Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria, 4th Edition

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

 

 

After tooking a 2-month off sabbatical at my job, I decided to spend some time driving all around Italy, and I can't thank this guide enough. It has all the information someone needs for traveling in Tuscany and Umbria, the two most fascinating regions in Italy (ok, the Amalfi Coast is great too). All cities are described in detail, from the historical background to what to see and what to do. This guide allowed me to do exactly what I wanted: to hit the road, stop by somewhere (Trasimeno Lake, the Orvieto hill, San Gimignano Film Festival) and just decide what the next stop would be. The author has a hilarious and superb style to describe anything, from the Cathedral in Orvieto to the paintings in Assisi and the pottery in Gubbio. Gold medal to the chapter about San Gimignano... After this, I have bought Rough Guides for all my trips.

Of all the guidebooks I've ever used, this one is the best. Extenstive information not only for the main tourist attractions in the area, but also good information for the smaller out of the way towns. This books is utterly thorough and accurate. The information on art and its historical background is significant and comprehensive. It's well organized and easy to use. And it pointed us to great restaurants. This guidebook literally contains two or three times as much information as the other ones. I couldn't be more enthusiastic. By the way, if you're going to rural Tuscany and Umbria, you'll have a fabulous trip and this book will make it even better.

My wife and I used this book extensively on a 10-day tour of Tuscany and Umbria. Excellent mix of history and restaurant and lodging recommendations. A few drawbacks to the book. The first is that many of the restaurants were not marked on the maps and the directions given were incomplete. Another drawback that I found is that the hotel recommendations were inconsistent from city to city - Pisa had only budget hotels listed while Assisi had hotels across the range. But these are minor criticisms, overall an excellent book.

I liked this guide immensely, compared to the standard guides we'd used in many trips to Italy since 1974. The editors are plainspeaking, knowledgeable, interesting, but more than that they lead you to unexpected treasures and little known places. Their coverage of food and board was very good but limited at times -- but no more so than any other, and the extent of their cultural and historical interest made up for that defect. And I liked the occasional irreverence.