Italy for First Timers

by Lynnette Hartwig

Get the most out of your trip! Tourist cards –what’s included (and what’s not) for each major city, how to evade the VAT tax, how to navigate Italy’s public transportation, picking a hotel you won't regret, and how to get good service in Italian restaurants. This indispensable guide is guaranteed to save you twenty times the cost of the book plus make the most of your time. Hundreds of tips, Why spend forty hours online weeding through confusing contradictions yet never finding the answers you need? This up-to-date guide doesn't recommend restaurants that are closed or state just-plain-wrong information about the attractions, which happens frequently in the big-name tourist books. You only get one first-trip-to-Italy, make it memorable for the right reasons!

Genres: Travel, Italy, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2014

Reviews

[Theresa Lee]

Great book to read before your trip

She gives great advice with a sense of humor. Reading the book was like listening to a friend that just got back from her trip. Worth the price.

[Lisa Wolch]

great and practical tips for those who haven't traveled to Italy or to Europe before.

[Kat]

Fun read with good tips

I enjoyed Ms Hartwig's short book about travel in Italy - dry wit, ability to relay anecdotes and personal stories while providing a variety of tips and warning the more mainstream guidebooks might overlook. Very practical and no- nonsense. One of my favorite tips was to look for video guides at museums and monuments as an alternative to the ubiquitous audio guides
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[Lisa Shea]

I've been to Italy once, many years ago, so in some ways I'm going to be a first timer on my next trip to Italy. I was eager to read Italy for First Timers by Lynnette Hartwig to see what advice she offered.

Lynnette covers so much valuable information about travel in general that this would make an ideal book for any traveler to read, not just Italian-destination people. There's tips on packing. Tips on getting smoothly through airport security. Tips on navigating unknown subway systems. Tips on knowing how to get to your hotel. Tips how to deal best with blisters and sore feet.

These tips don't just help you - they help others around you. Now you'll be prepared and won't be the person holding up the line for fifteen minutes while you undo something that had been done improperly.

She both gives information where it's relevant and she directs you to other resources to get full details where necessary or where they might change. She gives detailed help on the popular tourist cities and also general information that will apply anywhere you happen to visit.

I have some minor issues with it. The layout is sort of stream-of-consciousness with topics being brought up as they go. A look at the table of contents shows just a stream of titles like "time" and "bugs" and "the rule" which aren't always clear, and there aren't main sections to organize those into groups. If you're looking for help with something in particular it might not always be easy to find. Also, Lynnette advocates packing just a few tops and reusing them. When I travel, especially someplace hot like Italy, I have to pack extra tops, not fewer. So there are some tips that you'll need to adjust for your own body.

Still, only a few quibbles in a dense book that is stuffed full of valuable content. Well recommended.

I purchased this book with my own funds. I am acquainted with Lynnette; that being said, if you read my thousands of other reviews you'll see that I always post honest (sometimes quite critical) reviews, whether or not I have met the author :).

[Michael Daaboul]

There's a lot of useful information that can mostly be found on TripAdvisor and Whirlpool forums all in one book.

I had almost finished the book before my time in Italy and everything I read helped in some way.

I had 32 highlighted notes that made my trip that much better.

The structure of the book was a challenge to get through, you really had to read it all to get the most value out of it. Hard to pinpoint info you need quickly. Some info might not be the best approach, but it's the author's experience.

I wish there was more information on how to deal with navigating train stations, bookings and the trains themselves to get to one part of Italy to the next. It was easy to work out, but this needs more thought in the book, as it could be overwhelming if you struggle with part of your trip.

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[Lynnette Hartwig]

I've written this book based on a lifetime of traveling, including several trips overseas. My latest trip to Italy brought home how much a word here and there, a little bit of insight at the right moment can make a world of difference, reducing stress and increasing enjoyment.
My biggest mistake, oddly enough, was reading the common travel books. Almost every case of relying on them for location or tour information was problematic. Dozens of hours of on-line information-gathering informs this book, enabling the reader to save oodles of time; I include several questions that I never found an answer to on-line, had to go there and find out the answer for myself.

If you or anyone you know is heading to Italy this year, this book will save money, reduce hassle, and increase enjoyment. Enjoy!

[Christina Scalise]

There is sooo much information packed into this little book. Tons of traveling tips and advice on how to prepare for and enjoy your very first visit to Italy. Just a few of the things this book covers - how to prepare for your trip, packing list, air travel information, what to see, where to stay, where to eat, public transportation (buses, subways and trains), tourist cards, Venice, Rome, Florence and much more. A few pictures are included as well.

[Lynne]

Rather scrambled, but tons of useful and interesting information...even if you're not traveling to Italy.

I read it on my Kindle and the formatting was very scrambled...at times formatting language is printed right alongside the author's sentences, which is very distracting.

I would have to believe reading this in book format would make it more useful.

[Lori A McNay]

Good reference

Easy read. Good hints and packing tips.
Helpful ideas on tours and what not to try to take into museums to make sure you get thru the lines.

[Cris]

Great read.

Helped prepare us for our vacation and made us aware of things we really would have never known.
Thanks so much, we had an amazing time!

[Beige Alert]

Decent enough advice - sometimes a bit too precise (I know how to pack underwear by now). I can't wait to see Florence.