We're going shopping for Italy guidebooks (the entire country, not city specific), and wanted to ask what you all thought was the best guidebook out there?
Thanks!

I love Eyewitness guides and have several which have been of great help both before and during our trips. The only drawback is that they are heavy. They include very little info on hotels and restaurants, and concentrate on background of the country and places of interest. They also include pages that describe food specialities for certain regions with pictures.

I have also used Frommers, Fodor's, Let's Go, Rick Steves (for Spain), etc. and favor the Eyewitness Guides.

I also like the small pocket sized tour guides for cities, some of which include a city map.

gottheitch-

I looked at your other post to see which parts of Italy you will be visiting. Looks like you will be in:
Florenc + Rome
+/- AC and +/- Tuscany

I personally dislike "country" guidebooks. Not only they are huge, they don't provide much details because they have to cover so much.

So, if the above areas are the ones you are sticking with, I would suggest getting:
1 for Rome
1 for Florence + Tuscany
1 for Naples/AC (if you're heading there)

You will get much more detailed description for each place you are actually visiting rather than skipping over pages & pages on Venice, Italian Lakes, Sicily etc...

Lots of people I know like DK (eyewitness), but their guidebooks are SO heavy that I feel like carrying a brick. I like Fodors because their guidebooks are much lighter and quite detailed.

I would tend to agree with the last poster. Regional guidebooks provide much more detail. I have found the Cadogan Guides very good on background and sightseeing as well as on hotel and restaurant recommendations.

My favorite is Michelin's Green Guide for Italy.

I second the Cadagon Guides. I also think that their Italy Guide, the entire country one, has great little finds, while others list only the main sites to visit. Just rip out the sections that you need to take with you...the next time you travel you will want a newer guide or a different one.

I'm currently reading the Cadogan guide to Venice - very impressed indeed with it, though detailed and aimed at the serious/interested traveller rather than those on a whirlwind tour with only enough time to do the basics.

I vote for Eyewitness guides. They ARE heavy because of the paper quality. For that reason I prefer regional and city guides - they are lighter and more detailed.

Eyewitness are the best guides bar none in my experience. I have used others and Eyewitness seem to be the best whether "country" or "city" specific. I also like to compliment my trips with Rick Steves "Mona Winks" self guided tours to Europes top Museums. There are chapters for Venice, Florence and Rome including walking tours.

Another huge vote for Cadogan. Amazon carries the complete line.

I like the DK/Eyewitness guides and the Michelin Green Guides. Most of the well-known ones do a decent job, I think.

Years ago (like 1990 or so), we used an incredibly detailed and reliable Italy guide by Hachette. I don't know if it's been updated recently, or even if it's still available, but that book was pure gold.

itch,

In the "For What It's Worth" department (and it probably is worth something), Rick Steves currently holds the distinction as having the best-selling guide to Italy, at least in the U.S.

Not bad for a guy who used to eat second-hand food from cafeteria trays.

I use Rick Steves and Eyewitness. I read A LOT of others before I go.

I did an "unofficial survey" in Paris about a year ago. I sat at a cafe in a heavy tourist area and counted books. Eyewitness won by a long margin. However, it helped that Eyewitness comes in a bunch of languages and I saw it in German and a few others several times.

Being a photographer, I like photos in a guide book. I bought National Geographic's Italy and love it. It has pertinent information and wonderful pictures. I asked my girlfriend if I should buy Michelin's Venice, Florence and Rome books for around $70 or put that money towards a nice dinner in Rome.
We had a wonderful time with the one guidebook and city maps!

As a first-time traveler, I find Rick Steve's quite useful. Most guidebooks overwhelms me with too much info without enough prioritization. His book tries to prioritize for us. While that could be very subjective, at least somebody attempts to do that objectively. That, together with recommendations on this forum, helps me to design my itinerary.