Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence and Tuscany [Paperback]

Anna Streiffert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1994 | Series: EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE

The guide that shows you what other travel books only tell you!

Two of Italy's most spectacular vacation destinations are showcased in DK's Eyewitness Travel Guide: Florence and Tuscany. Florence has never been easier to navigate with the street-by-street maps and 3-D aerial views that highlight all the city's wonders. Visit the Piazza del Duomo, the Palazzo Vecchio, San Marco, and the Uffizi. Rich in history and landscape, Tuscany is fully explored. Visit the Leaning Tower in Pisa, the San Martino Cathedral in Lucca, taste the amazing regional dishes, and take a day trip to the Chianti Classico wine region. This invaluable guide offers a complete historical and cultural overview that you don't want to be without.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...You feel, looking at them, as if you could close the book and step into the street. -- Contra Costa Times

...considered to be the world's best travel resource to over 30 destinations around the world, make it easier to plan a splendid vacation. -- North American Press Syndication

Both novice and experienced travelers will be captivated. -- US News & World Report

Each book is a visual as well as informational feast about a particular place. -- The New York Times

Encyclopedic in scope, it's meant to be used before, during, and after your stay. -- Travel & Leisure

The Best Guidebooks Ever -- SKY MAGAZINE

The best travel guides ever. -- Sky Magazine -Delta In flight Magazine

The most graphically exciting and visually pleasing series on the market. -- Chicago Tribune

Want to know where to get a great espresso on your way to the Uffizi? Or how much to tip a hotel maid in New York City? Try these travel guides, each an intricate trove of 3-D aerial views, landmark floor plans, color photos and essential eating, shopping and entertainment info. With titles covering Paris, Prague, and London, these pocket-sized guides are like a Michelangelo fresco: deliriously rich in detail. -- People Magazine

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: DK Travel; First edition. edition (March 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564585026
• ISBN-13: 978-1564585028
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy > Tuscany
  • #54 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy > Florence

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most carried travel guide by tourists in Florence, November 8, 1998

By 

Ira M. Grossman ([e-mail]) (Fairfax, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence and Tuscany (Paperback)

My wife and I recently returned from a two week visit to Rome, Florence and Venice. We used the corresponding Eyewitness Travel Guide for each of the three cities. What I liked about all three guidebooks are its 3-D maps, good overviews of the museums and excellent descriptions of all the sites in the three cities, both major and minor ones. What was very helpful was to read a paragraph or two about a sight when we came upon it, whether deliberately or by just exploring. For the Florence book, the 3D cutaway of the Duomo is great. Also, excellently presented are the overviews of the Uffizi, the Bargello, Piazza della Signoria and Pallazzo Vecchio. The book begins with an excellent short history of the region and the Medici family. I found this description far superior to the one in the Knopf series. The book's weakness is its short and insufficient list of hotels. For hotel listings I suggest the Frommer series. Finally, an unofficial survey by observation, it seemed that more tourists were carrying the Eyewitness Travel Guides (in many different languages) than any other tour guide.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!, April 8, 2000

By 

Linda R. (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence and Tuscany (Paperback)

I am so happy that I had this book in my hand during out week visit in Florence. I read this book before going and was able to get an idea of what Florence was about, but when I arrived, this book did not leave my hands! This guide divides Florence into sections. We set out agenda according to sections in the book. The street-by-street map was invaluable and we were never lost. I am the worst with directions, but I knew extactly where I was during each day. With the maps, I navigated instead of my husband! The cut aways and guides to the various museums and attractions were also invaluable. We were able to walk into any attraction and know what the star features were and not have to miss a thing. We did not have to buy the extra tour books in each museum because our Eyewitness Guide gave us all the information we need and then some. Not only was I the navigator, but I was our personal tour guide. With the book, I was able to read out loud to my husband and tell him about everything we saw in Florence. There were many other tourists with the Eyewitnes Guides in their hands and I was pleasantly surprised to see the book in so many different languages. This book was able to tell us the customs of the region. When we were surprised about having to pay for a cover charge in a restaurant, I checked the restaurant section and it explained about cover charges in restaurants. We used the train from Florence to Rome and the guide told us about stamping our ticket at the yellow boxes before boarding. This guide covered it all.

You can forget the credit cards, but DO NOT LEAVE HOME WITH THIS ONE!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A guidebook that is not much of a guide., November 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence and Tuscany (Paperback)

I am a big fan of the "Eyewitness Guide to Venice and the Veneto" and so I assumed that this would be the single best guidebook I could take with me to Florence. I was wrong, and I'm sorry I took it with me. The entries on churches and sites are hard to find. They are organized by area, except when they're not, and within each area they are organized according to a numbering system of the book's own design. I had to usually resort to the index to find an alphabetical listing and a page number, so I was constantly flipping pages back and forth. The illustrations are pretty, but so small as to be of little use. The maps in the back are of good size and clear, but in order to find a particular site I had to go back to the index to find the page number to find the entry to find out which map I should look at. The information on the many churches, museums, and old buildings in Florence was no more than can be found in many other guidebooks, and in most cases better information can be found elsewhere.