Lonely Planet Italy: Perfect for exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled (Travel Guide)

I really love these new format Lonely Planet guides and this Italian guidebook in particular. It’s much more visual than the old format and much more readable. Let’s face it, we use the internet for looking for accommodation these days and up to date travel info so the fact this is slimmed down is not an issue. This is much more of a planning guide now as to where to go and when. I loved it.

I have been using LP since 1992 and I am disappointed in these latest editions. The maps have very annoying feint text for road names, which I find very difficult to read. There seems to be less information in them than in the past. Obviously there does not need to be much info about accommodation but info about places seems less. Such a shame as they were so good.

Total rubbish. I used to buy lonely planets because they contain tons of useful information in one place eg. A map, a bit of history on each town, how to get in and out of the place (where the airport is and how to get into the centre), some restaurant recommendations and ideas of things to do and then would add in some quirky things to do.This latest version of the Lonely Planet for Italy has stopped all the useful stuff and solely focused on the quirky things. E.g. I wanted to use this book for a trip to Puglia and looked up alberobello and it dedicated 2 pages solely to how you could meet with this specific person to make pasta… that’s a nice idea but I am used to much more than that. Also if this person goes out of business there are no other recommendations.I assume they are calculating that everyone has a smartphone so their recommendations for food and hotels don’t matter so much. That may be somewhat true but then don’t throw away the useful stuff like the walking tours and logistical things (maps, transport).They also have made the book far lighter. Whereas before LPs would have 2 columns of dense text per page leading to 2000 words per page now it’s barely 300 and those 300 words are trivial. So the book is still massive to lug around but it contains pointless informationWhat a shame! I’ll only be buying old LPs from now on

This is an absolutely brilliant guidebook to Italy, with all of the features I'd expect and none of the useless waffle that makes some guidebooks a slog to get through. Genuinely useful tips, a treasure trove of knowledge, inspiring itineraries, and beautiful photographs - this has it all!What to expect:- Sensible itineraries for day trips, multiple day stays, or whole roadtrips in and across Italy's cities and regions.- Lists upon lists of popular sights and destinations to choose from: historical, cultural, architectural, natural, commercial, there's something for everyone.- Beautiful photos and illustrations.- Maps, lots and lots of useful maps, including a bonus fold-out map of Rome.- Great additional tips, like when it's best to visit, what the weather's usually like, when there are extra events like festivals and local celebrations, etc.- A useful good-to-know section in the back, regarding different types of accommodation, travelling with children, being LGBT+, general etiquette, an Italian primer with some basic phrases, and more.We've been to Italy multiple times so naturally I checked those sections first to see what the book recommends and I'm happy to report that it all checks out based on my experience and I would be quite happy to follow its advice. For instance, it recommends starting off the morning of the 2nd day in Rome with the Vatican Museums which is indeed a good idea as the queues there are massive. I could've done without the food and drink ads (e.g. "where to grab a drink" "restaurants along the canals" "have dinner at such-and-such's eatery") but these were less instrusive (just some small notes on the margins) than they tend to be in other guidebooks. This is really just a small gripe though, I just prefer to find places organically during our trip rather than read ads for businesses that may or may not even operate anymore by the time we get there. There were some general notes about Italy's cuisine though, including some popular pastas to try, as well as highlighting other local specialities, which was great. The descriptions, information, and background details were insightful and inspiring throughout. I honestly loved most of it, I can't recommend this guidebook highly enough!

This is a book packed with so much information on virtually the whole of Italy, I think this book would be good for someone maybe planning a trip through Italy as it covers most of the country, the major tourist attractions, the beautiful coastal areas like the amalfi coast, it has information on places to stay , places to dine, must see attractions and historical places like pompeii, Rome, Milan and other major cities and also natural wonders to visit like mount vesuvius and beautiful islands and the canals of Venice.This book is impressive with the amount of detail it holds and you can definitely use this book to get an idea of which areas of Italy you would like to visit first or if you were planning a multi day trip you can get an idea of places you could visit during a weekend stay or longer holiday.The book is chunky and has a lot of beautiful photographs, good recommendations and facts, testimonies, clear maps , highlights of places to see, must see places, it's packed with information.It's well set out and easy to navigate the different chapters and pages , colour coded tabs on the pages help too.This book is a good option to get a good idea of what Italy has to offer, it's an amazing country with amazing history, culture and food , it has good detail but if you are planning to visit a certain place like the Amalfi coast for example then this book has a lot of information but would probably be best combined with another book that is all about the Amalfi coast.But this book is very good , I've enjoyed reading it and one I'll definitely pick up again and get ideas of places to visit in italy 🇮🇹For the price of £14 at the time of writing I'd say that was superb value for a book as packed with useful information as this.

J'ai acheté ce guide en prévision d'un voyage durant lequel je comptais visiter plusieurs régions de l'Italie et je voulais donc un guide qui allait couvrir plusieurs villes et non seulement Rome, par exemple. Ce guide couvre toutes les régions mais leur classification dans le livre n'est pas forcément logique. Je suis déçue de la quantité et la qualité de l'information. Je m'attendais à avoir des conseils plus pratiques (ex: pour visiter cette attraction, acheter vos billets d'avance vs sur place. Lorsque vous visitez cette ville attention à ceci/cela, à l'aéroport ne prenez pas les services des chauffeurs de taxis qui viendront vous solliciter mais prenez plutôt les services des chauffeurs qui attendent à l'extérieur et qui sont accrédités, etc.) Je n'ai pas envie qu'on me décrive le Pantheon, je veux qu'on me dise comment me préparer pour ma visite, ou me procurer mes billets ou encore le meilleur moment de la journée pour le visiter. J'esperais que le livre m'aiderait à planifier à l'aide de cette seule source fiable mais celuic-i s'est avéré assez inutile.

Excelente dicas

Much as I've loved using Lonely Planet for every single trip abroad since 1997, I'm returning this guide.I don't mind the look or lighter weight;I don't mind the greyed-out maps;I don't even mind too much the sparse info, e.g., the Uffizi Gallery in Florence gets a half page and one photo of art, not the two-page spread it used to get, because previous guides could be overwhelming -- well, actually, I do mind, but it's not the deal-breaker;what I mind is the lack of any substantive hotel, restaurant, or shopping recommendations. Every neighborhood in a large city seems to get only three hotel and three restaurant recs. Smaller cities only get three in total of each. That's hardly a guide unless you're passing through for a day. You need another guide to supplement this one, at which point, why not just buy a different one altogether?Very, very disappointing.

Generally, this Lonely Planet is not better or worse than other guidebooks. There are many colorful pictures and texts that try to give a feeling for locations.However, I've always liked the high information density of the Lonely Planet series - including historical background of the country, maps of popular sites (e.g. the Uffici Museum), addresses of restaurants,... The present version lacks on that, probably due to the assumption that travelers use the Internet, where plenty of up-to-date information can be found. For impatient people who do not want to spend much time googling, a guidebook that presents the essentials in a crisp way, might be of value still. That this Lonely Planet does not provide this anymore is unfortunate. (The Uffici museum did not provide a map and I missed the 2nd floor.)

This was the first of the "new" Lonely Planets I purchased and it will be the last. The entire format that every Lonely Planet traveler knows has completely changed. Information on accomodation, transit & food is minimized. Maps have been replaced with pictures. City breakdowns by quarters and their respective sights and tips have vanished. This seems absolutely useless.