The Rough Guide to Italy Book

When listing the virtues of the Rough Guide series--including The Rough Guide to Italy--it is difficult to know where to begin. Primarily, of course, their greatest value lies in the comprehensive coverage of a given region, and the updated edition of The Rough Guide to Italy is a classic example of this excellent all-inclusiveness, with over 1000 tightly-packed pages of information, maps and photos. Then, of course, there is the famous Rough Guide accessibility: intelligently laid-out indices make finding the desired destination or sight (whether it's Michelangelo's David in Florence's Academia or the erotic frescoes in Pompeii) the easiest thing imaginable. But what the Guides are really famous for (and thankfully this new Italian guide has in abundance) is their wonderfully unstuffy and cutting-edge attitude to their subject countries. It is, in fact, this intelligent edge that has most of their rivals looking musty and old-fashioned. Anyone wishing to sample the style of Rough Guide Italy could do no better than to turn to the section on Rome, where a perfectly judged introduction to the city's history is balanced by highly useful off-the-cuff information such as the difficulty of getting anywhere very fast in the Eternal City. It's this frankness that is less often found in other guides, and this (along with the impeccable scholarship and a diamond-sharp evocation of a sense of place) makes this the one Italian guide you will need. Some might claim that illustrations and photos are rather sidelined in order to accommodate more text, but that's precisely the idea: these are, above all, guides to help you find your way around Italy (or wherever) with the greatest possible ease. If you want masses of colour photographs--why not go and take them yourself? --Barry Forshaw Read More