Lonely Planet Italy (Travel Guide)

This book is overwhelming. It has the standard review of history, attractions, cuisine and tips, by region. However, the history seems somewhat disjointed from the present, and without much geographical reference. The attractions have good sections devoted to them, along with advice for the best way to see them. I would have stated, in bold letters at the front of the book, that in Italy, if you don't buy tickets to most major museums in advance you will have to spend a lot of time in lines, even in the off season. The cuisine tips were overwhelming, especially in the list format provided. Google was the best alternative for places to eat real-time. Same case for hotels.This book has a lot of great information packed in it's pages for the adventurer, however, the Frommer's guide/Google combination was better for our week stay in Rome and Florence. Too much information and not enough "guide."

Lonely planet has always been my go to guide for travel outside the USA. It has a tremendous amount of information, particularly if you consider yourself more of a world citizen than a United States tourist. My only complaint is that the Kindle edition doesn't have the detailed index found in the paperback. You also have to keep going back to the front on the Kindle edition to find various regions, cities, or particular subjects.

A Lonely Planet guide is more a collector's item than a useful book. Almost all information in it (and much more) can be found online using free websites. In fact, a good amount of information is published in the Lonely Planet website itself. It contains maps, true, but I guess you can find more with google maps. There are no pictures, and no colors, so if you are a visual-oriented person (as I am) you will find other guides much more attractive. I particularly like DK guides. The book is very heavy, bulky, and not easy to carry. But, maybe you are as me, and you like having one Lonely Planet of every place you visit. In that case, forget all I said and buy it. It will look nice in your bookshelf.

This was a really helpful guide! It highlighted so many things to do, see, and eat. There were entire sections devoted to history, and these were great for contextualizing things we saw. The maps were incredibly helpful as well. It was also filled with little tips about Italy, from public transit to ideas for how to skip lines. My only suggestion is to look up the hours before you go anywhere recommended by the book, many of the hours listed for museums/restaurants were incorrect.

The bood provided great hints, recommendations and details of places, food, sightseeing, lodging, areas... I liked how is sort of color coded and divided by sections but it wast an easy read. It takes sometime to understand the maps when divided by cities and when you want to see where a place is located in the area but overall a great travel book.

I’m going to Italy this summer and YES there are thousands of websites telling you where to go, how to get there, and what to do....... too many websites! I needed something from a company I can trust that helps me better understand Italy and this book is IT! Lots of great info about the different areas of Italy, cultural differences, how to travel around, etc. I definitely recommend this book!

Everyone has their own preference for guidebooks. I like the organization of Lonely Planet better when planning what to do each day. Restaurants, hotels, and sites are all on the same map or at least together. That part is better than Rick Steves' book. Rick Steven book is better in bringing Italy alive and preparing you mentally for the trip. So both helped but for essentials and no nonsense, I like LP better.

Gave this book to friends traveling to Italy this month. They were very appreciative. Although I didn't have time to look through it - it appeared to be easy to navigate and presented valuable information for their trip. They seemed very blessed to receive it :) safe travels!

Lonely Planet books are solid. However the Kinkle versions are frustrating. They are lazily transferred from paper format to electronic format which means navigation is slow and frustrating. For example - there are several sections about Rome but these sections are not in the table of contents so flicking between sections needs a lot of scrolling between pages. Needs work but the content is solid enough.

I am very disappointed in the E-version of this book. I had visions of wandering around Italy, able to pull up the information on my phone when needed. But it will not download onto the android version of the Kindle phone app and I can only access it from the cloud or on my computer app. How very frustrating.

Essential on our trip around Italy, allowing us to discover places we would not have ordinarily found. I’d recommend it, and it’s definitely worth taking with you or for using as a planning tool with current and up to date information including places to go/eat/see as well as transport arrangements.

This book covers the whole of Italy which is a lot to ask of one book. For a general impression it is fine but for any specific area it is difficult to find useful, specific information but perhaps that's as good as it can be.

A large resource to research before visiting Italy. A little too large to put in a handbag, but can be read before traveling abroad or carried in a suitcase. It is full of information to plan a visit to Italy and to decide where in this beautiful country to visit.