5 comments about Florence Walking Guide: Where to Go, What to Eat, What to Do (Walking Guides).

1. I used this guide during my recent vacation. It was wonderful. Jeanne gives the best advise and gets you around in the most efficient manner. You go Jeanne!



2. Warning: Buyer beware - It's a 16 page pamphlet with no substance it contains no more than what you would find in a free promotional pamphlet you pick up at any tourist office. We are Disappointed.



3. This guide is full of wonderful tips for planning your day in Florence! As a casual traveler, I enjoy wandering the streets of a new town watching how the people pass the day and moving slow enough to allow time to look around and really see the neighborhoods. The guide gives the phone number to call for reservations at the Uffizi saving hours of time on line. We walked up to a special entrance with our reservation and were admitted in less then five minutes! I have friends who have waited on line twice and were never able to get inside the Uffizi.The walks are organized and the details explain sites that would normally be unexplained as you hurried from the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio to Santa Croce.In addition, the local trattorias listed were wonderful. I have also used the Venice Walking Guide with great success and I recently ordered the London and Paris Walking Guides for my next trip. This guide is money well spent.



4. Jeanne does a great job taking you on wonderful walking tours of Florence. If you are looking for a detailed tourist guide, this isn't it. It was obvious to me that Jeanne spent a signifigant amount of time developing this guide and her recommendations for walks, gelato, trattorias were right on. She led us to places that the locals go! One of our best meals was a trattoria she recommended!

   Thanks Jeanne!




5. This set of walking instructions is terrific if you are very limited with time in Florence. These walks will take you around the major sites; however, Florence is an extremely concentrated city. It's not the behemouth that London/ Rome/ or Paris is. Therefore, with any basic map (Insight makes an excellent one), most travelers can plan a basic route. I left this map in the hotel room, and once oriented to Florence (which takes a day) was more than capable of finding these points and major streets on my own. This little foldout is for the traveler with very litttle time or interest in planning his/ her itinerary. The times given for the walks are fairly accurate, though.

No comments about Venice: Easy Sightseeing: A Guide Book for Casual walkers, Seniors and Wheelchair Riders.

4 comments about Fodor's See It Rome, 2nd Edition (Fodor's See It).

1. These Fodor "See It" guide books are fabulous. Finally someone has gotten it right. Great information organized in a very usable way with terrific color photos and great maps..one for the sights, one for restaurants, one for hotels. And then many small maps of things to see in an area. Or a map showing just churches to visit, shops in an area, simple walks to take. With many photo guide books I find I am so overwhelmed by the photos that my eyes glaze over. But this devotes double pages to the important sights and also to some obscure but equally wonderful sights that you would hate to miss. Just outstanding guide books. They are available for many cities and some countries. Now you don't have to load down your luggage with multiple guide books. This is all you will ever need.



2. This is a wonderful book. It has tons of pictures. Using this book has gotten me so much more excited about my trip to Rome. I recommend it.



3. With 100s of great photos this is an excellent book for pre-trip research and planning. The maps are very good, good hotel references and very well done on the restaurants analysis with map showing locations. The insider information on living/visiting Rome is short, insightful, very helpful. Suggested itineraries and walks very good. Coverage of the major sights excellent with lots of photos, detailed information, helpful hints (for example, the Gallery Borghese is given 6 pages of coverage, 1/2 of which are photos, the first page a full page photo of a Bernini sculpture). Section on shopping very good.
   What makes this book impractical for carrying around in the streets is the fact that the sights are listed in alphabetical order, so if you are walking in a certain section of the city there is a lot of flipping back and forth through the book to find out what you are near, what to see, and then the description of it. This is a great book for research ahead of time and a keepsake after the trip, A definite to get before you go.



4. Packed with details and useful tips. Used during our trip to Rome this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Useful warnings and tips about local transportation.

4 comments about Sicilian Odyssey (National Geographic Directions).

1. Novelist Francine Prose's slim but not slight book is filled with insights and evocative appreciation of the often-invaded island of Sicily and its hybrid art and cuisine. Her book provides a good introduction to Sicily, and also provides many interesting reflections for those who have visited the island and are familiar with the literature about it.
   
   _Sicilian Odyssey_ lacks the familiarity based on long-time residence underlying Peter Robb's involuted and near-desparing _Midnight in Sicily_ , Daphne Phelps's The Most Beautiful House in Sicily, or Mary Taylor Simeti's _On Persephone's Island_. Prose's travel book is, however, much better informed than Lawrence Durrell's entertaining _Sicilian Carousel_, but there are not any characters as vivid in Prose's book as some of those in the other books I've mentioned.
   
   I think that Prose's book is a useful introduction to Sicily that also contains much of interest to those with previous experience of Sicily and the writings about it in English.
   
   She writes acutely about food (rightly summing up that "if freshness [of ingredients] is the hallmark of Sicilian cuisine, subtlety is not").and art and architecture, with insightful bits of appreciation of Sicilian writers and photographers and of what Caravaggio did while on Sicily. Also, her photographs (reproduced in black-and-white) are sharp and well illustrate some of the points in her text.



2. By Bill Marsano. This is a small book but a large achievement. In less than 40,000 words (about one-third the length of the average novel) Francine Prose commits almost every sin in, as the say, the book. It can't have been easy.

   Prose is a novelist of some reputation, chosen probably because the editor thinks novelists are Real Writers who will lend credibility to travel writing, which is, after all, journalism's sandbox. (Also because they know travel books by novelists are routinely over-praised.)

   Prose's passion for Sicily is dubious. Although she claims often and unconvincingly that she wishes to be re-born a Sicilian, she has visited but once before--10 years ago. Such devotion is a little on the cool side, is it not?

   Does she have some insights to ipart? Indeed, she tells us traffic in Palmermo is 'homicidal'; that Catanians love sweets immoderately; that Sicilian life 'burns at a high heat'; that the Ancient Greeks wouldn't recognize Sicily today; the Sicilian food is not subtle; that Sicilians have a gift for overcoming tragedy that is specifically their own. Her silly comments on the Sicilian aristocracy are at least mildly amusing.

   And her writing is both awful and lazy. She writes in the present tense--the lazy way of getting to the bottom of the page, of getting it over with, with a minimum of effort. ("Name" writers love book assignments like this because they pay well, but their work ethic often deserts them. They think they're on vacation.) Like so many other bad travel writers, Prose is short of imagination: She can't get past the first graf without reaching for "magical," the travel hack's favorite word.

   She piles up words instead of really writing. For example, when she wants to tell us that 'many pilgrims in a religious procession carry candles' (that's eight words) she says instead that they "carry long yellow candles they will light in the course of their peregrination around the holy sites associated with the saint scattered through the old quarter" (that's twenty-six). What we want from a writer is some electricity in the words, some vigor, some sign of delight in mastery of language. Prose gives us prose, not poetry--drab, bloated, prosaic prose, comma-crippled and tedious.

   She uses crutches so often I began counting them. Eternally indecisive, she says 'seems' more than 60 times, occasionally switching to 'perhaps,' 'almost,' 'maybe' and 'a little like.' She finds things 'disturbing' nine times and also leans on 'perilous,' 'upsetting,' 'alarming' and 'spooky.' Well of course: The Real Writer does NOT enjoy herself, especially because she is in Sicily "to discover what this island has learned and can teach us about the triumph of beauty over violence of life over death." (Really?)

   Prose often mentions 9/11 as if she were the only one affected by it. She experiences "panic" at an old castle and again while planning to visit Mozia, a tiny island a few yards off the coast: ". . . what if the fisherman who ferries us out there gets distracted and forgets about us, and we're stuck out there all night? What if we're stranded, exposed to the elements, alone with the spirits of the Phoenician traders who first came to Mozia in the eighth century B.C. and who lived in harmony with their Greek neighbors until the Carthaginian wars, when Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, using catapults, missiles and battering rams--state-of-the-art tools of fourth-century warfare--destroyed the settlement and much of its population?"

   What if, indeed. This is drama-queen panic--she's still in her hotel. If stranded, she can just return to the island's museum and tell the attendant. And why on earth would she write or commit such a gross and clumsy sentence to begin with?

   Apart from the awful writing, Prose misquotes Goethe and commits numerous grammatical and spelling errors. Everyone connected with this shabby performance should be embarrassed, copy editor included.--Bill Marsano is a professional magazine editor and an award-winning travel writer.




3. It is hard to top Bill Marsano's devastating review. I didn't find the writing that bad, but it certainly wasn't compelling. There is a certain laziness here. But I enjoyed the book anyway, because I was on vacation when I read it, and I love Italy. Two and a half stars to three stars is about right. So if you're in the mood for light fare, sort of like cold pizza, read Sicilian Odyssey. And Bill Marsano's comments about travel writing are dead on.



4. I have never been to Sicily (but am planning to visit in March), so I'm unable to judge whether this book accurately describes the island, but as a work of travel writing I found it to be light, jumpy, and fairly enjoyable. It doesn't intend to be comprehensive, but it does move around the island and describe both cities and country, historical sites and restaurants, etc. Like much travel writing, it is--in part--a reflection of the author as much as the place, but Francince Prose never intrudes too much into the narrative. (In other words, it isn't the inward journey, "How I found myself" type of travel writing.)
   
   As to the strong dislike of the book mentioned by Bill Marsano in a previous review, I'm not sure I agree with his complaints. Some of them feel like professional jealousy for the soft assignment Francine Prose received from National Geographic to write this book. He criticizes her prose, and while it can be unnecessarily ornate at times, it isn't as extravagant as he proclaims. Francine Prose seems to be having fun trying to capture her thoughts and emotions, while Marsano seems to prefer some objective, semi-historian approach to travel writing. He also criticizes her for not having spent much time in Sicily, but I don't have a problem with that. I think it's as useful to read a limited perspective of a place as it is to read an expert's description. There's something to be said for the honesty of a first impression.
   
   I'd give it 3.5 stars (and 4 if you're planning a trip or in love with Sicily).

1 comments about Let's Go Map Guide Florence (3rd Ed).

1. This book has 4 maps of Florence which I used over and over. It also has info organized into what there is to do in each little area. This was really helpful when we were in an area and had time to catch another museum, palace, etc. I would recommend it. Next time I travel to a city for any amount of time, I will look for another Let's Go Map.

No comments about Party Italy (Now This Is Life) (Now This Is Life).

3 comments about Daytrips Italy.

1. Here's the book you need to explore Italian cities on foot and maximize your travel experience. Detailed maps and directions help you get from point A to B to C etc, seeing all the key places in a logical sequence. The day trips are organized to get you to the attractions at the best times and avoiding crowds. The book could use better quality images and color. Still, it's a must for travelers.



2. Your 4th edition of "Day Trips Italy" was
   my constant companion in my recent trip
   to Italy. I used Florence as my base city for day
   trips to Siena, Greve in Chianti and San Gimignano.
   You asked your readers to send any comments.

   Page 123, you write regarding the Torre del Mangia in Siena's Piazza del Campo:
   "the incomparable view presents a dramatic panorama
   of the medieval city." You are so correct !!!!

   Thanks again for your guide.
   My next base city will be Venice, as I explore North East Italy.

   -submitted to Hastings House/Daytrips Publishers on Dec. 13, 2001




3. I used this book mainly to escape the record heat wave which hit Italy and the rest of Europe the summer I took my family there. If you are prepared to go only slightly off the beaten track of tourists, while not entirely missing the attractions of Venice, Florence, and Rome, this book will help lead you to some interesting alternatives in smaller Italian towns.

   Rather than spend uncomfortable afternoons sweating through narrow streets, long lines in front of monuments in Florence and Rome, I was able to spend a good part of our time exploring the countryside in the comfort of an air-conditioned rental car.
   And this did not distract from some historical and cultural experiences which the bigger and more popular large Italian cities (which I used as a base) offer in terms of museums and monuments.

   The book does not cover all the smaller interesting towns, of course. I would suggest adding the town of Vinci in Tuscany, birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, which not only affords a spectacular museum on the artistic and scientific works of this man, but has several wonderful restaurants.

   Use this book as a complement to more traditional guidebooks focussing on the bigger cities and major attractions -- and you might find your Italy trip even more rewarding.

2 comments about Eyewitness Travel Planner: Italy.

1. It is an enormously useful and easy to use travel guide for Italy. Like most of the Eyewitness series, the travel planner for Italy provides you very specific information about the places to visit and useful "how to do-what to do" information together with a detailed map. Every people who are planning to visit Italy by car, will need this document. I will use the other travel planners in my further holidays.



2. I found this guide to be very helpful on my trip to Italy with my little brother Michael several years ago. We used it to find all of the local places to visit and to the best places to eat (which we did rather frequently).
   
   One negative was the hotel in Rome that it recommended. It was rather small, in fact, it was very small. Even the elevator was tiny and it took us several days to realize that it was made for just one person. The first time we used it my brother, who was not (ahem) real svelte, entered first and I followed. Our faces were inches away from each other so on subsequent entrances I let him "assume the position" and enter first facing the back of the elevator followed by me facing his, uh, back in a kindly brotherly manner that resembled what affectionate couples lovingly call the "spooning" position. Needless to say this caused much merriment at the front desk where they smiled knowingly at us when we told them we were brothers.
   
   Then there were the French newlyweds who stayed in the room immediately behind the paper and cardboard apparently used in Rome to resemble walls between rooms. It was apparent that the new bride was enjoying the honeymoon based on the number and intensity of the "oui! oui!"s that we heard. At times it reminded me of the soundtrack to Deliverance.
   
   The locals were very friendly but we could not understand a word they were saying. It seems the Italians have a different word for everything except pizza so we had to shout a lot.
   
   The fountains were a lot of fun too but the locals did not see the humor in the two of us frolicking in them and gathering change for dinner. When they protested none of them seemed to understand the American tradition called mooning.
   
   Our t-shirts emblazoned with "Bring us your finest meats and cheeses" were also not well appreciated until we explained that we were Americans. That seemed to evince knowing looks.

1 comments about Where Rome CityGuide (Where Cityguides).

1. The book is geared toward the shopper tourist with little historic information regarding the city districts,streets or architecture. If you like to eat, shop and dance this book is for you.

No comments about The Rough Guide to Italian Lakes 2 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).