I'm taking my wife to Italy this summer and want advise on which of Rick's Italy books would be best to use. Our plan is to fly into Rome, then head north to Florence, Venice and end in Milan (taking day trips from each major city).
Any advise would be appreciated.
Ciao,
Matthew
Best of Italy.
There are also guidebooks specific to Florence and Tuscany, Rome and Venice. But unless you spend a lot of time in any, there is no reason to buy such detailed guidebooks.
You probably can check out the more specific guidebooks from you local library. Also travel DVDs.
Yep, what Roberto said. Best of Italy. Worth every penny. And don't forget about downloading audioguides from this site.
I'd go with the "Italy" book. "Best of Italy" has much less textual content (but color photos).
Here's the explanation of how the books differ: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/italy-guidebook
Note also that there's a new "Italy" due out in December but the "Best of Italy" revision will not appear until April of next year. As for the currently-available books, "Italy" is five months newer (September 2018 vs. April 2018).
You've gotten good advice. But I want to add on to how helpful the Italy Phrase book is. Before our first trip to Italy years ago I also bought the phrase book. Every night at dinner hubby and I would pass it back and forth and read from it and later quiz each other. It was so much fun at home but it was very helpful in Italy. In one small family restaurant in Rome (The Grandpa cooked and the Grandma served) Grandma had served us , we were the only non locals there, and she looked at my husbands empty plate and asked, "OK?" He answered in Italian, learned from the phrase book, that it was better than his Mama's cooking! She got this surprised looked on her face and kissed him on the top of his head. I asked her if I could buy a dinner plate because we had a great meal and a great memory. She got someone from next door to translate. We liked the logo. (This is the only shopping I do in Europe, is buy dinner plates with logos from great meals and memories.) She went in the back and got a nice plate, and a wine glass with the logo and had packaged them up nicely. I paid about 5 Euros. Its sitting on a plate stand in our dining room, along with some others.
Get the phrase book and start practicing right away!
Have a Great Trip!
Mimi
I agree with both Mimi and acraven. The "Best of" books don't have nearly the detail that the regular guidebooks do.
And we love our RS phrasebooks. The included dictionary (a bilingual glossary, really) is surprisingly thorough. And the Menu Decoder sections are priceless. Very complete. They don't cover everything, of course, because a lot of food names are regional, but they're a big help.
After the guidebooks are printed, the staff posts updates (attraction and hotel closures, bus/train changes) in the "Guidebook Updates" section of this website. Go to 'home' then 'Travel Tips' then all the way to the bottom of the page.
Thanks all...Just booked out flights...into Naples and out of Milan...2 weeks in country.
OK Mimi, cough up the name of this restaurant, and don’t say you can’t remember, it’s likely right there on your plate!
This is a link to Rick's binders for holding the torn-out pages of the book into carry-able chunks
https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/guidebook-page-binder
Having read the book prior to the trip, and marked it up, etc
I rip up his book and use these binders
Since only a few binders may be needed at a time (Q: how many days ahead are your reading?), I only carry a few binders with. All the un-bound sections are held together (chronological order) and in a large zip-lock.
