Customer Reviews

Karen Brown's Italy Charming Inns & Itineraries 1999

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On our recent journey to Tuscany and Umbria, we resorted to the book for two places to stay. One was a castle, a marvelous place, but without signage. Either the actual location, as described in the book, was right and the 1,200-year-old castle had been moved in the night, or, more likely, the book was badly off, by miles. The second described, in gushing terms, a family-run former farmhouse near Rada, where we and another couple from Philadelphia independently reached the same conclusion -- that they were indifferent, at best, and wished we wouldn't bother them. Our hosts kept the downstairs hideaway, a library and sitting room, off limits to all guests, even though it was delightful (as written in the book) and ready to use. We wonder if the hosts treated the reviewer wonderfully, but our experience had little resemblance to that -- nor that did of the two other Americans we'd never met before, and with whom we compared notes afterwards.

Fantastic! I think Karen saved me hundreds of hours of research time and hair pulling. All the contact information, stunning write-ups, all true to their word just made everything so easy from booking the room to getting our documents in order. The itineraries made our trip unique and special. I can't wait to start on next years trip with Karen Brown's Guide to Switzerland!

I traveled to Ravello, Florence, Rome, Venice, and Cinque Terra and stayed in a 'Karen Brown inn' at every leg of the trip. The descriptions were perfect. Any chance of writing a similar book for the Greek Isles?