No comments about Fodor's Exploring Rome, 6th Edition (Exploring Guides).

4 comments about Blue Guide Northern Italy: From the Alps to Rome (Blue Guide).

1. I searched for a great comprehensive book on Italy for a long time. This one was recommended by a friend, whose advice I won't follow again!!!! It is such a tough nut to crack!! A plethora of information in rammed into this book, it's overwhelming and VERY CONFUSING!!!!! I recommend a Fodor's Gold Guide for the truly practical traveler!! Great little cities that you would hate to miss out on aren't even included in this book! Check out a more practical guide.



2. The book is for the art and architecture historian/student. Not meant for the casual traveler to Europe. This book is an authorative on the subjects it involves. The perfect book to have when you want to know what the archtecture in the region is about and wish not to carry a huge "textbook". Not some lame book that tells you of hotels and restaurants to visit with lots of pretty pictures.



3. This lists interesting sites in many towns and cities. This has more detail than is needed for the rushed tourist with only a couple of days to do the "highlights" of Italy, but is great for the more serious visitor with more time. Info on both the famous sites and many possibilities for going off the beaten path.



4. I miss these books most when I am in a country for which they are out of print (recently Spain) as other guidebooks provide little information on these topics. However, I also buy a standard guidebook for general (hotel, etc.) information as the Blue Guides are useless for that. If you are not that interested in more details on these topics (there is no reason you should or shouldn't be), then you'd probably be wasting your money buying this book. In that case I would give this book one star.

   I think the previous review expresses the same point but in a different way. Perhaps it is partly in reaction to this type of review that recently there seems to have been a dumbing-down of the books, which is a shame. Now that is a snotty comment.

5 comments about Rome Venice Florence, 4th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan).

1. This book is more of a novel of these three cities. Don't expect to pick up this book for the first time while you are on the trip and pick out places to see. The sites are buried in paragraph after paragraph of text, which is not very useful when you are there and trying to figure out what not too miss. Read it before you go on your trip and make notes of the places to visit. We were looking for the book to include a bullet list of some type with the "must see" places in each city. With only this book as a reference, we decided to wing it instead of reading.



2. Previous reviewer seems to have missed half their own point. If you are looking for Frommers or Fodors, BUY Frommers or Fodors! The world doesn't need any more of that ilk. That market is well established and those books are good at what they do.

   We're the type of travellers who basically use the Net for more time sensitive things -- the changing food and lodging scenes in any given locale. Anymore, that type of info in a book holds a distinct disadvantage versus online sources. Given that we are already armed with that info beforehand, we don't need to pay for a guide book to resummarize it.

   Once you strip that off, what's left? Info on the sights, changing attitudes, culture. 90% of what is known about the Forum, St. Pete's, etc. doesn't change. That background is suitable for book treatment. The key is distilling this info in such a way that it doesn't come off like an encyclopedia entry (the trap which the Blue Guides fall into - yawn). This the Cadogan Guides manage to do quite well. The writers do have a particular point of view on things, but it is thoughtful one and makes good reading.

   Again, every travel book doesn't apply to every travel situation. If that were the case, maybe we could all get by on Fodors. This book has marked out a different spot on the map and it is doing a very good job in that spot.




3. This book has solid information and is well-written but that doesn't keep it from being BORING! The only pictures provided are in a few pages at the front of the book. The maps are not good enough to travel with. It makes a decent pre-trip read (or to at least browse through when planning your trip). However, don't plan on traveling with this book. The National Geographic or Eyewitness Travel Guides are far better. The best of the best are the Rick Steves travel books which do not have pictures either but are updated every single year with new hotel and restaurant information plus great maps.



4. Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (12/06)
   
   If you are one of those travelers who like to explore fewer places during your vacation, but get to know them in depth, you will certainly love the guidebook "Rome Venice Florence" by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls. The authors did a marvelous job presenting those three fine cities, so different from each other in every aspect.
   
   Just make sure that you heed the warning from the introductory section of the book:
   "The prima donna dripping splendour, the agate-eyed goddess of the sea and the proud, clear eyed genius... if this is your first visit, we can only envy you. Rome, Venice, and Florence are in a class all their own, as high-water marks in the saga of human potential, as supernovas among the star places of Western civilization. They can be utterly demanding and make you reel and keel over from a glut of art and beauty - there is even a name for it - the `Stendhal syndrome'. You have been warned."
   
   While I totally agree with the aforementioned statement, I also believe that armed with this guidebook you will feel considerably less lost and clueless. To set the stage, the authors wrote the chapters in the part named "Italy in Perspective,: which introduces the many faceted face of Italy through its history, art and architecture, literature, music and cinema. My favorite part is the "Snapshots of Italy," talking about such important and diverse topics as the Bella Figura, Brick Italy, Marble Italy, Commedia dell'Arte, Pasta and the Pinocchio Complex. Make sure you do not skip those pages - they will make understanding Italy and Italians vastly easier.
   
   Another truly useful chapter is the one on food and drink, which even includes an Italian menu reader. This will make exploration of the fine Italian cuisine more enjoyable for certain.
   
   The `Travel' section covers all of the getting there and around topics, including the entry formalities. This section should be particularly useful for an independent traveler, as should also be the following "Practical A - Z" section, filled with a wealth of information and useful travel tips. The authors even thought of including addresses of the exchange offices which are open on the weekends.
   
   The real delights await you in the following three sections, each of which deals in great detail with Rome, Venice, or Florence. The wealth of the information is amazing and sometimes dazzling, the array of choices staggering and the details remarkable. There are 14 maps included, ranging from a comprehensive map of Italy on the inside front cover to city maps for all three cities along with several detailed maps of places of interest. Useful information in each of the chapters includes such diverse topics as the public transport, shopping, festivals, places to stay and places to eat and much, much more. Comparing the authors' selections in Venice, a city that I know very well, I was pleasantly surprised to find both several of my long-time favorites and quite a few new places to explore during my next visit.
   
   If this book makes you want to learn more about Italy, there is an excellent "Further Reading" list to be found at the very end of it. Read a few before going to Italy and your visit will be even more fun.
   
   I would highly recommend "Rome Venice Florence" to anybody with serious interest in the Italian way of life, their culture, art and history. It is well written and reads easily. My only regret is that there were no photographs to showcase the beauty of the three magnificent cities described in it.



5. Super information; well organized and easy to use; nice to have a book with these three popular destinations rather than having to buy a book for each

No comments about Campidoglio:: Michelangelo's Roman Capital.

No comments about Peloponnesus: Notes of Study and Travel.

No comments about Rome: A Literary Companion.

No comments about Rome (AA Popout Cityguides) (AA Popout Cityguides).

1 comments about The Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume I. From Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso (Dodo Press).

1. A few matters on this one: Yes, these letters are freely available on the internet at various website locations but then so are dictionaries [et al] where the convenience of a bound book can have its advantages and not to mention freebie versions copying and sorting issues. So too, if you get this one, you may wish to get the matching book which is entitled "From Rome to the End" and has 572 pages of further Liszt letters.
   
   The translation is by Constance Bache and the Foreword is dated 1893. The name, or rather pen name of "La Mara", is actually Maria Lipsius who was responsible for various 'letters' and musical personality publications during that era.
   
   I've often commented that a good way to better know and understand Franz Liszt is of course the many tomes written about him [the Dr. Alan Walker biographical trilogy being the 'standard' and 'definitive' Liszt in my opinion as well as Dr. Walker's other works on Liszt including the capstone 2005 "Reflections on Liszt" followed by those readily available diaries by Liszt's Weimar students [August Göllerich, Amy Fay, Carl Lachmund, Alexander Siloti and Arthur Friedheim, and not to forget the Lina Schmalhausen diary [a real eye opener that one! See my reviews on most of these tomes] and then, finally, the letters of Franz Liszt which cover a vast period of time but which are, in themselves, rather telling of the man, the master and the artist. And the era in which he lived with its noted personalities and various of which Liszt maintained long-term and/or lifetime friendships.
   
   The man and his music have always fascinated me although when I play various of his pieces, keys wise anyway, well, knowing Liszt also had a facility for Latin as he did other languages, I find myself doing a sort of ad hoc mantra of "mea culpa" [! -- 'maxima' inclusive on the Hungarian Rhapsodies especially #2 and #6!] while considering myself fortunate that I was not sitting on the "hot seat" in Weimar for the master himself to begin talking about [if you know Liszt, you'll get my drift immediately!] .. the "conservatory" [!] not to mention that famous Liszt Weimar buzz-word expression which 'all' the students knew at once when Liszt referred to those "uninvited guests" [read: clinkers].
   
   Doc Tony

No comments about Travellers Rome, 3rd (Travellers - Thomas Cook).

No comments about Insight Pocket Guide Rome (Insight Guides).