Customer Reviews

Rick Steves' Italy 2005

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

hotels and attractions in Italy but the problem is...SO MANY people from the US know this and buy his book. We enjoyed most of the hotels recommended in Northern Italy and Tuscany but found that numerous American travelers carry this book. (We were sitting at a small restaurant in Montepulciano and observed that all 7 tables including our own were Americans and 4 tables had folks reading Rick Steve's Book) It makes it difficult to get a room less than 30 days in advance...at least some of the more moderately priced hotels. I found some of the restaurants and hotels sufferred from what I call "Rick Steves Syndrome" where many Italians associated seemed to have overdosed on tourism and Americans. What was once the "Backdoor" is now the front door. That said, it is an essential part of travel to Italy, expecially when you're on a schedule and want to maximize your sightseeing. Just dont rely on it 100 percent to solve your lodging and dining needs while in Italy.

I've been to Italy several times.....Rome, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Milan, some of the hill towns, etc. Here are my reviews of the best guides to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.

Frommer's
These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the public transportation system. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

Rick Steeves sometimes get a bad rap because many have seen his TV shows, which sometimes come across as simple and lacking detail. His books though are much more practical, and his hotel recommendations have, in my experience in France, Spain, and Italy, never missed. For whatever reason, his influence seems to be greatest on tourists to Italy relative Spain or France.

My biggest criticism about Rick Steeves is that he seems to have little interest in food, and his restaurant recommendations are not as good ( I follow the Michelin guide for those).

I only ever *enjoyed* guides by Cadogan, and now Rick Steves.

Italy 2004 (buy the 2005) was indispensable for my 'parachute' 3-day visits of Florence and Venice this summer. With just a little reading you can arrive totally prepared, immediately have a ton of fun, and dig deep into the local culture while avoiding the tourist scrum.

Just a thought: try not to be too slavish to the Rick Steves method of everything, take chances. And be discreet. It's a pain to see everyone pulling the RS books out in every recommended restaurant, etc. Read before you go, or be discreet, and preserve the ambiance of old Italy. It's not that hard to remember how to order food is it?

Downside, I only felt a few things could NOT have been updated for '04, based on some drastic increases in price, and 2 or 3 recommendations going completely down hill, compared to the description. No big deal, Italy is a crazy but fun place.

4.5 stars.

I traveled around Italy for the first time this summer, with Rick Steves Italy 2005 as my only guide. Other reviewers have complained of Rick Steves overload, and indeed it is strange to be sitting in pretty much any corner in Italy and see at least a few other people reading the Rick Steves guide. Indeed, even Rick's "back doors" are no longer undiscovered, and many small town Italians sighed as they said how his books were a blessing and a curse for their home towns.

That being said, there is a reason why so many tourists clutch onto his tour book as I did--they do so because it's a darn good book! And even if his back doors are not as pristine as they might have once been, my fondest memories from Italy are from places like the hill cities of Tuscany and the beautiful towns of the Cinque Terre, places I probably wouldn't have visited (or even heard of) if I had stayed with the mainstream guides. His recommendations for restaurants and hotels were right on the mark as well.

Say what you will about Rick, but his guide is an indispensable guide for first-time travelers to Italy, and a great stepping stone for repeat visitors. This book was informative and fun to read, as it was nice to have a tour book that actually had opinions and some spice. Thanks Rick, for being my tour guide on an unforgettable tour around Italy!

I lived in Italy for four years before the "Rick Steves era", I was an ardent user of the Frommer guides, and they are great. However, Rick's guide to Italy is superb! He is comprehensive, he runs the gamut from budget to more comfortable, and he does a masterful job of pointing travelers to the best of real Italy. He candidly admits that "Italy is his favorite country," and that the book is based on his opinions. However, his opinions are honest, thoroughly researched, constantly updated, and they exude common sense. He is witty, writes engagingly, and beyond everything else, I trust him, as do zillions of other travelers.

Bravo, Rick! Great job!

Rick Steve's books are all about saving your money. You should start by not purchasing this book. Potential purchasers should be aware that Rick Steve's books are aimed at a particular segment of segment of the tourist market, that is, those people who want clear and practical advice about how to get about Italy as quickly and cheaply as possible, ticking off the "essential" bits; but don't care very much about what they eat, where they eat, where they sleep or why things are the way they are. Last of all they want to spend their time with other tourists who think the same way. If this discription does not fit you, then there may be other books you might consider such as the Blue Guides or HV Morton.

I have found that the Rick Steve Guides to be consistently the best for short trips to the destinations. It's organization of what to see and do seems to be on the money. I have also found that it is very important to get the latest edition, esp. for Italy. There were a lot of changes when I went to Italy in Sept. 2005 using the 2005 guide, but it acted as a great what to see in a short trip. Food and hotel is not as good as site guide.

The title of the book is misleading: or perhaps we should take it literally--it is Rick Steves's Italy--not all of Italy. I bought it planning a vacation to the Emilia Romagna region, but there is nothing in the book about Bologna, a major city, or the rest of the region, except a short section on Ravenna. Other large areas of Italy are similarly left out. Mainly, he covers the Rome/Florence/Venice axis, with a few other places thrown in. If that's where you're going, there is plenty of information, but if you plan to go beyond the major cities, try another guide.

Rick Steves' Europe travel guides are the best since they're updated every year. I took the 2004 edition of this book with me on a two-week backpacking trip through Italy, and it was indispensable. I carried it with me at almost all times. Rick always offers great advice on what to see and what to skip, and you can count on great hotel and restaurant information. The physical size of the book is also perfect for putting in your cargo pants pocket, jacket pocket, or backpack. While the Rick Steves' guides don't include pictures to help you in your planning, the information is simply the best real world, "how do I do this" advice you're going to find in a guidebook.

The front of the book includes a color map of Italy with major rail lines as well as double-page city maps of Venice, Rome, and Florence. I never bought or needed separate maps of Venice or Florence and purchased a detailed map of Rome only in order to look up some very specific addresses. The maps in the book are great! You'll also find maps throughout the text with locations of the major sites, hotels, and restaurants listed in the book pointed out on the map. I purchased the Rick Steve's Italy fold-out map before my trip but never needed it.

If you're going to Italy, don't try to do it without this book!