Blue Guide Southern Italy

by Paul Blanchard

Increasingly, southern Italy is becoming a major European destination, not surprising given what it has to the ruins of Pompeii, the island of Capri, the wild scenery of the Abruzzo, the beautiful villages of the Ionian coast, the Romanesque architecture of Puglia, and vibrant Naples. With everything you need to know, from the best places to stay to the museums that cannot be missed as well as exquisite lesser-known sights, the eleventh edition is an essential guide. Color photographs, floor plans, maps, diagrams

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

600 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Paul Blanchard is an art historian, landscape architect and long-time Italy resident.

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the art fan, there are no greater guides out there than the Blue Guides. The guide for Southern Italy is no exception and was an invaluable companion during my recent trip to Naples including Pompeii and Herculaneum. I purchased it as an eBook and do have a few beefs with that format, but I don't know whether they are due to the Amazon app or to how the eBook was published. For one thing, the searching is nearly useless on the iPad version. The page formatting is poor on the iPhone. Both used lots of valuable battery and required me to jump around. The primary disadvantage was that the maps where cut in two parts and hard to read and not well cross-referenced into the text so I had to use the locally provided maps at the various sites to navigate. Other than that, the context was extraordinary and ever so insightful. Their coverage of the National Archeological Museum was especially great. A must for really appreciating the cultural aspects of the great city of Naples and its wealth of nearby sites.

[Don Mcguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with other Blue Guides I know, the most recent editions have edited out lots of the rigorous detail (room by room, case-by-case movement through museums; chapel-by-chapel movement through churches, etc) to produce a lighter set of itineraries. They are still strong guidebooks, just different from their former selves...

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blue Guides are our go-to references for everywhere we travel.