I am planning to visit Italy in the fall. What guidebook(s) should I pick up before making my plans?

There are so many different opinions on guidebooks. I suggest that you visit your library or a bookstore and look at the options and start with the one or two you like best. Favorites are Michelin Green Guides, Fodor's, DK Eyewitness Guides, Time Out, Frommers, Lonely Planet and Rick Steves.

I really like the DK Eyewitness Travel guides. Very comprehensive and the color photos are exquisite.

I think Mamc's advice was best. I would add the possibility of a Rough Guide,too.

We like the DK Eyewitness books for their thoroughness about the cathedrals and castles and such. The only drawback for us is their weight. They are heavy books to lug around. We also like Rick Steves for his straight forward and practical tips for tourists. We go with the one-two combination.

The two I invariably use are Michelin Green Guides and Cadogan Guides. I love the Eyewitness for planning but I usually leave them home because they're heavy.

The Eyewitness is more comprehensive, but for actually being there I like the Top Ten series, which is kind of a condensed version of the Eyewitness guides. Light and compact, but still has color pictures and lots of good info.

I agree that Rick Steves has good tips and introductory city and museum tours. But Cadogan is more fun to read.

Here's my usual advice: Spend an hour or more in a bookstore. Pick a topic that interests you, such as the Sistine Chapel or Pompeii. Look up that same topic in several guidebooks and see which approach and information you like best.

I usually think that for pre-trip research you need two kinds of books.
(they don't need to be bought, they can be from a library). One kind of book gives good information on art and history and architecture (IF those topics interest you), such as Michelin Green or Eyewitness. The other kind of book like our own Fodors, or Frommers or Rick Steves,etc have minimal art and history info, but lots of practical information on restaurants and hotels suggested routes, how the metro system works, etc.

You may find that you don't need to bring all your books with you (Eyewitness, for example, IS heavy) but you can tear out pages or make photocopies to bring with you.

You may also want to read or buy some specialized book, like Gustafson's
Great Eats in Italy. You will also want some good maps of cities, to help orient yourself between your hotel location and the sightseeing you plan to do.

"...you can tear out pages or make photocopies to bring with you..."

I find carrying a few hundred e-books in my PDA to be convenient. There are thousands of travel titles to choose from.

good point, photocopies are SO last century. However, so am I, because I don't carry a PDA, and if I had one would not want to carry it on vacation.
But it's good advice for those who do.

I like the green Michelin guides and Cadogan guides best. If you are very serious and want detailed info re architecture and archeological sites, the Blue Guides are best, but they're heavy and can be too much to digest. The Dorling Kingsley guides are enjoyable to use because they have good photos in addition to decent info, but they're heavy. Various other guides all have certain good points, too.

I wouldn't go without the Michelin Green. It does not include hotels and restaurants but you can wing it. Most guidebooks are weak in these departments anyway.

"Let's Go" and "Lonely Planet" have twentysomethings as their target market, so they have lots of advice on places to party and cheap accomodations. Rick Steves (my preference), Fodors, and Frommers are aimed more at folks over 30.

You've been given good advice. Mamc and Elaine both suggest looking at several. I have them ALL, and they are all good for different things. I like the hotel and restaurant recs in some much more than others.

Example: I think Rick Steves in pretty good for getting people around Paris or certain spots like the Louvre, or in Italy, the Uffizi and Vatican Museums. We followed his advice to see the Sistine Chapel and it was spot on.

But I don't like his restaurant or hotel choices. The only really bad meal I've had in Paris was in a listing from his Paris guide.

Every guide has something different to offer, and almost everyone has a different audience. I don't like DK Eyewitness guides, though many people do. They're pretty, but I seldom learn anything I don't already know, and I don't think they are indepth enough. However, I own an absolutely gorgeous and huge DK book about Britain that isn't a guide book, but a great planning tool.

I like to browse everything from general guides, to art guides, to market and restaurant guides, etc. Hit the bookstore and the library. The used or discount bookstore is also good for books to tear apart.

I love Knopf Map Guides with city maps laid out section by section in large print. For good site seeing information
I like DK Top 10. I go for easy to carry in my bag.

And also - Signpost guides by Thomas Cook (UK publisher). These are comparable to Michelin Green (in my opinion). Thomas Cook also publishes a smaller (that's thinner) Travellers series of books.

Good luck

dk top 10 and AAA spiral guides to have out and about (pick one leave the other in the hotel). and the full DK book of the city you want to see (rome), but only for planning and leave in hotel.

Mickey, I pretty much bought them all for our trip to Italy last June!! I am now needing a new bookshelf to store them on.

I liked Rick Steves guidebooks best for their readable entertaining style. I read his entire Italy guidebook, cover to cover. I also picked up his rome and Venice guidebooks and took them to Italy with us. His guidebooks are relatively light in weight, and that is why they accompanied us to Italy.

I like Fodors and Frommers for their ratings of different sites, so you can get help deciding what you MUST see.

I like books with pictures also, especially good for enticing my teens to take an interest in the planning process. DK Eyewitness has color pictures.

To help cure information overload, I recommend choosing one book and reading it cover to cover, then use all the other books as reference materials. This way you have a good base of knowledge to judge everything else by.

The iPAQ weighs in at just over 6 oz.

The only thing you leave behind in the hotel is the charger.

The city maps can be zoomed in and out to any resolution you need.

You don't need a bookshelf to store your guides on, nor a backpack to carry them.

(I'm gonna make some converts if it kills me. )

Robespierre,

What is the iPAQ gismo? Make and brand? Cost? Does it come with the guidebooks or must you purchase those separately? Does it include Michelin? What other publishers are on it or available?