The Rough Guide Italy 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

Rough Guides (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2003 | Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides

This "Rough Guide" contains lively and detailed accounts of the best-known attractions from the great art treasure houses of the Uffizi and Vatican museums to the stunning natural scenery of Tuscany and the Amalfi coast. Off-the-beaten track there is coverage of the lesser-known sights, such as the rugged Monte Sibillini range and remote hill-villages of the south. Practical guidance on sporting activities, such as skiing in the Dolomites or windsurfing on Lake Garda, exists alongside sections on more leisurely pursuits like wine tasting in Umbria.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The most readable, comprehensive and informative guide around." Cosmopolitan Magazine

About the Author

Researched by an established team of writers, all with intimate knowledge of Italy's various regions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1215 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 6th edition (June 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843530600
• ISBN-13: 978-1843530602
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,527,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a recommended guide for first-time visitors to Italy, January 9, 2004

By 

first time backpacker to Italy (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide Italy 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I just came back from a 2 week trip to Italy, my first time going there. I have used guides such as LonelyPlanet and Let's Go before, but I selected RoughGuide for this trip because I have heard a lot of good things about the series and as it was one of the most recently published guides for Italy, I was hoping it will have the most updated information.

First of all, the good things about the guide:
1. It does contain a lot of practical information about big and small cities in Italy, and it was immensely useful during my trip.
2. A lot of historical and insightful details for museums and art galleries that went beyond the basics, that I found very useful

However, the good is not enough to overcome the shortcomings of the guide, and that is why I think there must be a better guide for Italy than this and I encourage travelers to seek them out. Some of the things in the guide that really bothered me included:

1. Listing recommended bars and cafes without marking them on the provided map. Without a street index for any map, I was unable to find the places they recommended unless I spend 20 minutes looking at every single street name on the page. As streets in places like Rome, Florence and Venice are very small, this was a very difficult task. I sometimes came to the conclusion that the street for the bar listing was not even in the map provided. Contact information for bars and cafes were not provided, so it was not even possible to call them to ask for directions.

2. No layout plan/map for large museums and galleries. When I came to places like the Vatican, the Roman Forums and the Uffizi, I found it difficult to locate important "sights" with only word directions (i.e. on the right of the second altar...... or on the left side of that first pile of rubble.....) This is especially a problem when I sometimes found myself coming in from a different entrance than the one the writers used. It would have been a lot simpler if they included a map of the museum itself. This was especially difficult in the Uffizi in Florence. They would describe a painting as being in room 6, but room numbers are not displayed for every room in the Uffizi. The rooms are also not clearly shaped and defined, and I did not even realize I had crossed four rooms until I looked at my friend's guide to see I was no longer in room 3, but in room 7.

3. Not really a guide for roughing it. For Siena, the category of inexpensive dining means a meal for less than Euro 20. This is actually quite expensive for a backpacker on a budget.

4. Not very thorough directions. In Siena, information is given for how to get to the train station from the city centre, but no information is given for getting back to the train station (the bus drop off and pick off points are in different parts of the city). To get from Naples to Pompeii, they list taking the train to Torre Annuziata and then switching to another line, but you save yourself a lot of trouble if you just take train to Sorrento.

5. Lack of low budget accommodation listings. There are a lot of listings for hotels, but there is hardly enough listings of hostels. Even when there are listings, the comments they offer are not very helpful to help me decide whether it is a hostel that is worth using.

All in all, this guide did help me a lot. At the same time, I am quite certain I would have been able to find the same help in another guide to Italy, that would have offered better directions and descriptions of famous sights. Perhaps this is a good guide if you are already quite familiar with Italy, because it does offer information for smaller towns and out of the way places. However, for a first time backpacker to the country who was interested in seeing the big and medium-sized sights, I found it lacking a lot of information that would have been helpful.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful for trip to Italy team cut combine 2nd book, April 10, 2004

By 

10za "10za" (Alpharetta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide Italy 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to Italy with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps and illustrations are often better and there are more higher-end hotels listed.
This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in Italy. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in Italy.

If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels. The guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.

I would definitely read this book before going to Italy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Check out another guide book instead, July 12, 2005

By 

J. Pierce (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rough Guide Italy 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I lived in Italy from August 2003 to August 2004 and before leaving I bought this guidebook. I would have been better off with no guidebook at all. The information in Rough Guide Italy (e.g., prices for hostels, opening/closing times for attractions, etc.) was consistently wrong to the point that I questioned whether anyone had attempted to verify what was printed in the last ten years. Rough Guide, in an attempt to differentiate itself from Lets Go and Lonely Planet, spends a lot of time on "off the beaten track" areas. This is generally good but it seems that in some cases cities do no merit the praise heaped upon them (i.e., Rough Guide does this solely in order to offer something different). Anyway, the point is that I had the opportunity to use Rough Guide countless times over the year. The historical information is not bad but its practical value is seriously lacking. Rough Guide, if you're listening it would be in your best interest to update your stuff!