I want to bring one guide with me on my trip. What's the best to buy (I'll get the others on my electronic reader).

I've heard Italy for the Gourmet Traveler - Fred Plotkin is supposed to be the 'one' guide. What's your opinion?

Different guides are good for different things, so there's really no definitive answer. Fred Plotkin's book is obviously for food - is that what you're looking for? It's also a BIG book, not something I'd be lugging around with me while traveling. If all you want is restaurant and food information, buy the book and write down suggestions from it to take with you. Or do food/market/restaurant searches on the web.

I like Michelin Green Guides for overall historical/cultural information; Cadogan for unusual perspectives, Eyewitness for planning.

How many regions of Italy are you visiting? I try to seek out more localized books, so Tuscany or whatever not not a big Italy book that would be broad on details.

Welcome!, sharonliz

Agree about Eyewitness for planning. For getting in and out of cities, Rick Steves often has practical info.

We always bought the Eyewitness books and checked out from library as many of the others as possible. There were separate books for Rome, Venice,/Veneto, Florence/Tuscany, and Umbria when we bought.

Am going to your other thread about places to stay.

With only one book, and not too big to carry, I suggest the Michelin Green book.

I agree Michelin Green for sights is the best. Rick Steve's is at least three levels down.

sharonliz, have you ever tried a travel guide on your e-reader? Only asking because I bought two and was very disappointed in how difficult it was to use them on it. Much better to have an actual guide, or make notes from books at home to take with you.

I agree with yorkshire- try to use guidebooks that focus on specific areas of Italy.

For Tuscany, I like the Rough Guide Tuscany & Umbria guidebook.

For Umbria, I like the Touring Club Ttaly Umbria: The Heritage Guide.

http://www.amazon.com/Umbria-Heritag...p/8836528376#_

I think the Michelin Guides have gone downhill considerably for Italy.

I like the guides put out by the Touring Club of Italy.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...91298686731646

Plotkin's book is fantastic not only as a food guide, but as a guide to cultural Italy and marvelous small towns. It is just a pleasure to read. If you can't justify taking it with you because you are only going to one region or two, xerox the pages you think you'll need and pack those.

I think the Michelin Guides have gone downhill considerably for Italy.

Did they move the Uffizi and Michelin forgot to mention it?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll get all that you've recommended as ereaders and then see which one to buy as a hard copy.

RainCityGirl, yes I used an ereader in Paris for guides and found it very frustrating to navigage through - especially when trying to look up something that you need information on immediately. That's why this time I wanted one general content, hard copy book to bring, supported by the ereader books.

Can I put in a plug for two very idiosyncratic guides to Northern Italy, published in mid-20th century? They make fascinating reading and we planned a trip to Northern Italy based on them.
H.V. Morton "A Traveller In Italy" and Edith Templeton "The surprise of Cremona".
Not in the usual vein of recommended hotels and restaurants but fascinating on historic details and architectural wonders.

See what you've started, sharonliz?! Find what suits your particular style and take the subjective comments with a grain of salt.

After I read Eyewitness and then as many books as our library had, I made a chart (on Excel) of the places I wanted to see in a given city. Days closed and general location were 2 of the categories. I then asked the computer to sort by area and then by days closed.

I also printed out train schedules from trenitalia. This was all put in a folder. On any given day, we could choose an area and what was open and see train times for possible day trips. It gave us much flexibility. We tossed the pages as we were finished with them.

I agree with TDudette. When I went two years ago, I read as much as possible from the library and photocopied pages of interest. I printed and took MANY pages from this site as so many people were fountains of information for me and it was easeier than taking a guide book along. I too just tossed pages and schedules as I was finished with them.

I do as galelstorm did, checking out almost every applicable guide from the library and copying pages. I also buy the Eyewitness guide for the country, and each region of the country, that I am visiting. I also like their Top 10 guides for cities. Sometimes they have additional, more specific information that is not included in the other guides.

It goes against everything we learned in kindergarten, but I just rip the relevant pages out of my guide books and map books, and take only those with me. It was pretty funny, one night in Florence, when just about everyone in the restaurant had their Rick Steves tour books open to the same page, face down on their table.