Customer Reviews

Frommer's Born to Shop Italy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just returned from Italy and used this book almost every day. We loved the directions for finding great bathrooms. This book is not just about shopping but tells you all the hints you wish other guide books would tell you. It's very practical and best of all small and light. Her suggestion about how to reach your hotel from the train station in Venice was the best. Thanks for such a great little helper.

A must-have for serious shoppers! I was so engrossed in this book I did not notice my plane was delayed on the runway 1 1/2 hours. The attention to detail was impeccable; I used the maps to plan a different shopping trip every day, making the best use of time. Thanks to the tips, I was able to shop on Via della Spiga without maxing out my Visa. Advice like this is indispensable; I was able to bring home the perfect souvenir for everyone and stock up on leather goods during July sales for Xmas gifts. The Born to Shop series allows me to look forward to business trips and constructively deal with jet lag. I earned a Ph.D. in Italian designers, and Peck and Frette linens are among my passions all thanks to this book!

Suzy Gershman is one of the only writers of series travel guides who actually earns her percentage of each book, in my opinion. Her shopping series is actually significantly updated from year to year, and therefore, is one of the only ones worth buying repeatedly. I have frequently been astonished that many other brandname guides are essentially reprints of the version for the previous year with little to no update. Why buy them? I've always gotten great tips from Suzy and I appreciate her hard work and wonderful sense of humor. When travel time is limited, it's nice to have Suzy to have done the advance footwork. Keep it up, Suzy! You keep researching and your readers will try to continue to create opportunities to use your shopping advice!

I bought this book because I had a positive experience with the Hong Kong version (which is substantially better) during a trip 5 years ago. I did not expect much from this book, but it managed to disappoint anyway. The writing style is so conversational and unstructured that it quickly becomes annoying.

I could put up with the writing style if it was not so obvious that the author was filling space to make up for the lack of content. Basically, if you plan to shop for designer clothes and purses in the big cities and want to know where the designer stores are, then you might get some use out of this. Beyond that, the content is severely limited. Probably the worst example I can think of involves an outlet store. The author admits that she could not even find the place, yet she still included it in her book!

ALTHOUGH QUITE INFORMATIVE WHILE I WAS IN ITALY, I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO FIND THAT THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN YOUR BOOK ABOUT THE SHROUD OF TURIN WAS NOT UP TO DATE. AFTER TRAVELLING TO TURIN FROM MILAN ONLY TO FIND OUT THE CATHEDRAL WAS CLOSED AND THE SHROUD HAS NOT BEEN ON DISPLAY FOR THE PAST 28 YEARS. IT WILL BE OPENED IN LATE APRIL, WISH I HAD KNOWN BEFORE.