Discrepancies in Guide Books on Italy
 

I have gotten great help on this web site in planning my itinerary for our upcoming trip to Italy, but I have a problem. I have gone back to my guidebooks (Rick Steves, Fodors, Eyewitness) to check on sites that many posters have advised me to see and I am trying to work them in and I find discrepancies in important information on these sites - most importantly, when they are open! My Rick Steves is 2003 and Fodors is 2002. Which would you rely on? I am most concerned with information on Churches. The major museums have web sites that I can check, but what about smaller sites?

This won't go over well with the anti-Rick Steves group, but...<BR><BR>Go with Rick. His books are updated late in the year (meaning late 2002 for your 2003 book) whereas the Fodors book you have was updated in mid-late 2001.<BR><BR>Or you could ask here, and someone who's been recently can confirm.

Susan: I don't know whose books are updated when, but I do know from plenty of first-hand experience that it must be a nightmare to keep up to date on when anything in Italy is open or closed, especially things like smaller churches. Scaffolding goes up overnight and - boom! - someplace you've been dying to see for the past decade is chiuso! In addition to construction and renovation projects, there is the always whimsical attitude of the Italians to consider - today just doesn't seem like a good day to open the museum? Well, then, let's not. Despite all kinds of advance research, we never in a week managed to get inside the WWII museum in Anzio. I've been to Rome three times and never gotten inside the Pantheon. It's just something you have to deal with. Always have an alternative, adopt a relaxed attitude, and have a gelato. If you miss something important to you on this trip, it's a sure sign you must plan another.

Don't rely on any guidebook as to the opening times of small churches. Some are only open for Mass on Sunday, some are only open once a year for the feast day of the saint the church is named for, but the majority of churches are open from 7 or 8 am until noon, and then again from 3 or 4 pm until 6 or 7.

Churches usually post their opening hours near the door. If you go to a church that's closed and you really want to see it, write down the opening hours and plan to return. As St. Cirq said, it's just something you've got to deal with.

ttt

&quot;Always have an alternative, adopt a relaxed attitude, and have a gelato&quot;.

Great advice StCirq. This should be posted in public squares the world over.

Check the web pages of the cities where the smaller sights are located. Some city web sites have very good current information on smaller sights.

Just returned from Italy. The Rick Steves guides were correct in their times. The prices were sometimes off by a euro or two

In answer to your main question, I would say go with the Rick Steve's book, but think of opening hours as a rough idea as opposed to a definite rule (especially for the smaller sites and churches).

I live here in Rome and have to say that the advice from StCirq is right on. I have friends who lead tours around the city and often find their usual stops spontaneously locked up for a variety of reasons (heat, construction, strikes, or some obscure Saint's holiday).

There's so much to see here, if one place is closed, take it as a sign that you should walk around the corner -- or up the street or down the block -- to view another amazing site. That way you can &quot;over-plan&quot; (which we all are tempted to do here, anyway) and not be dissapointed if your fist choice falls through.