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Fodor's Essential Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice & the Top Spots in Between
Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.
Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in Italy!
•Your vacation never looked better. This Fodor’s full-color guide paints an unforgettable picture of Italy with vibrant maps, vividly illustrated features, and stunning color photos.
•Updated frequently, Fodor’s Essential Italy provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.
• Fodor’s Essential Italy features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.
•If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in Italy.
•Experience Italy like a local! Fodor’s Essential Italy includes Rome, Florence, Venice, and much more!
• Fodor’s Essential Italy includes unique photo-features that impart the country’s culture, covering Ancient Rome, Venice’s Grand Canal, the Cinque Terre, and much more!
•Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.
•Full-color pullout map.
Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in Italy!
•Your vacation never looked better. This Fodor’s full-color guide paints an unforgettable picture of Italy with vibrant maps, vividly illustrated features, and stunning color photos.
•Updated frequently, Fodor’s Essential Italy provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.
• Fodor’s Essential Italy features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.
•If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in Italy.
•Experience Italy like a local! Fodor’s Essential Italy includes Rome, Florence, Venice, and much more!
• Fodor’s Essential Italy includes unique photo-features that impart the country’s culture, covering Ancient Rome, Venice’s Grand Canal, the Cinque Terre, and much more!
•Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.
•Full-color pullout map.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
246 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.
1,840 books61 followersFodor's Travel Publications is a United States-based producer of English-language travel guides and online tourism information. It was founded by Hungarian Eugene Fodor in 1936.
Fodor’s was acquired by Random House in 1986 and sold to Internet Brands in 2016.
Fodor’s was acquired by Random House in 1986 and sold to Internet Brands in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 10, 2022
never thought i’d be writing a review for a travel book LOL
i would’ve liked to see images next to the activities proposed or even images of all the cities and towns mentioned. that’s the main downfall i can think of.
other than that i find it gives great advice, an extensive idea of activities, gives culinary tips and is a good, compacted guide for anyone who wishes to visit multiple regions in italy at once. will def bring with me on board!
i would’ve liked to see images next to the activities proposed or even images of all the cities and towns mentioned. that’s the main downfall i can think of.
other than that i find it gives great advice, an extensive idea of activities, gives culinary tips and is a good, compacted guide for anyone who wishes to visit multiple regions in italy at once. will def bring with me on board!
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May 19, 2025i did not read this whole thing bc i’m not going to every city in italy. i’ll lyk if it was helpful post-trip but i definitely learned things lol
September 16, 2017
As someone who has made two extended trips to Italy in recent years, and planning future trips there, I was interested to see how Fodor covered places I had seen, as well as future destinations. The book is comprehensive, accurate, and full of background information, history and tips on the destinations, particularly major ones like Rome, Florence and Venice. Indeed, this guide gets to the essentials, and provides information in proportion to the attractions and interests of given locations (more, say, on Florence than the Valle d'Aosta, though it does touch on the latter more than some "best of" guidebooks). It does cover pretty much all the places of interest to tourists, and provides current information on local accommodations, transit and cuisine.
It's a bulky work, but given its main focus -- what a traveler should plan for and look for, before-the-fact -- it's highly useful and informative. It can help a traveler decide what destinations to see, and what places to seek out once there, and how to get to them. It has an insider's knowledge, sometimes gossipy, sometimes insightful, as to how best to experience it. (It's amusing to read, for instance, "Florence's popularity with tourists means that, unfortunately, there's a higher percentage of mediocre restaurants here," before Fodor goes on with an insider's tips on which restaurants a visitor should try).
The book is well-organized, colorful, well-illustrated with maps and pictures, has a nice pull-out map of Rome in back, and has readable and interesting prose. In all, it's a worthwhile guide to plan a trip, or several trips.
It's a bulky work, but given its main focus -- what a traveler should plan for and look for, before-the-fact -- it's highly useful and informative. It can help a traveler decide what destinations to see, and what places to seek out once there, and how to get to them. It has an insider's knowledge, sometimes gossipy, sometimes insightful, as to how best to experience it. (It's amusing to read, for instance, "Florence's popularity with tourists means that, unfortunately, there's a higher percentage of mediocre restaurants here," before Fodor goes on with an insider's tips on which restaurants a visitor should try).
The book is well-organized, colorful, well-illustrated with maps and pictures, has a nice pull-out map of Rome in back, and has readable and interesting prose. In all, it's a worthwhile guide to plan a trip, or several trips.
January 26, 2015
This was my first Fodor's. A little intimidating after some of the smaller, more concise travel books I'd used before. 440 pages. But Italy, for me required a lot of depth before I went to make sure I understood the history (very complex) and the relevance of the art treasures and the gifted creators who made everything we wanted to see. Even after two trips, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.
December 23, 2017
This book made me so hungry. It is a good thing I don't drive or I would have left for Italy all ready. It was so fun to read about all the things that are so Interesting to me. I am Italian and I always wanted to go, but reading a travel guide is as close as I am going to get at this point. The pictures were so beautiful.
July 26, 2010
I recommend this book for travelers visiting the Vatican. This section of the book is very comprehensive. It includes tips on wait times, various collections (i.e., Egyptian art), appropriate dress, and items to bring with you (i.e., binoculars to view the Sistine Chapel).
October 21, 2011
This was such a great tool in planning our trip to the three main cities that this book focuses on. Each night we would plan out the things we wanted to do the next day and because this helped us plan so well we always had time left over to do more things!
May 20, 2009
good practical advice in very broad overview--
July 27, 2011
I downloaded this on my Nook so I would not have to carry books on our trip to Italy. I found this to be the most helpful in reading about the sights we were seeing--both before and after.
September 16, 2017
Great book for planning my upcoming trip to Italy.
May 22, 2022
Meh - I’ve seen better
August 22, 2023
Good for lots of locations. Good tips
February 8, 2024
It has helped me plan my trip to Italy!!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews