Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Florence and Tuscany 2009

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

On my honeymoon to Italy, I brought three guidebooks: Rick Steves, Eyewitness Guide, and Blue Guide. It made for a lot of extra weight, but I wanted to field-test them and see which were the most useful. Rick's books are meant for the traveler who wants to hit the highlights and doesn't care about excess detail, and he often leaves out sights (even whole areas of cities, as in Rome) that are well-worth seeing even on a short trip. Rick is very good when it comes to practical travel tips such as packing, avoiding thieves, and choosing rail passes (he also sells some great travel gear), but I prefer a more comprehensive guide that lays it all out and lets me decide what I want to see, even if it means sacrificing detail. Also, I find Rick's writing style silly and his historical commentary not always accurate (especially when dealing with Christian history, a not unimportant thing in Italy!). Unless you plan to stick to Rick's itineraries exactly and like the experience of having a very American type of tourguide in your hand, consider looking elsewhere. For my money, the colorful and user-friendly Eyewitness guides provide a good broad overview of a place and have detailed city maps. For those who like a lot of historical, artistic, and architectural detail, Blue Guides are a great choice. Get Rick's travel tips on his website and buy one of his travel bags, but pass his book by. I left mine behind in a Florence hotel lobby.

My wife and I just returned from a Fall trip to Tuscany. This little book never left my back pack the whole trip. We read and followed it from cover to cover all over the Tuscan countryside. From museums (we literally read the book from art to art throught the Uffizi) to places to eat -- it was perfect. The tips included (like ordering tickets to David by phone in advance and picking them up at will call -- phone numbers included) are literally worth the price of the book. Rick Steves makes traveling abroad enjoyable and educational. This book and the fact that it is annually updated is perfect.

We split our time in Rome with two days in Florence. We had Rick Steve's Rome for the Rome portion of our 10 days but we found ourselves in Florence without his Florence and Tuscany book. While standing in line to see the David, we slipped into a bookstore and purchased this book. It was every bit as helpful as Rick's book on Rome and I have a personal resolution to never vacation in another European city without a Rick Steve's guide book in my hand. Every recommendation... from where to get gellato, where to eat dinner, what to see, what to miss, when to visit specific attractions and how to avoid the lines was right on target.
This book allowed us to walk Florence as if we were locals and made our trip that much more enjoyable.
I recommend this book for any first or second time visitor to Florence.

I came across this in an apartment in Florence, wisely jettisoned by a traveler who had more useful things to carry in their luggage.

Steves' book IS quite good at the very practical nitty gritty of Florence: for example precisely how one collects pre-reserved Uffizi tickets, but his comments on cultural aspects are at best token and often stupid. Not everyone will want, like me, to know all about as much of the art as possible in a book about Florence, but for a travel guide to cover, say, Santa Croce and make reference to only one painting when the place is full of the most glorious and important fresco cycles by major figures is inexcusable. If the information is there, one can ignore it, but if it isn't, you might return to the US (the prime market, I imagine) and realise that you have been within yards of great paintings but the guide book didn't GUIDE you to go and look at them. Instead, in Santa Croce, he refers to admittedly interesting monuments, but fails to refer to the finest (Bruni's), he's only interested in the famous names.

His grasp of the art is very poor and he seems to address his readers as though they are 12 year olds needing asinine jokes to keep their attention. For him medieval painting is a world of never-neverland (his phrase) where the poor painters are struggling desperately to paint realistically but just can't do it! Simone Martine's Uffizi Annunciation is patronised: he can't see its beauty and sees it as a mere stone on the pathway to realism. Mary 'doesn't look too impressed': a good point if he only had the wit to see that perhaps the responsibility of her role is frightening and overwhelming - it's a very moving and human piece, but his approach seems to be,'Why try to elucidate when you can be folksy and jocular'. An early crucifixion is mocked for having Christ's head raised as on a wedge as though this is a pathetic effort at three-dimensionality when it is pretty obvious that the angle would enable viewers to see Christ's face (and suffering) more clearly from ground level and has little to do with aspiring to realism. He also says that the Siena Pinacoteca (a gallery full of wonderful Sienese painting) would tempt him in only if there was a downpour! (I dread to think what nonsense Steves writes about, say, Picasso, if REALISM is the criterion by which all is judged.)

A cardinal sin, for me, is the advice to 'leave this guide face up' in a number of restaurants to gain a reduction. When I travel I like to try to be as little like a tourist as possible, while still obviously being one. I know I stand out like a sore thumb, but Steves seems happy to be as obvious as an amputated leg. And what sort of arrangement leads a guide book writer to 'negotiate' deals for his readers? All very sad, especially as Steves seems to be the Guru of European travel for Americans. Perhaps he suits those, like the previous reviewer who praises Steves for enabling him to 'do' Pisa in 45 minutes and not miss anything, though how he would know he hadn't missed anything is beyond me.

The Rough Guide does everything Steves does well just as effectively, while the cultural stuff, whether great art, architecture etc or jazz clubs, bars, cinemas, clubs - is in another league. If you want a detailed guide to the art and history of the city, see American art historian Eve Borsook's Companion Guide: it has the art, the history and is a really good unfussy read.

And if you want to get a guide to the UK, PLEASE don't buy Steves': I dread to think what rubbish he writes, on the basis of this offering.
Not even worth the one star the site requires me to give!

Rick Steves always gives good advice. His information is accurate and down-to-earth. We've traveled with his books before and are never disappointed. I was surprised that more than half of this book is about Florence. It provides just the highlights of Tuscany. If you want detailed information on the rest of Tuscany, you may need another book.

I usually find Rick Steves' books the best way to start planning a vacation to Europe. His suggestions for sleeping accomodations and transportation I use to narrow my search for a hotel. Using his books on Paris and Rome I found quaint hotels with wonderful staff near sights I wanted to see and close to public transporation. Although I do not always take all his tours, I read about them and take from them sights of interest to me and leave out some of his. I often coordinate the maps in his books with a more detailed map which would also include public transportation stops. His tips are usually invaluable about transporation and museums. I am only in the planning stages with my Florence and Tuscany vacation, but I am already excited about traveling to Tuscany next spring. I wish he would have added a section on cooking classes of which there are many. He mentioned only one tour company which did the cooking classes. On the whole, I find his books very valuable.

This was a great guidebook and I was thoroughly glad i purchased it. I thought the Rome one was a little better, and was a little disappointed in the content in the Florence edition. If you aren't planning on spending your time in Florence in all the museums, it's a little dry on the history of everything else. The museum tours are sparse but very knowledgeable on what they do talk about. Though if you get out of the city, this book is great, because it is everything you need for day trips. (except cinque terre which would have been helpful) The guide to Pisa was indispensable-it helped us get through there in 45 minutes, wasting no time. Definitely worth it to buy and at least pull out the sections you need.

This book does not have pretty pictures or in-depth historical information about the sights, but there are plenty of books that do that.

This book's strength is that it makes your trip easy, painless and enjoyable. In my recent trip to Florence (June 26-29) I did not have to wait in line at any of the museums/cathedrals/domes etc. which made the trip much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Even though Florence is in the title, I was a little surprised by how little the rest of Tuscany was covered. Still a very nice guide.

I bought this 2007 book a few months ago and have been studying it in preparation of visiting Florence in October of 2007. I have found it to have been extremely helpful in aiding my itinerary, especially in Florence and Sienna. Though most of my time will be spent at a villa in the Chaniti region (actually between both cities), this book has helped me map out a good plan of the area directing me to other source. Most importantly to me were the recommedations of nice restaurants. Rick gives you a great run down on menus, prices, and how dressing to get. I would recommend it for anyone interested in visiting Florence or Tuscany - especially if you have never been.