Charming Small Hotel Guides Italy (Paperback)

~ Fiona Duncan (Editor), Leonie Glass (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This very selective series of guides to intimate hotels offers the middle-class traveler excellent information on ambiance, service, food, and prices of hotels that they would never find in standard guidebooks. This particular guide to Italian accommodations is no exception, steering the reader to castles, converted monasteries, lakeside inns, and town hotels. The guide's only drawback is that all prices are given only in lira, but the bulk of truly helpful recommendations still make it an ideal vacation-planning tool. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"I have used the Spain and Italy volumes to find delightful, inexpensive hotels... I would trust their recommendations." -- The Washington Post

"Ooooh! Wait til you see this guide." -- The New York Daily News

"Sparkles with photographs of the finest – not the costliest – small hotels. Beautifully written descriptions, contact info, prices, etc." -- Library Journal

Each of these portable pocket books gives photographs and descriptions of more than 400 properties, covering practicalities and salient features. -- Gourmet Magazine

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Hunter Publishing (NJ); 8th edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588431126
• ISBN-13: 978-1588431127
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,609,571 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Places, Minor Reservations!, August 4, 2002

By A Customer

This can be a very helpful starting point for your travel planning, containing useful information about many attractive, special places in Italy. In this modern era, however, it is also important for the reader to leap to the Internet for additional information before making those reservations.

That done, you will discover that there are several potentially disappointing errors in this book, most notably the transposition of the photos for the magnificent Villa San Michele (Fiesole; attributed to Michelangelo) with the Hotel San Michele in Cortona. The former is one of the most beautiful and expensive hotels in Tuscany, standing atop a hillside overlooking Florence. The Cortona San Michele (while quite nice) is a more modest, affordable hotel, on a steep, narrow city street. One can only imagine the dismay for the visitors who arrive in Cortona, expecting the first, and found themselves at the latter! "Certainly doesn't look like its photo, now does it?"

Tighter editing--- and diligent reader investigation-- is essential. But all totalled, a recommended starting point for travel planning, especially if you recall that ancient Roman admonition, "Caveat Emptor!"

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great hotels for a great travel experience, March 5, 2000

By	Andy Herbach/Michael Dillon ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charming Small Hotel Guides: Italy (7th ed) (Paperback)

We are the authors of Eating & Drinking in Italy and have used this guide for many years. If you want to have a memorable trip to Italy, stay in the small hotels listed in this helpful guide.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, January 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Charming Small Hotel Guides: Italy (7th ed) (Paperback)

This `charming' series sparkles with photographs that stress the beauty of the finest - but not necessarily the costliest - small hotels across Europe (by country). Most hotels get a full page with a clear, revealing photograph, one or two beautifully written descriptive paragraphs and a shaded section with contact info, prices, etc. (Library Journal)