Italy guidebook or just Rome/Florence/Venice?

I'd go to Amazon and "look inside" those 4 books, look closely at the table of contents and index, which it should show you for free on the look inside feature. And based on that, decide if the Italy book is adquate or if you want to spend the money on the 3 books.
The first time I went, I bought the 3 books, but I'm a guidebook person.

Bill,

The Italy book should have enough information on the 3 big cities you plan to visit.

Individual guidebooks may just be excepted from the Italy guidebook.

I purchased RS 'Italy' guidebook prior to my trip in 2014, and I also purchased RS 'Milan & the Italian Lakes District' guidebook.
When I got home, I realized that the information found in the individual guidebook was the same as that given in his 'Italy' guidebook!

I also like reading other guidebooks such as Frommer's, & Lonely Planet.

Happy planning!

"Individual guidebooks may just be excepted from the Italy guidebook."

No, the individual guidebooks for Rome, Florence, and Venice actually do have more information on the 3 destinations, than the Italy book does. Parts are repeated but there is significantly more information in the individual books.

The city-specific books contain a lot more walking tours (of museums/churches as well as neighborhoods). Kent's recommendation to look at the indexes is a very good one.

Thanks for the helpful info! Do the individual books have general "visiting Italy" info as well, such as what to pack, changing money, etc. All the good basic stuff Rick does so well in his big, main books? Or are you expected to already HAVE the big book and then buy the city books for more in-depth detail?

I don't remember if they do or not. But here's how you find out: Go to Amazon.com, select 1 of those 3 books, select the "look inside" feature, then look at the Table of Contents. You'll even be able to look at some of the early pages, in addition to the table of contents.j All for free.

How long are you going to be in each place? That will help determine how much of the extra information in the individual guides you will be able to use.

The main thing found in the individual guides that's not in the Italy book are separate chapters on each major museum and on each suggested walk. So, if you're a museum person or want very detailed directions on walks, the separate city guides may be worth the extra heft and money.

To the point above, about some city and region guides merely being excerpted from larger books, and others having more detail: If the book is called Snapshot (like Rick Steves Snapshot: Italy's Cinque Terre or Rick Steves Snapshot: Normandy), it's generally excerpted from the larger book, so buying both is duplication. If it's not (like Rick Steves Venice or Rick Steves Paris), it has more information than the larger book.

What Harold said. Harold makes a good point about the individual books: that they have the museum walks, if you're a museum person it really is nice to have Rick walking with you through the museum, these are also available in podcast format.

Thanks everyone, especially the tip about the "look inside" on Amazon. I'm leaning toward getting all three books and skipping the Italy one as it covers so much of what I won't be able to see. More $, yes, but also seems more efficient somehow.

As Rick has said, think of a guidebook as a $25 instruction book on how to get the most out of your $10,000 European trip.

Bill,
Harold makes an excellent point by this:

"How long are you going to be in each place? That will help determine
how much of the extra information in the individual guides you will be
able to use."

Consider that you may want to take your guidebook along on your trip.... I'd rather carry one book than 3!

Check each book's index as Kent suggested on Amazon.

I went to the closest bookstore & spent time there comparing & reading several guidebooks before deciding which one was more helpful to me.

Safe travels!

If you have an e-reader and don't mind electronic books - last trip, I bought RS Rome for my ipad mini...was able to highlight and bookmark things for easy finding. And I didn't have to lug along the paper. The trip before I bought Frommers California book - actually, one of the nice things with the e-guides is that if you do have access to wifi while on the trip)...you can use the links to websites which is very convenient - I'm thinking of when we were trying to decide on a studio tour in LA and were able to use the links in the online guidebook to go right to the official sights...caveat - I've only used them on my mini, so can't speak for other e-readers/tablets.

But when I do buy a paper guide, I do tend to buy ones for each specific city for more depth...

"Full-sized" city guidebooks for these three cities do have the general Italy advice as well as the additional walking tours and some other extras. 2015 editions are currently for sale. The three separate books are what Rick would recommend (although you can have a perfectly fine visit with the big Italy book, cut into pieces).

They are different from the Pocket city guides, which have more color pictures, but some other info is abbreviated (especially for hotels and restaurants), and the Pocket Guides currently for sale are 2014 editions.

Snapshot Guides (for instance for a region like Cinque Terre) are just one-chapter excerpts from the bigger Italy book, with less of the front and back "background" material, and publication dates also may not be as current as others.

If you can get an e-version of whichever guidebook(s) you choose, you won't have to worry about books taking up space, and what to do with the book when you don't need it for the rest of the trip.

I'd recommend the individual books for those three cities. They're packed full of additional helpful stuff: more hotel recommendations, sights, walks etc. They really go in depth on the cities far beyond what is in the "Italy" book. I personally purchased the city books AND the Italy book for my trip in 2010 and will probably do so again this time. Its very nice to have an in depth guide on the big cities, plus lots of information about Italy itself. Some things repeat themselves between the two, but both books were extremely helpful and I never regretted buying all of them. :)