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Frommer's Italy 2001
Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer. And avoid tourist traps. At Frommer's, we use 150 outspoken travel experts around the world to help you make the right choices. Frommer's. Your guide to a world of travel experience. Choose the Only Guide That Gives Great trips begin at www.frommers.travelocity.com
800 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2001
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36 people want to read
About the author
Darwin Porter
301 books18 followersDarwin Porter (1937-) is an American travel writer, producing numerous titles, mostly for the Frommer guidebook series, over a 50-year career span.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 7, 2010
This book begins by laying out its purpose (Page 2): "Italy is so packed with attractions that it's hard to know where to start. But that's where we come in." Frommer's has published many a volume that I have used in family vacations or even long weekends. This is another strong entry in the series.
The book begins with an introductory chapter that provides background for the rest of the work. It outlines some of the best places to visit, very briefly, in Italy (e.g., best restaurants, best winegrowing region, best cathedrals). Chapter 2 continues providing context, with a discussion of history, arts and architecture, popular culture, and cuisine. Chapter 3 outlines how a person would go about planning a trip to Italy. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the introductory portion of the book by laying out itineraries in brief. After having read the first four chapters, one is in a position to look at a trip to Italy, city by city and region by region.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on Rome itself. Transportation is discussed, as is where to stay (hotels are noted as very expensive to very affordable), area by area within Rome Just so, where to dine--from very expensive to very affordable. There are some nice maps showing where hotels and restaurants are located. Standard tourist attractions are covered, from St. Peter's to the Roman Coliseum to the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain to. . . . Also, what to do after dark. All in all, these two chapters provide lots of useful information in seeing Rome.
There is similar coverage for cities such as Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, and the like. Much of the coverage is by region--Tuscany, Umbria, the Dolomites, the Lake District, Piedmont, the Amalfi Coast, and so on.
This is a handy reference source, from what I can tell, for readers who either want to get a better sense of Italy or who want a guide to help them make their plans as they go to Italy. Another finer addition to the Frommer's stable of books.
The book begins with an introductory chapter that provides background for the rest of the work. It outlines some of the best places to visit, very briefly, in Italy (e.g., best restaurants, best winegrowing region, best cathedrals). Chapter 2 continues providing context, with a discussion of history, arts and architecture, popular culture, and cuisine. Chapter 3 outlines how a person would go about planning a trip to Italy. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the introductory portion of the book by laying out itineraries in brief. After having read the first four chapters, one is in a position to look at a trip to Italy, city by city and region by region.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on Rome itself. Transportation is discussed, as is where to stay (hotels are noted as very expensive to very affordable), area by area within Rome Just so, where to dine--from very expensive to very affordable. There are some nice maps showing where hotels and restaurants are located. Standard tourist attractions are covered, from St. Peter's to the Roman Coliseum to the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain to. . . . Also, what to do after dark. All in all, these two chapters provide lots of useful information in seeing Rome.
There is similar coverage for cities such as Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, and the like. Much of the coverage is by region--Tuscany, Umbria, the Dolomites, the Lake District, Piedmont, the Amalfi Coast, and so on.
This is a handy reference source, from what I can tell, for readers who either want to get a better sense of Italy or who want a guide to help them make their plans as they go to Italy. Another finer addition to the Frommer's stable of books.
August 10, 2010
I confess: I don't know where I would start if I were assigned the monstrous/fabulous chore/pleasure of composing a tour-book about Italy. And to be fair, I generally like the authors' recommendations, though I did feel they angled toward a slightly older, slightly wealthier type of tourist than I consider myself. And I appreciated the extensive historical sketches at the start of each section. My friends, who were traveling with Fodor's 2010 guide, had little of that.
My beef with the book is its timeliness (severely outdated prices are listed for attractions as major as the Roman Forum and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) and, even more than this, its maps. This book has much to offer, but its maps are abominable. The foldout map in the back of the book (which you must purchase the book before you can look at, those sneaky publishers...) offers deceptively "complete" maps of major cities Venice and Rome -- without major street names included. Inside the book, prime tourist cities (Venice, Florence, Rome, etc.) have at least three maps each -- one for restaurants, one for hotels, one for attractions -- but they're not cross-referenced, their keys are sometimes incomplete, and many of the sites described in the book appear nowhere on the map. So good luck finding them.
My beef with the book is its timeliness (severely outdated prices are listed for attractions as major as the Roman Forum and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) and, even more than this, its maps. This book has much to offer, but its maps are abominable. The foldout map in the back of the book (which you must purchase the book before you can look at, those sneaky publishers...) offers deceptively "complete" maps of major cities Venice and Rome -- without major street names included. Inside the book, prime tourist cities (Venice, Florence, Rome, etc.) have at least three maps each -- one for restaurants, one for hotels, one for attractions -- but they're not cross-referenced, their keys are sometimes incomplete, and many of the sites described in the book appear nowhere on the map. So good luck finding them.
August 20, 2008
It was a great book for my trip...you should see it now. It's all torn up and all of the pages are folded and marked up. It told me everything I wanted to know about the places I visited in Italy. When we would go to a new city, I would just look it up in the book and see what sites were a MUST. It saved a lot of time. I also found the most amazing place to eat in Venice because of the descriptions in the book.
October 2, 2007
Far more impressed by my friend's copy of Rick Steve's Guide to Italy.... this one just sort of fell flat and didn't help me much on my travels.
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May 16, 2008Thumbing through here all the time dreaming up a vacation in my mind!
July 15, 2011
Good for planning a trip - one book for the whole country. Virtually no photos, though, so not great for planning whht you'll see or do (Use DK/Eyewitness series for that).
December 11, 2012
I finished the information on Rome, Florence, Italian Lakes, Italian Riveria, Pisa, Venice, Siena, Genoa, and Cinque Terra that we'll need for our trip. Good information on each.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews