5 comments about The Rough Guide to Wales 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

1. Great book for sightseeing and understanding history. Would be a perfect book if a bit more info on dining and shopping was added.



2. Like other Rough Guides, this book excels in its depth and breadth of coverage - if a town isn't covered, it does not have very much for the tourist. However, I was very disappointed by the out-of-date price information found in this ostensibly brand-new guide. While I don't expect guidebooks to be perfect, it became obvious that they had not contacted many of the bed and breakfasts they list for many years, as rates I was quoted were often almost twice as much as the Rough Guide price! In a couple of cases, the proprietor was no longer doing B&B, and had not been doing so for several years! So buy the Rough Guide for its detailed site information, but look elsewhere if you need accomodation advice.



3. After travelling in Europe with the Lonely Planet guides for Paris and Barcelona, I found this guide somewhat more difficult to navigate. However, I suppose you must consider that the city guides will generally be more detailed than those for an entire country.
   
   Although the guide gives a wealth of attractions, restaurants, and sleeping options for the various regions, I found it a bit lacking in maps and "how to get there" information. In addition, I would have liked it if the author had included a more website references. Finally, for some of the hotel and restaurant options, it would have been nice if there was some system used to denote how cheap or expensive a place was.
   
   If you plan on using this book as your primary reference for your visit to Wales, I highly recommend purchasing a good map and plan on doing a lot of driving.



4. The 2006 "Rough Guide to Wales" features a part of Great Britain generally off the beaten track for most tourists coming from the United States. Although a small component part of the United Kingdom, Wales has fiercely maintained its independent character over the centuries. Travelers will find a geographically varied region celebrating its Celtic origins while welcoming tourists.
   
   The Rough Guide to Wales combines vital visitor information, maps, graphics, and photographs in a compact format, along with the expected Rough Guide opinions on where to go and what to see. Wales offers some dramatic shoreline and equally dramatic hill country in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. Wales also features an excellent selection of castles, many in good repair and most open to the public. If some popular areas, especially along the seacoast, have become overrun with caravan (trailer) parks, other parts are relatively uncluttered and offer spectacular attractions. Wales has been a tourist destination for the British for many years and the infrastructure for accomodations, eating, and traveling are both well-developed and offer options across a broad price range.
   
   The Rough Guide breaks down Wales into seven geographic regions in order to address to address the principal attractions, accomodation, and information on how to get around. Website addresses are generously included for those needing additional information about hours, rates, and times of specific facilities. The last portion of the guide features some interesting narrative essays on the history of Wales, its modern sense of nationalism, its natural history, and its music and other cultural attractions.
   
   This guide is highly recommended to visitors to Wales. Coupled with the appropriate Ordnance Survey maps, the guide should be a very sufficient planning resource for most vacations.



5. I ordered this book a few weeks ago and was absolutely thrilled to finally receive it! I was so discouraged that most book stores don't carry Welsh travel guides. This guide did not disappoint at all! The two authors are very thorough and divide the guide into the following sections:
   
   - Colour (as the Brits say) gives the reader a feel for Wales. They describe various events throughout the year (like the Dylan Thomas festival, great places outdoors for hiking, cragging) and where to go, how to get there.
   - Guide describes the various cities in North Wales and South Wales in depth. Each section has a map and lists most restaurants, prices, and local cuisine and venues to try out.
   - context describes the history, culture, music, literature, films, books, and enough Welsh to get the reader by.
   I'll be going to Swansea, which is by Cardiff, and I imagine I'll be exploring that town greatly! I am interested in finding many different castles in the surrounding areas too and the guide points out where they are and the best means to get there.
   I think perhaps the only thing I would have liked more is more color photographs. But other than that, it's a very functional and easy guide book to use.

No comments about This is Britain.

No comments about Fodor's Greek Islands, 1st Edition: With the Best of Athens (Fodor's Gold Guides).

No comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Hong Kong (Wallpaper City Guide).

5 comments about The Dark Heart of Italy.

1. This is a cleverly constructed book of several parts and a few recurring motifs. Jones, a Welsh Methodist, Everton FC supporter, London hack and Oxford (Arts?) graduate, goes to live in Parma, Italy where his beloved has established herself. He divides his book into nine separate chapters and tries to weave them together as well as his excellent English and his motifs will allow. The first chapter discusses nuances of the Italian language and he uses those nuances to propound that Italy is a much more nuanced country than England and that its culture is infinitely more refined. An entire chapter brings the nuances of Italian culture to bear on football and he waxes very lyrical about the local youth and whatever immigrants are around playing ball as the sun goes down. The football allows us to place Italian village life in our minds and to empathize very much with it.
   The last chapter is an entire ode to Italy. It is written largely in the second person and it tells of "you" going through the village and everything there appealing to the aesthetic in "you". The English is beautiful and it achieves its purpose in making you close the book with a warm glow. Mission accomplished.
   The chapter on Italy's Catholic religion and its Protestant and other minorities could have done with much improvement. Italy's Catholicism is more complicated than the Padre Pio cult and the Protestants of the north surely have their faults as well. The chapter looks like it came from several previous publications he wrote.
   The politics chapters build on the hypothesis that the fascist and proto communist factions are still at war with each other and that politicians like Berlusconi exploit this for their own nefarious ends. He does a good job of tying the warring World War Two factions in with the protagonists and antagonists of later squabbles. He does not like Berlusconi and his polished prose does not quite hide this fact.
   My opinion of this book is that Jones sat down with his material and tied it all together into a very passable but rather superficial book which is nevertheless well worth the money being charged.



2. When I saw the title of this, at first I thought, "hatchet job". But even the introduction drew me right in. I love to travel, and it's always easy to think the grass is greener elsewhere. That's why now and then I like to get a more critical view of a place. It's easy to be seduced by a place as beautiful as Italy.
   
   This book does a beautiful job of presenting a portrait of Italian life. As an example, the byzantine process of buying a house there left me shaking my head. And the peculiar ways of the government and religious establishment are mind-boggling. Yet, he clearly loves it there, and points out the everyday beauty of life there very well.
   
   Somebody made a fairly sarcastic comment about how Jones thinks Italy is a beautiful place as long as you eliminate the people. To me, this person got it entirely backwards. If anything, Jones is saying that the people, the language, the artisan stores, the conversations, and the amateur football are beautiful, it's the government that ruins the situation, and guess who is at the helm? The guy who owns half the country. No conflict of interest there. But Jones even admits that there are things about Berlusconi that he does like. Of course, I'm sure that many readers can't tolerate a critical view of anything that they have personal feelings for, but that's another woeful topic entirely.
   
   I did bog down a bit in the descriptions of the many political scandals. There are so many of them that one would probably need a timeline or chart to keep them straight.
   
   The many stories of individual Italians are delightful. The very old lady at the football game hilariously stands out.
   
   I suppose he could have been less controversial by calling it something like The Complex Heart of Italy, but I can't blame him at all for having a bold title, and I think it's more effective. All in all, a great read!



3. The dimensions discussed are worth knowing about, or for one who has lived in Italy, worth remembering. All nations are complex. Italy being such a beautiful country one forgets that it has, like any other, a side to it that is not all milk and honey.



4. Tobias Jones's book highlights many important aspects of Italy, but ends up playing the same sterile game that most visiting English writers enjoy, which I will hereby describe in three steps:
   
   1: Italy is extremely enjoyable...
   2: ... but Italians are morally questionable and intrinsically fascist...
   3: ... whereas we Englishmen and Americans, in spite of our occasional roughness and lack of such luscious treasures of art and good life, are ultimately right.
   
   In the end, these books are not aimed at describing Italy, but at reinforcing the English-speaking reader's sense of righteousness and entitlement. Severgnini's "La bella figura" does exactly the same. No wonder they sell so well... Not in my name, not with my money...



5. Tobias Jones' "The Dark Heart of Italy" is an interesting read. I'd categorize it as a combination of two of my favorite books: Peter Robb's Midnight in Sicily and Alex Kerr's Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan. I feel like the comparison to Kerr's book is the most appropriate one: here's a foreigner who sees the country with fresh eyes and uses that perspective to make trenchant, well-presented observations about his adopted place. Both Kerr and Jones love their adopted country but are left with a feeling wonderfully expressed by Jones when he says that Italy is "infuriating and endlessly irritating, but in the end it is almost impossible to leave. It's not that everything in Italy is 'troppo bello' ('too beautiful'), or that food or conversation are so good. It's that life seems less exciting outside of Italy, the emotions seem muted."
   
   There are good chapters on Italian television (Jones asks "why is it so bad?") and Italian politics. On the political front, he paints a complex picture of Silvio Berlusconi, calling the former Prime Minister "both fascinating and frightening."
   
   I really enjoyed the foreword of the book, which captures the reaction to the release of the hardcover edition (for this reason, I recommend you get the paperback). Jones notes that "overnight, I was catapulted from near-anonymity in Italy to being a household name." Then he shares some truly thrilling tales of encounters with and letters from Italians who took the time to read the book. As one letter states perfectly: "I have lived in Italy all my life. I love this country. It is obvious from reading your book that you do too. I write to express my gratitude to you because you have been very courageous. You have described...precisely what is happening in Italy in these terribly turbulent times."

No comments about Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It Is Made, and the People Who Make It.

5 comments about Fodor's Italian for Travelers (CD Package), 2nd Edition (Fodor's Languages/Travelers).

1. Independent travelers who use this product should feel reassured that they can ask for what they need; express proper appreciation for assistance; make better informed menu choices and can even hold a friendly conversation with host country residents. Hearing native speakers repeat sounds, words and dialogs in proper cadence and accent is the key element to making the included phrasebook/dictionary usable in the real world. Although I am not an adept linguist, I have found Fodor's and Living Language products to be equally usable and equally comprehensive in meeting these needs on a basic level.
   
   I migrated to Fodor's 2-CD Italian package from the older cassette format for ease and speed in finding and replaying spoken phrases and have been well-pleased with the results. Starting with drills for basic sounds and the alphabet, chapters build skills in vocabulary and forming sentences. Again, user repetition of the spoken models is the key to recognizing what is being said to or asked of you in a variety of standard situations and to building user comfort with reproducing the language. As with previous editions, the set includes a paperback version containing written transcriptions of the recorded passages plus a basic dictionary with phonetic transcriptions showing emphasised syllables. Users can follow along and see what they are learning to say. On tour, the 4x7-inch paperback is tote-able and, as necessary, words can be pointed out to locals. Back at the hotel, I use the paperback to plan conversations dealing with specific situations (illnesses, injuries, medicines, first aid supplies and toiletries)and try to locate some words that might be in the answers I might hear. The food vocabulary is very helpful in reading menus but works best if each traveller has some advance ideas of the names of main ingredients in the dishes and courses that might appeal. The text also contains useful background information on the country and how they handle a variety of issues of daily life. This edition omits the "vest pocket" abbridged booklet that used to come with previous sets. Having the more extensive dictionary along probably justifies this change.



2. It's hard to find that "perfect" Italian book or audio CD to recommend to students, because I often run into these two situations: 1) the book is too in-depth and too focused on grammar; 2) the book is too superficial and more of a phrase-book for travelers, therefore not sufficient. SO, what I usually do is use a combination of books, including audio CDs, this being one of them. It has some useful information on the culture, as well as practical expressions for the brave traveler. However, my recommendation is to take a basic course before traveling to Italy, because even knowing a few simple sentences can get you a long way. Also, in a group setting you'll be able to ask specific questions and to practice with others. I'm sure that if you check with your local community college, there are some short continuing education courses for foreign languages. Non dimenticare! Don't forget: the trick in learning a language is repetition, so any audio CD that gets you to repeat the words over and over again, is great practice. The more you repeat, the more you'll remember! It's like learning a song: you can't sing a song you've heard only 1 time, but if you hear it over and over, you'll be able to sing all the lyrics!! So, keep up the good work! [..]



3. useful phrases in book, but the cd is a bit messed up. it will randomly switch from first stating the english followed by italian to then stating the italian followed by english. very hard to follow because of this. they really need to redo this.



4. Italian for Travelers was perfect for my trip to Italy during the Olympics. The book is well organized and is instantly useful! It has inspired me to learn more about the Italian language.



5. the book is great. I wish I would have bought it years ago. The only defect is that it fell apart. The glue that was used is no good.

5 comments about No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice.

1. I agree with the other posters that Judith Martin's tone is self-adulatory to the point of self indulgence. That, of course, isn't my favorite part of this book. However there is new stuff here that I didn't know and I've been returning "home" to Venice regularly for many years.
   I actually bought this book hoping, among other things, to learn about hat etiquette (as excerpted on this Amazon page), since I sometimes wear a hat in Venice and would hate to be doing it the wrong way. I didn't find it, and that's a shame. Advising on such matters is--or ought to be--the author's forte. Imho it's too bad Miss Manners didn't write this book.
   (By the way, another poster mentioned something called the "Venice Card," which is a discount gimmick for the tourists. This is quite different from the city-issued photo I.D. which allows a resident to purchase the monthly vaporetto pass for 30 euro, and this is what Martin was writing about. I didn't find it too awfully difficult to obtain, but maybe that has changed. My own abbonamento expired years ago but the brusque lady behind the counter still honors it every time, bless her heart.)



2. This is a book without a purpose, beyond the self-adulation of the author. It has nothing new which is relevant to Venice nor is it insightful about its history, culture, or physical presence. There is not even anything relevatory about her experience in the city. These are simply Ms. Martin's musings about a city that she likes a lot. Unfortunately, it's hard to care.



3. Cute title. After that this book sinks into the canal. I agree with another poster I do not think Ms Martin wrote much of this book. If she did she should be ashamed.
   
   If you want to read a good book about Venice read CITY OF THE FALLING ANGELS. Or read any Donna Leon book all set in Venice and all excellent mysteries that are filled with the life of the people of Venice.
   
   This book is just boring!



4. Judith Martin ought to be placed in quarantine as the most threatening carrier of a communicable disease since Typhoid Mary. Her 'No Vulgar Hotel' not only threatens to spread Venetophilia (her coinage, it seems) among the uninefected at epidemic strength; it may well render milder fevers than hers terminally virulent. Beware, after reading this delightful book, of the usual symptoms of this incurable contagion -- the urge to buy and repair decaying, waterlogged and insanely overpriced palazzi, the wearing of scary masks other than on Hallowe'en, a fascination with saints and saint's relics, the adoption of Venetian ancestors (whether they're actually ancestral or not), the collection of gimcracks and gismos whose only value is a tenuous connection with Venice, and not least the impulse to go to bad or mediocre movies merely because they have pictorial connections with Venice; and finally, at the risk of drowning, to go into training as amateur gondoliers." -- Edwin M. Yoder Jr., author of "Lions at Lamb House" and other books.



5. I confess. I have a poster-sized repro of the 1500 deBarbari map on the wall of my study and I fly the standard of San Marco at my house. If Venice is in the marrow of your bones as it is in mine, you will probably laugh and cry your way through the meandering narration of this book as I have. However, I would not recommend this book to the novice. There is a bit too much of the esoteric and self-indulgent to be really useful as a tourist guide. You decide.

5 comments about Two Years in St. Andrews: At Home on the 18th Hole.

1. Someday before I turn 50 (I just turned 40), I plan to visit Scotland and St. Andrew's. But I already feel as if I have been there once after reading Mr. Peper's book.
   
   Mr. Peper really captures the spirit of the town. It's so much different from the hustle and bustle of American life and the digital age in general. He breaks the book into small mostly unrelated "chapters" which highlight part of the town, the course, family, etc.
   
   Thanks, George! Your book was an enjoyable read cover-to-cover.



2. This has to be one of the "Gems" of Golf Travel books.
   
   From start of finish I found this book well written, humorous, sophisticated and wonderfully self-effacing. I would like to meet George Peper; I'm sure we would get along very well. Maybe a game on the Old Course would do the trick.
   
   This is a fabulously entertaining tale of George and his wife's move to St. Andrews from an important position in the U.S.A., namely editor of Golf Digest. The story begins with the acquisition of an apartment overlooking the hallowed turf of the 18th Green of the Old Course at St.Andrews, the home of Golf.
   
   George has the extremely good fortune of being a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and sets about using this privilege to good effect. Not only does he become a popular and successful member, he also achieves a long held ambition; playing a round on the Old Course in Par.
   
   I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been inspired by his "two years of golf" and long to follow his example by playing the Old Course, at least once.
   
   His fondness for the people of St. Andrews and Scotland in general comes through with a warmth and genuinely felt emotion.
   
   I can not imagine anyone finding this book disappointing. To me it has been a wonderful windfall.



3. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is well written and offers many insights into the world of golf.... which can be both good and bad. As for his writing style, humor, and penchant for witty observations, I give Mr. Peper 5 stars. However, by the end of the book I was annoyed by the author's thinly veiled anti-American tone. Given the opportunity our nation has afforded him (what golfer would not want to live overlooking The Old Course?), it was disappointing to read his dismissal of American life and of a polarized American society. Ironic, since Mr. Peper does offer us some background about why the Scots are polarized by golfing clubs, land-use issues, aristocracy, and their English counterparts. Perhaps he misses golf's biggest lesson: that mankind's nature is immutable and inevitable no matter which course we play. Otherwise, it is a fine book.



4. George Peper has captured, for all of us stateside hackers, the essence of what golf retirement dreams are made...living on the Old Course at St. Andrews and being enfolded into the Scottish golfing community. This book is a delightful read that I have passed around my golfing group with unanimous praise, and envy. With a lifetime of connections from his days as editor of GOLF DIGEST, Peper takes you from the inner sanctum of the R&A, hob nobbing with the guardians of the game, to the rowdy clubhouses and pubs with his many colorful golfing groups, squaring their bets over more than a few pints. The author's gift is his ability to recount all these experiences with a wonderful humor and evenhandedness, even at his own expense. Many golf readers may long for a Shavius Irons experience in life, but, in retirement, I want to move into Peper's neighborhood.



5. I purchased this book on a recommendation while ordering "Tommy's Honor" through Amazon. If "Tommy's Honor" was a stroll around the Old Course, "Two Years" was a heavy laden trudge thru a muddy field.
   
   My daughter spent four years studying at St Andrews and that provided a good excuse to visit. Beyond the golf, I enjoyed late night walks aroud the town, visits to the pubs and swimming in the rich local history. My daughter graduated in 2005 and we spent most of the summer in the flat she had shared with her roommates. Its very probable that I passed the author on the street.
   
   This book includes tedious packing lists and innocous names but outside his own flat, the R & A, and the Old Course disappointing little about the town itself or surrounding Fife. The author peppered his writing with often sophomoric remarks that were meant to humor but I found entirely flat.
   
   I very much wanted to enjoy this book but was greatly disappointed.

5 comments about French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France.

1. I loved this book. It was a little difficult to read as Moore is very British, but this also made the book entertaining.
   It's was a slow read for me, but that gave me a chance to savor the trip!
   I often felt I was right there with him on his journey around France.



2. Existing comments encapsulate most of my thoughts about the book. I'm adding a review to support those comments and add a new perspective.
   
   I used to do solo cycle long distance touring and I understand the rigors and difficulties. In many respects, the days get very repetitive; some parts of a trip can only be differentiated in one's memory by studying a map and remembering details.
   
   I thoroughly enjoyed the first couple of chapters; he described his naivety in a clever way. Once he got rolling on the trip, the effectiveness of his humor started to diminish and the laughs became more scarce.
   
   His journal evolved mostly into a daily cycle of: I ate poorly; I felt bad all day; people were rude to me; I was rude to people; then I found a hovel for that night's lodging. Also, when he encountered a cyclist going in the same direction or had a traveling companion, he often tried to upstage the other cyclist. It became a tiresome litany. The last third of the book became a chore to read; when I lost track of my place, it would be hard to find it again because every section read almost the same.
   
   I expect that this repetitive cycle was his experience. I wish he (or his editor) had reduced the monotony of that cycle by focusing on the events that were more distinctive. Also, editing was needed to strip the clutter created by too many allusions to pop culture used as colorful allegories for simple conditions.
   
   Without question, the redeeming quality of the book was his recounting of TdF history in the context of his current surroundings. Those were the gems that kept me motivated to complete the book.
   
   One final thought: I expect that Moore accurately recounted his actual tour and that he didn't cheat (any more than he described in the book). I also expect that he was able to accomplish his ride because his performance and endurance greatly improved during the trip and he chose not to describe this. Instead, he told us about his bad nutrition...an area where I think he did exaggerate for literary effect. For example, I was incredulous that he could gain weight during the trip.
   
   I have a hunch that Moore would be an excellent on-air commenter adding "color" to a Tour de France broadcast. His glibness would be delivered in manageable chunks and would be directly relevant to the action.



3. It's not the best travel book ever written but I'd also say that it wasn't time wasted either. I had fun reading it and often laughed outloud (granted, the French make it easy for us to laugh at them). Enjoy the book if you buy it.



4. If you have a sense of humor and ride a bike I doubt you'll find a better book.This book is the "Walk In The Woods" of cycling.I laughed until I cried and I'm not kidding!



5. Okay, okay, how do I say this nicely? This book is all but unreadable. Period. But not for the reason(s) you might think. The author is British. I am a not, and frankly, half the time while toiling through this book, I didn't have a clue as to what this writer was talking about. You see, that's because the book is written a la "British humor". British humor combined with late 20th century British slang terms, references, in-country gossip, yada, yada,yada. It's a book written by a Y2K Brit for fellow Y2K Brits. While his stories of previous Tour races are interesting and well written, so much of the rest of the book, like I said before, had me more than once thinking, "What is this guy talking about??"
   
   All you Anglophiles can turn up your noses if you wish, but I personally would not recommend this book. I am sorry I bought it; even used, it was not worth it.