No comments about John Kent's Florence and Siena: A Color Guide to the Cities.

1 comments about E.guide: Rome (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. I'm still trying to get though it. But, I think the eye witness guides are better than this one.

No comments about Town Plan Rimini.

1 comments about Coryat's Crudities V2: Hastily Gobbled Up In Five Months Travels In France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia Commonly Called The Grisons Country, Helvetia Alias Switzerland (1905).

1. Coryat was a young Englishman who in 1608 walked from France to Italy and back, writing his observations and opinions, and it makes for a lot of fun if you're into the Shakespearean era in a human sort of way. Many people are familiar with the fact that that he describes an eating implement in Italy which is called a fork, and brings one back to England. He also describes a stick with a cloth on it used to keep dry, known as an umbrella. Music fans know he gives the most comprehensive description of Gabrieli's polychoral works performed in Venice, still used to guide modern performances. What is even more engaging is the strong religious overtone throughout. Here is a Protestant, when Protestantism was barely 50 years old, traveling through largely Catholic Europe. He is shocked by the lavish and rich rituals observed in Paris and Venice, incredulous about how there can be 3 Crowns of Thorns, all original, in various churches, and curious about how the Jews of Venice can be as serious and Godly as they are and yet deny the divinity of Christ, leading to a heated debate with the Chief Rabbi. An intersting variant is his choice to take an alternate route around a lake to avoid the local Castle of Inquisition where he would surely be "most grievously tortured and burned" by the Spanish there. He meets one of the legendary Courtesans of Venice, the beautiful Emilia, and tries to reform her immoral ways and is promptly thrown out of her boudoir. Don't worry about the language... it all falls together easily. This book has always been hard to get, and my copy, bought 25 years ago, is a first edition, because that was all you could get then, so it is with joy that this accessible edition is now available!

No comments about Lonely Planet Venice Condensed.

No comments about Gulf of Naples, Italy.

No comments about Florence and Tuscany Travel Pack (Globetrotter Travel Packs).

No comments about Touring Club of Italy: Rome and the Vatican: The Eternal City, with its Museums, Churches, Landmarks, and Archeological Sites (Tci Guides).

2 comments about Insideout Malta City Guide (Insideout City Guide Series).

1. I have traveled quite a bit and have used travel guides from many different companies, but I have just discovered the Insideout guides and I really like them. They are truly designed for use while in the area you are visiting, though they are also good for planning. The key to understanding these guides is to realize that they are full of features though very compact, and fit easily in a pocket or purse.
   
   The Insideout guide to Malta has two unique popout maps, one of the island itself with a smaller map of St. Julian's Bay (which also includes Paceville, Is-Swieqi, and the road to San Gorg Lido and Saint George's Tower, the Ix-Xatt Ta' San Gorg;) the other popout map is of Valletta, Sliema, and Mdina, and has especially excellent depictions of historic landmarks such as various war memorials, the Maglio Gardens, Neptune's Courtyard, and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Inside the rear cover is a good (but small) map of Gozo and Comino (Ghawdex and Kemmuna) including such important features as the Pornskizillious Museum of Toys, the Folklore Museum, the Mgarr ix-Xini Tower, and the convenient heliport at Mgarr.
   
   In total the book has 64 pages of information on Malta, all of which are well written and useful. Of course the interesting sights like the Blue Grotto, the Dingli Cliffs, and the amazing Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni (a huge 4,000 year old underground temple) are well represented, but this little guide also contains great information on restaurants, performing arts, sports, and retail shops, including information ranging from the popular Maltese clothing shop "Mango & Pull & Bear" which is known for excellent casual clothing at reasonable prices to the less well-known Ta' Xbiegi Craft Village, which, while housed in World War Two vintage Nissen huts, features beautiful lace, gold and silver filigree, and the ceramics for which Maltese artisans are so well known.
   
   Adding to the appeal of this book is its clever binding. The spine of this book actually contains a small but useable magnetic compass to help with orientation on the ground, and a small pen which is very handy for taking notes (there is a spare page for notes near the rear of the book as well.) For useful and easily usable information at your fingertips, this is the one guide to Malta that any traveler should definitely take with them. I highly recommend this guidebook.



2. We found the Malta Insideout City Guide to be very helpful to us for our recent short (4 day) visit to Malta. It provided highlights of things to see and do as well as helpful travel and lodging information all arranged in a useful manner. The maps were very helpful in making our way around the city and island. The size was very handy at the expense of the very small print.

No comments about Sierra Club: Huts and Hikes in the Dolomites (A Sierra Club totebook).