BOOKS AND LINKS

BOOKS AND LINKS

Below are some graphic links to recommended books for sale on Amazon.com. The miniscule fee we get when you order one pays for more travel books to recommend. We maintain this site at our own expense for our enjoyment and because mover 20,000 people a year visit at least four page per visit, and many email their thanks (and sometimes impossible questions).

If a link shows the book is available only used, that generally means there is a newer version available - click around. We update these books twice a year, but sometimes Russ misses a newer edition.

We also recommend you check your local bookstore, especially those specializing in travel. There are dozens of guidebooks for any given region, and you'll be able to tell by flipping through if they're what you're looking for.

And don't forget your local library!

A FEELING FOR ITALY AND ITS REGIONS

You're not going to the whole of Italy; so lugging around a huge tome when you'll be in only two or three cities, or one region, makes little sense; but you should have something colorful to browse through first, especially if you haven't decided just where you want to visit.

Although Kaye has amassed a collection of over fifty books on Italy, we think the Eyewitness Travel Guides, Italy is just right for ease of reading, maps, and pictures. Others you'll riffle through in a bookstore may contain more hard core information, but this one is a good introduction. Similarly, Eyewitness Travel Guides, Rome, and Eyewitness Travel Guides, Florence & Tuscany, are good easy to use, and follow.

In 2006 Frances Mayes (Under The Tuscan Sun and more) published A Year in the World, recounting her travels in Europe. The chapters on Capri, Montavi (Mantua), Naples, and the south of Italy (mostly Sicily) are very helpful for those who want to get a real feeling for a place.

Elizabeth Romer's wonderful The Tuscan Year really is a must, especially if you'll be traveling in the countryside. Her observations will heighten your own.

Once you've decided where you're going to go, you'll want guides that you can take with you.

The Insight Guide Tuscany is good. If you'll be spending a week or so in Tuscany, it's worthwhile.

Although the Fodor websites are merely commercial fronts, Fodor's Naples, Capri & Amalfi Coast is a useful introduction to the area, especially for budget travelers. For a more "Oh, we've got to go there!" feeling, try Fodor's Escape to the Amalfi Coast. Warning, we vowed to go once; we've been three times. It's addictive.

The AAA Spiral Guide to Rome is very well organized, with decent maps; and it's easy to use and to carry around. Remember, you'll be toting these things in your purse or pocket. The same is true of The AAA Spiral Guide to Venice.

If you're going to be in Venice for more than a couple of days, and you're the sort, as Kaye is, who likes to read a lot in advance about where you're going, Venice for Pleasure takes you absolutely step by step through every corner and canal. A sample: "The first nineteen rooms of the Accademia can be done in half an hour by any traveller with sound limbs and a willingness to postpone the delights of such heavyweights as Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese." Now you know if this book's for you.

The lonely planet Best of Florence is a thin volume which you might keep with you, after consulting other, more comprehensive guides before your trip.

We have not traveled south of Amalfi, although it's on our agenda for the next trip, along with Sardinia, but there is a wonderful book to help you decide whether or not to visit - Salute! Food, Wine, & Travel in Southern Italy.

If you're in the mood for a truly lighthearted view of the Italians, by an Italian, a good read, but not a guidebook, is La Bella Figura - A Field Guide to the Italian Mind. A sample: "In America, a red light has only one possible interpretation - Stop! An Italian red light doesn't warn or order you as much as provide an invitation for reflection."

The various Insider's guides, those with 10 or 25 or whatever best in their titles, and the Dummy's Guides to . . . are, for the most part, not up to the level of the above guides or many of the others on bookstore shelves. Because they're done quickly, they're generally not comprehensive (as, indeed, our site is not - but we don't pretend to be), Glance through them - they may be just what you're looking for - but don't order them online without seeing them first.

Although this is a link, it has a great article on Rome. Go to www.budgettravelonline.com and input "Rome Sweet Rome" in the search box. It will lead you to a four pages by an American who spent six months there.

HOTELS AND INNS

It's important to know that the Italian system of ratings is as thorough and dependable as can be, and more inclusive than, say AAA or Mobil in the States. A one-star will be the rough equivalent of a good local motel in the U.S.; two stars is a better hotel in the countryside than in the cities, but, to our way of thinking, superior to the various chains which line the approaches to most American cities. Three stars (of which Stella d'Italia in Lugano, and Eden Roc and Buca di Bacco in Positano are hotels we recommend on this site) are getting luxurious, especially by comparison. There are few hotels in the U.S. which are in this category, since the all-suites types are vastly inferior to three star Italian hotels. You simply can't compare Holiday Embassy Suites and others to anything other than a one star Italian hotel.

Three star hotels can be found at good rates. As of May 17, 2007, for instance, the high season rate for a superior double with lake view at Stella d'Italia in Lugano will run you just under $200 a night (see http://www.coopmead.com/Lugano.htm for photos), with singles as low as $120 per night, again in high season.

Four and five star hotels are truly in the luxury class; we find them to be far superior to (and generally more expensive than) their American counterparts (thanks to the dollar/euro gap), with the exception of the fifteen or twenty cited over and over in travel magazines.

All honor to Karen Brown's Guides. Her guide to Italy led us to all the places recommended in Itinerary #1 except Rome (she's good on Rome, too - but we had Roman friends to guide us). Each has a listing on her website www.karenbrown.com. Buy her book. And she welcomes your comments on places you've stayed.

Charming Small Hotel Guides - Italy has great pictures and all, but it missed the boat a little concerning Lucanda del Sant'Uffizio and REALLY missed it with Pensione Bencista. Among other errors about Bencista, unless you've been drinking Thunderbird, the house wine is terrible.

The Dorling Kindersley Great Places to Stay in Europe (Eyewitness Guides) was extremely helpful and full of suggestions of what to see. It was very modest in its description of Pensione Bencista in Florence, which makes us trust it even more.

Great Sleeps Italy - Florence, Rome, Venice is an eccentric but useful guide to low to medium-priced hotels and restaurants in those three cities. This is not a guide for luxury travel. Listed as a luxury hotel here is the Novecento in Venice, which we rate as okay for budget travel only. The star rating system in Italy, however, assures you of the quality of your accommodations.

There are many many websites which attempt to give you this kind of information, of course, but most are paid for by the participating hotels. Find their names first in Karen Brown's or other guides, then go to the websites for pix and prices. We especially like www.italyby.com, formerly charmingitaly.com

The lonely planet's Italy is fine IF you're traveling by rail or bus and generally confined to the larger cities. Otherwise, it's not as good as others.

Rick Steves' Italy 2007 is a good guide for low cost trains and buses, restaurants, and hotels, but its popularity means you must plan ahead (See Planning Ahead - http://www.coopmead.com/Planning%20Ahead.htm). Similarly, Rick Steves' Rome, Rick Steves' Florence & Tuscany, and Rick Steves' Venice are good guides for the budget-minded.

EATING

Virtually all the guides listed above also give you information on restaurants in the areas covered, and they are unlikely to lead you astray. Two others, however, are devoted entirely to eating and are worth your while if, like us, eating is a major reason for your trip.

Keep in mind that you'll be eating in a relatively small number of places. For short visits, then, these guides are best used in advance, with a few pages cut out to take with you. You don't want to be burdened carrying around dead weight - and you'll need room for purchases and the inevitable swelling of dirty laundry - so use the lodging and eating guides only in planning.

The Eyewitness Guides cited above are the best combination of what to see and where to stay and eat.

Eating in Italy is a splendid tome to use in most of Italy (Rome excepted), but it will drive you crazy trying to figure out how to use it. You must have your route and Michelin map or city and local map well in hand before you attempt to find a reference. But it's worth it - our first restaurant ever in Italy, in 2000, Aquila d'Oro in Rubiera in Emilia-Romagna, came from this book's earlier edition - and it started our love affair with the country and its cuisine, er, cucina.

Companion to the Great Sleeps book is Great Eats Italy - Florence, Rome, Venice. Only one of our recommended restaurants in Venice is here - the marvelous Al Covo, and none of our recommended ones in Rome. But it's a comprehensive and worthwhile purchase, if you're going to be traveling only in these cities, or to add to your library of planning books before you go.

If you're a real food and wine enthusiast bordering on obsessed, or you want to take cooking classes, or you'll be renting an apartment and cooking rather than just eating in restaurants, or you like to feel like an insider, and you don't mind too-small, too-light typefaces, try Italy for the Gourmet Traveler. It leaves out virtually all the restaurants we recommend, and poo-poos anything the author thinks is too popular (clearly the author's hangup, not the restaurants'); but it's filled with places you wouldn't otherwise find.

THE LANGUAGE

As for dictionaries and phrase books, The Marling Menu-Master for Italy was helpful, but we were astonished how many things on menus weren't in it despite its completeness. Guidebooks usually have a section on words and phrases, but you'll want something to tuck into a pocket (or everyone's pockets - you can't have too many people trying to make you understood).

Russ liked Passport Books' Just Enough Italian, but there are dozens in the pocketsize paperback format.

Our page on Italian http://www.coopmead.com/Italian.htm has the most basic words and phrases you'll need (but you'll still want a slim volume), and it has a link that you can click on to print it out in an easier format than trying to print the web pages.

SHOPPING

Suzy Gershmann's Born to Shop - Italy was great. After just two weeks, our copy was held together by rubber bands. We made heavy use of it. We couldn't find two of the mill outlets in the towns the author mentioned, but led us to Foxtown near Lake Lugano--Versace, Prada, Bally, all at incredible prices. The book's information on Rome and Florence, while geographically confusing, was helpful.

KEEP IN MIND - IF YOU PLAN WELL, YOU WON'T HAVE TO CARRY EVERY BOOK - RUSS EVISCERATES THEM AND COMPILES AN ITINERARY/INFO VOLUME FOR EACH TRIP, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPIES OF RESERVATION CONFIRMATIONS.

Links for more information

Links are scattered throughout the site, but we've repeated them here, and added others. (Links are notoriously short-lived; but we'll keep testing them. If you get a bad one, the best bet is to go to the basic listing before the first slash (/) and find your way from there. These were all active and accurate on 01/25/08.)

Driving problems and warnings - www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/3837/drvitaly.html
See also our page Cars&Driving http://www.coopmead.com/Cars%20&%20Driving.htm.

Distances between major cities - www.initaly.com/ddistkm.htm Don't forget to click the miles option - the link will come up in kilometers.

Weather conditions, http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/IT_cc.html

Translations (one of the great websites of all time - this will translate to and from many languages. - http://babel.altavista.com/

Accommodations - www.karenbrown.com, www.hotelsabroad.com, www.booking.com, the individual sites listed under each of our recommended hotels, and the individual websites which hotels you'll find in guidebooks will have. Look also under the name of the hotel in various search engines.

For instance, while deciding on Stella d'Italia on Lugano such a search gave us three websites on hiking that mentioned how good the hotel's restaurant was. That convinced us to stay there. And www.italyby.com, mentioned above, provides details from an impartial source.

Official Italian site - www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it. Very good work by the Italian Embassy. Most of the others are created by commercial entities. Many of the cities have their own websites as well, useful for maps and places BUT NOT for eating or lodging.

Currency conversion - http://finance.yahoo.com/m3?u. There are lots that are just as good as this one

Search engines - www.google.com and www.yahoo.com list pages and pages of websites devoted to Italy, with lots of redundancies. Cruise them for special interests, for history, for climate, for maps; but be careful using them for accommodations or travel. The regular travel sites, and books such as we recommend, are much more likely to be reliable.

Sites/sights - Don't input "what to see in italy" into a search engine - most of the links are blatantly commercial sites. http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Italy/Where+to+Go is a little dull, mostly text, but it has good links and downplays the commercial aspect. Use it cautiously, and rely on us or the guidebooks for specific accommodations and restaurants, since the site is a commercial one, even if it's probably the best at giving concise information.

Don't forget www.budgettravelonline.com, input "Rome Sweet Rome" in the search box.

If hilltowns are your wont, try http://www.initaly.com/regions/hilltowns/michael.htm

The guidebooks we recommend are your best bet, or thumb through a bunch in a bookstore, looking for easy to read text and good maps. Libraries usually have only outdated versions, but the Coliseum was still in its usual spot the last time we checked.

Shopping - The book Born to Shop is the best source of all, but, if you have only one bargain shopping destination in Italy, it's the killer mall at Mendrisio in the north, near Lugano http://www.foxtown.ch/mendrisio/it/welcome.html.

One note about Born to Shop - you have to have good maps to find some of the out-of-the-way spots. We were looking for a cashmere factory outlet in northern Italy in 2000 and, unable to locate it, went to the local supermarket/mall and bank. The bank manager said, "You're American. What are you doing here?" and he hadn't heard of the factory. But we intend to try again.

Milan is for the fashionistas, Rome for the concentration of great, and usually expensive, stores in a small area, below the Spanish Steps. (The Escada store doesn't even put prices on anything any more, and the staff know the minute you walk in whether or not you're able to buy anything. It's sort of like Pretty Woman without Richard Gere's credit card.) But there are lots of bargains in the same area, too.

ANY OTHER IDEAS? Send them to us by clicking on ideas@coopmead.com.

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