1 comments about Jiffy Travel Pack in Italian.

1. I listened to the tape 3 times on the plane on the way over to Venice (the tape also has a little pamphlet to read along in the cassette case). When I got off the plane I was able to ask all the questions necessary to get around. People understood me and were very kind. I took the train to Sicily where I was in a car for 20 hours with 5 women, only 1 of whom spoke a little English. With gestures, the book and what I remembered from the tape, I had a great time. Towards the end of my stay I listened to the tape again and it helped me even more. When I needed to take care of something important, the necessary information was in the reference book. It will not help you get into too much detail with the natives, but it will help you handle the essentials and get around beautifully.

No comments about Cicerone Walking in Sicily: Short And Long Distance Walks (Cicerone Guide).

2 comments about Pocket Map and Guide Florence (EYEWITNESS POCKET MAP & GUIDE).

1. I love DK guides. I use them faithfully for my travels in Europe. The pocket map and guide are beautifully done, except, my pocket's not that small. If the guide were a bit larger I might be able to read it. Now I have to pack a magnifying glass too. Perhaps it's just me, but I think it could be a bit larger and still fit in my pocket. Especially since I could forget the magnifying glass. Then I have been known to stuff a digital camera in my pocket too. I have a suggestion. Find a pair of jeans. Measure the BACK pocket. Fit the guide to just slip into that pocket. Perfect.



2. We liked this handy little combo of map and guidebook. It slips easily into a pocket and was simple to use. Nice to have the guidebook aspect especially in Florence where there is so much to see that by the time we'd gotten to various sites we'd have forgotten a lot of the details in our larger guidebook. It works very well with the companion larger Florence and Tuscany Guide. Note that the print is quite small, which makes for a compact guide, but was hard for me to read on-site in dark churches. It's a very useful map, but if small print is an issue for you, bring your reading glasses.

No comments about Tuscan Country: A Photographer's Journey.

2 comments about Michelin the Green Guide Italy (Michelin Green Guides).

1. I have relied on the Green Guide to Italy for planning itineraries in Italy since 1974. Over the years I have bought every new edition upon release. I am sorry to report that the latest edition, the 7th, departs enough from the classic Green Guide concept to be a huge disappointment.
   
   The book is thicker than it used to be, with the addition of a few color photographs and the inclusion of a very limited number of restaurant and hotel recommendations. Restaurant guides are never useful in Italy anyway (it would be difficult to find bad food anywhere in the country) and the hotel listings are so limited (one or two hotels in each major location) as to be a waste of space.
   
   The guide is now organized more along major destinations with excursions, rather than strictly alphabetically. One of the things I always liked about the Green Guide was that you could see a destination on the map and instantly read about it to see if there were any highlights worth seeing.
   
   The Green Guide's greatest strength remains its system of prioritizing destinations and attractions. I have rarely been disappointed by any sight given the maximum 3-star "worth a journey" rating by Michelin. Most of the attractions of Italy have not changed since previous editions of this book: if you can find an earlier edition I recommend buying it instead of the seventh edition.



2. I've been to Italy several times.....Rome, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Milan, some of the hill towns, etc (most recently last April). Here are my reviews of the best guides to meet your exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
   
   Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.
   
   Frommer's
   These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.
   
   Lonely Planet
   Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.
   
   Blue Guides
   Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
   
   MapGuide
   MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the public transportation system. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
   
   Time Out
   The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
   
   Let's Go
   Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
   Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
   City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
   PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
   MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
   
   Michelin
   Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
   
   Fodor's
   Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
   The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
   SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
   PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
   UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
   CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
   Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

3 comments about Passeggiata: Strolling Through Italy.

1. The author's description of her and her husband's adventures in Italy brought back wonderful memories of a trip I took to Tuscany several years ago. Her enjoyment of Rome was contagious; I was ready to start planning a trip! Passeggiata is a unique travel book and a fun reading experience.



2. This readable travelogue depicting the various journeys of an adventurous American couple through Italy make me want to pack my bags and set out myself. Traveling on their own, they have thoroughly researched their itineraries in advance, and discovered not only the most famous sights and experiences of this lovely country, but also have found their way into the nooks and crannies that the tour buses miss. Those quiet walks and lunches in out-of-the-way places -- unforgettable. Without speaking Italian, they have managed marvelous communication with the people they have met along the way. Ms. Husak has skillfully woven through her narrative references to art, history, and the poetry which she knows so well. This combined with her own uniquely original thoughts and opinions enlightens and educates in an entertaining, lighthearted way.
   I am sending this book as a gift to several friends who contemplate trips to Italy, or who have been there already.
   Suzanne Marion



3. I loved this book! It contains just the right combination of personal reflection, history, information, details---very mellow--as if you are strolling along and the author is strolling along side by side with you. So many familiar instances---especially Ms. Husak's account of using an Italian telephone. I laughed out loud! Any traveler who has ever used a foreign telephone for the first time can well appreciate her frustration.
   
   It is obvious that traveling in Italy is a joint passion shared equally by Ms. Husak and her husband. There is much to be learned from this delightful couple about traveling with one's partner and sharing experiences, and while sometimes viewing new sights from different perspectives still savoring each experience together.
   
   Reading each new chapter of Passeggiata was like opening a gift to see what adventures, or misadventures(?), awaited them. I was truly sad when it ended.

1 comments about Bologna, 2nd (Footprint - Pocket Guides).

1. This is more of a book to tuck in your backpack when you're actually IN Bologna and want to get from Point A to Point B. It isn't really a guidebook meant for sitting on your sofa and learning about the history of the town, sighing over wonderful color photos, and daydreaming. If I were leaving tomorrow I would certainly take it with me, but, alas....

No comments about Tuscany Umbria & the Marches, 10th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan).

2 comments about Authentic Rome (Authentic Italy).

1. The Touring Club of Italy is well-known for its focus on natural, cultural, culinary, and historical itineraries. This guidebook is very well written, perfect for pre-travel planning and to carry with you during your trip as well. Great for off-the-beaten path itineraries and do-it-yourself travelers.
   The Touring Club offers guidebooks for each region of Italy, and for those of you who don't know, that's the best way to see Italy: region by region, NOT all in one single trip! So, find out which regions you want to see first by giving these books a read and finding out which area is more ideal for your vacation.



2. The TCI guidebooks have been known in Italy for being the definite guidebooks for traveling art historians. Their maps of localities and building structures and compounds are unmatched, showing an architect's detail rendering that is not commonly found in your common guidebook. But here lies exactly the problem: this guidebook could have been published in the 1920's, you can find clones of it by British tourism guide publishers, listing in clinical exactiness the details of every architectonical and archeological feature encountered, all for a very passive audience. Or, a yet better example, a guidebook made in the late 50s or early 60s, right after the roaring 50s in the era of the Dolce Vita, with its american actors roaming the streets of the then gilded age.
   
   This style doesn't mesh well with today's pro-active attitudes of young tourists. They want to feel the EXPERIENCE and be an ACTIVE part of, rather than being a PASSIVE observant. Take, for example, the itineraries described in the first half of the book. They are basically a listing of gems in the art history hierarchy, and invites the tourist to follow them like a dutifull school pupil. I think this style is out of touch, and it might have worked 40 years ago, but today's tourist doesn't want to be lectured on dead objects, but would rather experience the living patterns that makes life in a city. On the latter, this guidebook makes no attempt in describing such, except for a few mentions in the ending where a few open markets are mentioned.
   
   In the second half of the guidebook, there is a section called Itineraries and in a subsection called Walks, there is a list of suggested walks for those that want to "feel" the city following a pictoresque route. But... there are no maps ! While there are maps for the architectual itineraries listed in the first half of the book, there are none in this section. Which leads me to conclude that this edition is a re-hash of an TCI classical stale guidebook (that would be the first half in this edition), and then a second section added to address more or less the needs and interests of today's tourist. But the result is a schizophrenic composite suffering from multiple personalities.
   
   When writing a guidebook about a tourist destination, the authors must keep an audience in mind, and never leave focus. The TCI audience has been, in the past, people that have canonically followed the traditional path of studying a locality for its artistic and historical value in the form of art and architecture, aka the permanent traces on the land by the implementation of cultural movements in the past. So, the TCI audience is really a studious group that enjoys studying the details of "dead" inanimate objects, and ignore the "live" behavioral pleasures. Take example the very hip and lively neighborhood of Trastevere, now the destination of choice for the young crowd on any evening. How does this guidebook treat it? by mentioning its churches. B-O-R-I-N-G.
   
   Another remark on how the authors "lost" the audience when preparing this guidebook, is the translation from italian to english. First, if one is addressing a specific tourist-base, they should "speak" their language, and use language idioms that seem modern and up-to-date. A native english writer should have been employed, rather than making a translation from an existing italian text. While the text is clinically correct, it suffers from not really addressing the audience. One could almost "hear" english spoken with an italian accent when reading some of the text (case example is the Rome In Cinema section (pages 121-127). The Rick Stevens books don't lose their audience, but "speak" the audience language. There was this american student in Italy, and she used to volunteer as a guide at the Roman Forum. She described some of the things happening in the Basilica Emilia as "CNN does today". Her american tourists audience immediately "connected" with that notion, and at the end of the tour, she was generously tipped. Get a guide that "connects" with how you think. A travel trip to a foreign country is much about the experience you will have, and less about a school lecture in the style of 40 years ago.
   
   Just like the decline of the symphonic orchestras has been attributed to the lack of music appreciation education in today's schools, one could arguably make the point that the lack of interest in today's art and architectual gems by the younger audience is in part because of the lack of art history appreciation education in today's schools. Ah, Latin is not taught in today's schools: quel horreur! So, what the Old Guard does? they publish this guidebook anyway, without really doing a realistic market research of who would be interested in this book. This book has not been "beta-tested" or reviewed by volunteers on foot patrol. The Rick Stevens guidebooks are instead very active, and very respondent to reader's feedback.
   
   Some of the text just didn't translate well: the zoo is called Biopark. In describing a nature reserve 100 miles from the city, a taxonomical listing of some of its mammals includes the "Marsican Brown Bear" (there is no need to get into such detail...)
   
   The full page on visiting the Peroni brewery is marred by the fact that such visits must be scheduled and arranged in advance by appointment.
   
   On page 9, about the different types of train, no mention is made about the huge price differences in ticketing they may incurr. One could save up to 60% in choosing the "right" train.
   
   About tourist general tips and info for pharmacies. It mentions that there is always one open on 24-hour duty within an area, but makes no attempt in describing how the visitor can find out that information.
   
   On the archeological tour in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: it makes no mention that the Forum is free, while the Palatine Hill has an admission fee of $7.
   
   On page 43 there is a picture of the Casino of Villa Doria Panphilj. The picture of this location is completely out-of-context for that chapter. The text describing this location is on page 80.
   
   Along the description of art galleries, museums, churches, buildings, there is no mention of the opening hours, times, admission fees. The reader is delegated to read the listing in the appendix, which, in practical terms, it pretty annoying and useless.
   
   On page 76, the item 9 circle on the map is positioned too distant from Porta Settimiana, which is what the text describes for item 9.
   
   For the surroundings of Rome, Anzio is mentioned, but again, only its churches and art history-related locations, and no mention whats-so-ever about the American Military Cemetery of Anzio, a must-do destination for the american tourist. (again, another proof of how this guidebook "lost" its audience...)
   
   For the Appian way section, it fails to mention that on Sunday mornings and early afternoons, the road is closed to vehicular traffic to become a pedestrian and bicyclist delight. A great guide would mention where to rent bicycles for a two-hour self-guided tour. (again, most pleasure in foreign travel is about ACTIVE EXPERIENCE, not just PASSIVE assimilation).
   
   The picture of page 151 of a spelunker with helmet and headlamp exploring the underground antiquity chambers is misleading. The average tourist will never be permitted to do that.
   
   Just like in software, this is version 1.0, and it is buggy. Version 1.1 will have the bug fixes. But then, in my humble opinion, this edition was never "beta-tested" with a volunteer army, that, would have eagerly feedbacked with how old-fashioned its style is.
   
   On the plusses, the maps are superb. The Tivoli and Villa Adriana maps show altitude contour lines, and a level of detail unmatched. The restaurant listing in the appendix and its ranking in quality is veritable.
   
   And last but not least, the title: "Authentic". That is what got me interested in the first place. Every european city today is very very different from just ten years ago. There are entire neighborhoods now with mandarin chinese signs, asian vegetables sold at open market stalls, different tongues spoken, and different aromatic smells from the food vendors. Instead of being "authentic", this book is actually a traditional rendering of a city as it could have been described half a century ago.

2 comments about Sea and Sardinia (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence).

1. In 1921, D.H. Lawrence joined the British literary tradition of writing a travelogue. He and wife Frieda, "the Queen Bee," were weary of Sicily where they were staying and selected Sardinia for its promise of unspoiled primitiveness and lack of "tourist-parasites." Though SEA AND SARDINIA follows many of the conventions of the travelogue genre of the time, playing to the market for a foreign experience, moments of wonder mixed with irony and nationalistic-centric sentiments, it is also a self-revealing journal in which Lawrence's passions, rages and perspectives get a frequent work-out.
   
   As travelogues go, SEA AND SARDINIA may be found somewhat lacking in the description of landmarks. Lawrence focuses on encounters with the people, who presented a multi-layered lesson in the collision of the ancient with the 20th century and the recent war. In speaking to the audience back home, Lawrence often expresses himself in literary and historical allusion and his musings ring with a psychological resonance that is both intentional and unintentional. The result is an entertaining and informative experience that imparts much about post-war Europe and this particular traveler.
   
   This is a fine critical edition. The annotations are discretely listed at the back of the book, with no disruptive footnotes blotting the page. There are also a good map, a glossary of Italian words and phrases and a brief bibliography following the text. A chronology of Lawrence's career precedes it, as does a critical introduction. Despite the quality of the introduction, I heartily recommend reading it AFTER you've enjoyed the text on your own terms, because it gives away some of the surprises (as critical introductions are wont to do).



2. As described in the other reviews, and the accompanying comments within the book itself, this is DHL as non-fiction travel writer. Note that it was written after the completion of his major works, and what it says about his views, his relationships, and the immediate post-WWI period in portions of Italy. Particularly fascinating are the local/regional/national and continental attitudes. The more things change, the more they . . .