Customer Reviews

KB ITALY'99: BED&BRKFST (Karen Brown's Country Inns Series)

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

 

 

For such a moderately priced guide to the bed and breakfasts of Italy, I found it to be full of valuable information! From the introduction, explaining the best ways to navigate the Italian telephone system (and other necessary details), to the property descriptions themselves, it lived up to and surpassed all of my expectations. My family and I had an incredible stay in Tuscany at a B&B we would not have found had it not been for this guide - truly a treat! Our hotel in Florence offered a rooftop terrace that provided a panoramic view worthy of a film sequence - amazing! We can't wait for the 2000 guide!

My family and I used a previous version of this book to locate B&B's in Northern Italy last year. We stayed at two selections: one a Tuscan farmhouse overlooking Florence and another in the ancient town of Bagnone. Each B&B was a uniquely wonderful experience. The dinners were incredible. Beautiful locations. Wonderful hosts. Beats a hotel any time.

Desciptions are very brief, directions are often poor (Ie "See detailed map of Rome"), and there are line sketches of the locations. Wouldn't photos be more helpful? I recommend looking elsewhere.

We planned our trip to Italy using a number of resources, but Karen Brown's book was where we kept turning for more personal reviews of the places we were considering. Her online site supplies the same information with links to the hotels themselves, which helps make up for the lack of pictures in the printed volume. Despite its shortcomings, however, we found this guide to be very helpful. We also liked the Eyewitness, Rick Steves, and Lonely Planet guides, though these last two are focused heavily on budget travellers.