5 comments about HarperCollins Language Survival Guide: Italy: The Visual Phrasebook and Dictionary (HarperCollins Language Survival Guides).

1. This is not your ordinary phrase book or travel guide. Unlike the other guide books I have purchased on Italy that only focus on landscapes and museums, this book is packed full of photographs of all kinds of handy "need to know" information. It is more of a picture - reading guide book that illustrates social customs, a whole array of signs-and what they mean-(i.e. street/HWY, bank machines, open/close, tickets, schedules, etc.), and food and shopping sections. Throughout out the book, there are yellow "information" boxes that give you more indepth hints about the subject it is highlighting (ex. driving...legal driving age in Italy is 18; if you get a ticket, you'll be fined on the spot, etc.) Also, there are pink "Keywords" boxes and green "talking" boxes that help you with words or how to ask questions and are reflective to whatever the subject matter that is being highlighted on that page. There is a whole alphabetized section of menu items, some with pictures, and it gives you details of what you are ordering or how to read a wine or beer label. The last half of the book is the Italian-English, English-Italian Dictionary. Overall, a very useful book that gives you handy pictorial information on how to manuever around Italy without language being a barrier.



2. This visual dictionary is extremely helpful for the foreign traveller as well as the Italian who tries to explain to a foreign friend what a particular dish is made of.
   The pocket book is divided into three sections:
   a. hundreds of colourful pictures with explanations and useful phrases;
   b. a menu reader with some pictures;
   c. Italian/English and English/Italian glossaries.
   I was looking for a practical dictionary to explain to foreign friends the meaning of our Italian dishes such as "caprese", "affettati misti", "melanzane alla parmigiana", "bruschetta", "caponata" and so on. I found this marvellous book and am happy because it gives you the explanation of a dish, not only its translation. I recommend it to everyone, for it's extremely clear, complete and detailed.



3. If you are going to Italy, you MUST take this book... The pictures are invaluable! Especially when there is no one around to ask questions! We used this book more than we used our dictionary!
   
   We have used the one for France too!



4. Recently I visited Italy and wanted a language guide. I chose this book and was very happy with the purchase. It was easy to use and because it was divided into categories; i.e., public transport, banks and money, shopping, dining, etc., getting what we needed on the trip was easy. The phrasing was appropriate and the guide to pronunciation, fantastic. It also includes a dictionary with words in English to Italian and Italian to English. Very helpful. I would recommend this book highly for people traveling to Italy. A great resource.



5. Great help on our trip to Italy in the spring of 2006.

5 comments about 1635: Cannon Law (The Assiti Shards).

1. If you can avoid this book, do so. It is boring, unreasonable, and doesn't even end well. I like this series in general, but this book stays in Rome the whole time, and swaps all the interesting plot implications for some characterization and mediocre action. Even if you have the rest of this series, this one isn't worth your time--if you can't avoid it, mine's selling cheap in the used book section.



2. Once you accept the premise in the first volume of this fun series (1632), following the many characters and how they affect history as we know it is fascinating and believeable. No wonder there are three volumes for 1634. How long can the authors keep this up? For a while more, I hope.



3. I love the rest of the books of this series, but this one falls flat and basicaly makes little sense. I had to ploww my way through it hoping for something better. Some good fight scenes at end. But Whew! the rest!



4. This is a splendid addition to the 1632 series, but as a standalone it may be a little confusing. Read The Galileo Affair first, especially. I have read this volume at least 5 times, and it improves with every reading. The characters come alive on the page like few other authors can do, and I can't wait to see what happens to Sharon and Ruy next! Buy it, buy many copies and force them on all your friends!!



5. This book picks up where 1634: The Galileo Affair left off, with Frank and Giovanna starting up a Committee of Correspondence and Sharon Nichols heading up the United States of Europe's embassy in Rome. The primary focus of the book is the political machinations within the Catholic church, with Spanish cardinals led by Cardinal Borja attempting to disrupt the effectiveness of the USE-friendly Pope's reign. There are also the more personal stories of Sharon and Ruy's blossoming love and wedding plans, as well as Frank's initial exploits as a tavern owner and revolutionary.
   
   The book starts out rather slowly, not grabbing the reader's attention and not progressing towards any obvious conflict or resolution. On its own, the first half of the book was quite disappointing, I'd say a weak 3-star rating. Luckily, the second half of the book really picks up the pace and develops into a very dramatic and exciting finale. More up-timers become involved, including Tom and Rita Simpson and Sharon's father. War breaks out in Rome, finally providing some action to a series that has lacked substantial excitement in the last couple of books. Covert operations to pull allies out of the way of impending disaster, fully displaying the utility of up-time weapons, make for a great ending. The book concludes without wrapping up the situation in Rome, demanding that a sequel be published sometime soon.
   
   Overall, better than the previous couple of books and advances the story (at least in Italy) around the Ring of Fire. Recommended for fans of the series.

No comments about Fodor's Florence, Tuscany & Umbria, 9th Edition (Full-Color Gold Guides).

5 comments about The Guide to Lodging in Italy's Monasteries.

1. This book is useful. We stayed in several guest houses in the book as we drove in northern Italy. I would recommend it but would also make three observations. First, some of the directions are not suffieiently detailed or clear. I think this is a significant weakness of the book. We spent quite a bit of time finding some of the guest houses. Second, understandably, some of the prices are out of date but the places still are bargains. Third, in some of those where we stayed, the people did not speak English. This was not a problem as out Italian is marginally passable but don't expect English to be spoken at all of them, especially on the phone. Nevertheless, I have recommended it to several friends who plan to go to Italy and I will get the latest edition when we go again. It is an investment because the rates are much better than hotels.



2. It saved us money as we used it in Florence. We stopped in another in the mountains of central Italy for a social visit. The nuns are from diffenrent places around the world and quite interesting conversationalists, if wanted. The properties were quiet and clean. We will try again on the next visit. The school in Florence is in the center of the city.



3. While this book may be useful as a listing of monasteries that are open to travelers, the promotion for it is misleading. The room rates quoted in the current ad running in The New Yorker, and on the website for the book, tout rooms for as low as $30/night. And the back cover of the new edition cites specific monasteries with rates quoted in USD when in fact the rates cited inside the book are the same amount or HIGHER in EUROS (which makes the dollar figures quoted on the cover wrong by 50% or more). With the value of the dollar falling as it has been for the past 2 years or more, it would have been far more honest for the room rates to be quoted in euros (as well as dollars, if necessary) in the promotion. And there is no excuse for a current magazine ad and website to carry misleading information. I just hope the remainder of the information in the book is accurate (from reading other reviews, I have my doubts).



4. We bought this book and decided to test it out on a vacation. Although we live in the US, my husband was born and raised in Italy and was able to call the monasteries personally to make reservations. This was definitely a plus. Given this, we did get surpises... some good, some very bad!
   
   The spot in Florence with nuns was exceptional. What a special treat. It was clean, breakfast was good, and the nuns were delightful. However, there was a curfew, which was a problem, as we like to stay out a bit late.
   
   Another place we made reservations at was extremely difficult to find. We wandered around back streets and were finally able to find a villager to get directions. When we got there, it was closed! There were no lights on and noone present. We are a married couple with 3 small children and this was not fun! Fortunately, we were able to make our way back to the main street and find a hotel with an opening.
   
   A third one we made reservations at was a BUST. It was in Venice which is very hot and humid in the summer. We were given very basic quarters and thought we were going to die of heat stroke before morning.
   
   My advice, is just be careful and resourceful if you plan on using this. After our experience, we would rather book online with sites that provide user feedback. We get fewer surprises that way.



5. Italy is a very expensive country for tourists and the guide provides a number of cheap and clean places where to stay during your stay. Not least, it covers all Italian regions. I will probably buy also the same guides (by the same author) for Spain and France.

1 comments about Authentic Umbria: Perugia - Assisi - Gubbio - Spoleto - Todi - Orvieto - Trasimeno Lake (Authentic Italy).

1. The copy I have has the same ISBN number as the one shown here, but the numbers specifying what is included in the guide listed on the cover are different. This guide has plenty of information but one thing that is very frustrating is that it doesn't tell you where certain things mentioned in the text are located. The larger scale maps of Umbria are rather weak . An example of missing information pertains to the section "medieval umbria." A number of places are mentioned in that section but there is no information as to their location.

No comments about Karen Brown's Italy, Revised Edition: Bed & Breakfasts and Itineraries (Karen Brown's Italy Charming Bed and Breakfasts).

3 comments about Knopf MapGuide: Venice (Knopf Mapguides).

1. I am a big fan of the Knopf MapGuides and usually get one for each place I visit, but this was one of the more disappointing in the series. Venice is difficult to navigate and it would be nearly impossible to create a completely accurate map of the city. That said, many streets on these maps are not labeled. There are also a large number of streets, bridges, and landmarks in Venice that do not appear on the maps. I spent a lot of time trying to match the maps against what I saw in person, and found the smaller maps in my guidebook were much more accurate.
   
   There are also several areas of Venice that simply are not covered on the maps, including all of the islands. We found some delightful streets in the western part of Santa Croce that do not appear on any of the maps, and no coverage of the area near the train station or the Piazzale Roma, which are important points of entry into the city. Overall, the maps were just average for what they do cover, and the coverage of Venice needs to be improved.



2. Unlike many maps, the street IDs in this guide are big enough for a user to actually read. That said, I still got lost walking from the Accademia bridge to San Marco. (Following crowds and stopping in to ask store clerks helped me out here.) I found myself flipping back and forth on the two San Marco maps freqently, when it would have been more convenient to have all the info on a single map.



3. Best travel guide bar none. Fits your pocket or small purse.. Visually great looking.There are actual pictures .... All high recommended hotels different prices..Great maps.. hard to get lost even in Venice. Great recommends for food I am a shopper.. Absolutely great & unusual shops ..None of the bad tourist gear only the styling gear.. .I had three guides to Venice this is the one we used every day...Do not go anywhere without this guide if there is one available for the destination Im will be traveling to....

5 comments about Rome: The Biography of a City.

1. I planned to visit Rome and was told Mr Hibbert's book was better than any travel guide. I was worried it would be a boring, textbook read. To my surprise, I was absolutely engrossed from cover to cover. The endnotes were a bit too inclusive for my taste, but for a true historian, the information would be captivating. Mr. Hibbert's focus on numerous Vatican events is eye opening.



2. This is a good book for those interested in learning about general Rome History but not necessarily in reading thick textbooks. If you're interested in learning about specific periods/events (or the Roman Empire as a whole), you might want to look elsewhere. If you're interested in reading about a great city as a whole, this is a solid choice.



3. With a book that covers over 2,500 years of history, don't expect in-depth coverage here. That's not what this book is about. It provides a very good, bird's-eye view of the city and its history, however, and does a good job of impressing on the reader the incredible continuity of the city's history. I think there's a tendency to concentrate on ancient Rome and then to jump a thousand years to the Renaissance and the Baroque, without focusing on the incredible medieval history of the city. I found the chapters of the book devoted to the medieval period to be some of the more interesting.



4. In Self-Reliance, Emerson says, "In history our imagination plays us false. Kingdom and lordship, power and estate are gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum total of both is the same," (130). This is a good place to begin articulating my discomfort with Hibbert's Rome: The Biography of a City. Halfway through the book one still has not seen any of Emerson's view that history is more than a succession of popes and kings. On the contrary, Hibbert seems to think that history is only that. It is an older book, and so we spare it some of our modern politics, but thus far, I've read nothing of women, nothing even of artists or architects in a city renowned for these, only that this king fought with this pope etc. through the centuries. I thought historians somehow knew better. One possible explanation for Hibbert's lack of attention to the actual soul of Rome is that he casts a broad net, writing so many histories he can hardly have time to do anything like justice to a place. He's written about France, Britain, America, and India, about their revolutions and separate books about their major figures, lending the impression that he may approach theses "biographies" like assembly-line machinery. One last neglect which seems to me not only in bad taste, but odd: Hibbert's Rome has been pretty overt in its dismissal of the Catholic Church. Nothing has been said about its many acts of charity, nor of its social/art educational status in the community, nor about the individual faiths of the saints and pilgrims, whose devotion, in the face of such obvious abuses, I find heartening.



5. I found the book to be well written and engaging in that typical British anecdotal style that breathes life into historical characters. It offers a detailed account of the sometimes bizarre history of this magnificent city during more than two millennia, all in one book, up until the middle of the 20th century.
   
   However, I felt that the book was quite lacking in providing answers, or even clues to answers, to the Big Questions: the rise and fall of the Republic and the later Empire, and the rise of Christianity. I did miss the context of all these facts that streamed by page after page, and there was no scholarly interpretation from the learned author regarding these inevitable Big Questions.
   
   The latter part of the book gets even better, when the author seems more at ease dealing with the 19th and 20th century. I found the detailed portrait of the rise and fall of the fascist state headed by Mussolini especially riveting. But even there, I wanted a bit more background and historical interpretation.
   
   If you look for a book that introduces you to more than two thousand years of Roman history, and is both educating and reads more like a novel than a thesis, you will not be disappointed. Furthermore, the book includes maps and pictures, to be used during a stay in the Eternal City. But if you want a more intellectual interpretation, there are better books on offer. I decided to buy both.

No comments about Italian Language Phrases: Learn to Speak Italian.

2 comments about Marco Polo: A Photographer's Journey.

1. Very facinating. I've always been interested in Marco Polo, as has the author. He really leads you through the journey and makes you wonder at the courage Marco Polo had for his travels.



2. Good photos and details. Purchased as a gift for my wife and she is totally pleased