetables too. If your traveling in winter, you're out of luck. However, I got tired of the LG writing style. Whereas LP gives you the historical facts about a place, LG's Harvard University student writers would rather be cute than accurate. Also, LP simply covers more places than LG. Another plus for LP is that in the opening secton of the book they give extensive info about how the country works. Post offices, police attitudes, etc. LP tells you in chich places you should keep your credit cards, passport, etc. in your trousers while LG's introductory section is a little paranoid. For example, "Don't ever tell anyone you are traveling alone." Geez you guys, Italy is safer than Boston. While LG gives more youth hostel info, because it is more budget oriented than LP, LG's impressionable writers gush about every hotel they stayed in. Any room with a window has a spectacular view. One more thing - if you are traveling by car, you need LP. LG gives no street or parking info. In conclusion, LG is better for itinerary planning and is easier to read, while LP's 800+ pages simply give you more information, although it is harder to sift through. After about 6 weeks, I gave away LG and used LP. My pack was getting heavy.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I studied for 3 months in Rome in 1999. The 3rd edition of the Italy guide was the defacto bible for travel from Sicilia to the Dolomites. Of course Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome are covered, but how about Cortona, Siena, Poggibonisi, Assizi, Orvieto, Enna, Catania, Vulcanis, Bari, Lecce, Positano, Siracusa? How to get there, what to see, what to expect in these hill towns and costal villages? If I got there could I get back to Rome by Monday's morning classes? No other single travel book is filled with all the information found in the Italy guide.
As an example, one weekend I told my roommates that I wanted to go to San Marino because according to the guide I could get my passport stamped with entry to a country within a country. Also it mentioned "spectacular views". Nothing prepared us for what we saw, a fortress castle hewn into the 2000+ ft cliffs and a city in the clouds overlooking a vast plain of farms and towns!
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Jose A. Aponte-Lucena (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I just returned from a wonderful vacation trough Italy visiting Roma, Pisa, Firenze, Venezia, Siena, and Orvieto. The Lonely Planet Italy guide provided very useful information such as history, places to stay and eat, and other up to date pertinent information on each of these places (and more).
The Lonely Planet Italy guide is medium sized and is not heavy. It fits easily on a hand bag. This book is easy to use and understand. It is organized by region, and then by town. Each regional map highlights the most important tourist attractions.
The first two chapters: Facts about Italy and Facts for the Visitors; cover Italian culture, history, and local customs, and many valuable hints for the traveller. Reading this two chapters before leaving help us to prepare and plan our trip.
This book enhanced our travel experience 100%!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
I've traveled with the 3rd edition of this guide in 97 through Naples, Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice & Verona. The guide was a trustworthy companion, especially the "where to eat" section. In Italy, because of the huge number of tourists that travel to this country, many restaurants are tourist traps - expensive & mediocre. However, you can found authentic & cheap restaurants in this guide, as well as more up-market places. If you search where to eat, first find if there are restaurants recomnded by the LP in your vicinity. I even marked the locations of these restaurants on the city maps I had, so I won't need to carry the guide (which is quite big) whenever I go out at evening. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
We traveled in Italy in March 2000 and had the time of our lives. The only grouse I had was that the 4th Edition of LP Italy was not out yet. We took along Fodor's 2000 Guide but relied more on LP's older edition throughout the journey. LP is definitely wordy, but it's worth the read. Plan early - don't leave the reading to the flight to Rome, especially if you have no clue what you want to see/do. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
Lonely Planet Italy is definitely the book to get for a tight budget tour of Italy. I went on a round trip tour, starting from Milan, to Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Beaches on the West Coast and back Milan, simply based on the book. And the most interesting part got to be that I spend a total of not more than 300, having visited most of the places featured in Lonely Planet. The advices on safety given in the book might be a little over the top, but back to think of it, it's worth the precautions. |
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1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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