Customer Reviews

The Alps of Tuscany : Selected hikes in the Apuane Alps, the Cinque Terre and Portofino

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If you are planning a trip to northern Tuscany (Florence, Pisa, etc.) and want to do some hiking, you must check out this book! It is a goldmine of information on hikes in the Tuscan Alps -- all carefully described and ranked by difficulty, scenic beauty, elevation gain and duration, etc.-- as well as recommendations for places to eat and sleep at the end of your tiring day. I will update this review after putting the book to the test in May 2000.

This guide gives detailed information about 31 hikes in Italy's Liguria region and the Apuane Alps of Tuscany. As an example of its useful detail, it rates the difficulty of each hike as Easy (up to 8 km, up to 500 m elevation gain) Moderate (up to 10 km, up to 800 m elevation gain) Strenuous (up to 14 km, up to 1200 m elevation gain) and Very Strenuous (over 14 km, over 1200 m elevation gain).

Five of the hikes are more strenuous than the climb from Phantom Ranch, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to Grand Canyon Village, at the South Rim. And there are just two easy hikes.

The level of detail in this guidebook is astonishing. I have walked and climbed this area for 23 years but still found new ideas. I can confirm the accuracy of the descriptions from my experience of many of the routes followed in whole or in part. In this area it is essential to use detailed maps to supplement the route description if only to find starting and finishing points. The maps recommended within this guide are not wholly adequate for the purpose, and maps of the series "Edizioni Multigraphic, 1:25 000" are really indispensable.

This book, which I received as a present in anticipation of a trek to Italy, is fantastic. It is very interesting and well written with lots of good information. I agree with the above reviews; I especially love the menu recommendations for various spots and the guide to Italian behavoir. My one complaint is that it does not have much information for extended (multi-day) hikes, and while it has useful information on trains, the book as a whole is geared towards those traveling by car. All in all a delightful book, that is a fun read even if you aren't actually going hiking.

I just returned from a trip to the Apuan Alps, where I put this book to the test, and it was quite useful. The hikes are very well described and are very accurate in terms of the terrain and the time and distance. I also agree with their rankings of the various hikes in terms of difficulty and the overall experience. However, this book should be used as a "starting point" coupled with detailed road maps and trail maps, as the directions to the trailheads (and on the trails themselves) can be a bit vague at points. Still, it was an excellent tool that made for a great hiking experience.

I lived in the Lucca area for two years. The hikes outlined in this book are lovely. The hikes were always the highlight of my weekends. The information is very accurate, thorough and well presented. You cannot go wrong with this book if you want to hike the Alpi Apuani. It is easily the best english language guide to these mountains.