mmagrojr

So, my wife and I are all set on the hotels and overall itinerary for our early April 2014 trip to Italy!

1. 5 nights in Rome at the Hotel Lunetta
2. 3 nights in Florence at Grand Hotel Cavour
3. 2 nights in Milan at the Hotel Rosa Grand
4. 3 nights in Venice at Ca Dei Conti Hotel

We were happy with the locations of all the hotels.

Next up: book the flights. Other than this website and forum, does anyone have a travel guide recommendation to help us plan our days/tours?

Thanks!

jjoconnor

In Florence, make sure you have reservations for the museums before you go on your trip. It will save you a lot of time. The Rick Steves guides are good for restaurants. We never went wrong with them.

michele_d

A lot of people do not like Rick Steve's guides but I find them very valuable for information regarding what to do in each city. In addition to easy 'sketch' maps, Rick gives basic information to help you become familiar with a city before arrival. I find them invaluable, especially for first time visitors to Europe.

mmagrojr

Michele, I've been leaning toward getting the Rick Steve's guides to Rome and Italy. Do I need both?

michele_d

Probably just the Italy guide would be sufficient, unless you are staying a week or more in each place. He hits all the top spots in each location so just the one book should be fine.

I tear out each section that I need to take with me and use a heavy duty stapler to staple each separate section together: Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice. You will not need the hotel section as an example because you have already booked. That way, instead of bringing along the entire book every day you can just grab the small section you need for the day, less weight to lug around.

cathies

You may find Rick Steve's recommended restaurants are filled with American tourists eating very average food.

bobthenavigator

The Michelin Green guide for Italy is what you want.

adrienne

It's fine if you use Rick Steves guide books but also get another guide that is comprehensive. Rick omit tons of interesting things to do from his guide books - he includes those sights that he enjoys.

Check your local library for travel guides and browse through a few of them. Or go on line and get travel info. You can get on line travel information from fodors, frommers, lonely planet, let's go (click on "destinations" above for the fodor's guide). Although the on line guides are handy to download or print information nothing replaces a physical book, particularly because the introductions offer good travel/cultural advice.

bilboburgler

The Rough Guide and its 1000+ pages is very good value

StuDudley

Get the Michelin Green guides for:
Rome
Tuscany
Venice.

IMO, Rick Steves isn't a foodie. He likes cheap bland stuff. And like cathies says - his recommended places will be full of Rick Steves followers (Americans) who also like his type of food. If this is your taste in food too - then follow his recommendations.

I agree with adrienne about using a guide book in addition to the RS books.

Stu Dudley

Uma

We like the Michelin guides, as well as Fodors and Frommers.
If you are interested in art, don't miss the Borghese Gallery in Rome -- you'll need to make reservations ahead of time. Check out the Secret Itineraries Tour of the Doge's Palace in Venice, and the Duomo Museum and Bargello in Florence.

dwdvagamundo

Start with a Fodor's for Italy because it has good walking tours, etc. and good lists of the important things to see. Lonely Planet is a good general guide also--their recommendations of restaurants are more affordable than Fodor's which we've found to be quite high-end.

Eyewitness Guides to the cities have good graphic views of what's where and outline good walking tours. They are best for whetting your appetite.

Never used Michelin guide but lots of people on this forum swear by it (as you can see from the above). Seldom use Frommers.

nytraveler

IMHI the Michelin green guide provides the ost detailed info for sights - including how long you really need to spend to see them.

I despise Steeves - but then I don;t travel the way he does - and I find him way too condescending. for restaurants we look at a bunch of different sources - and then ask locally as well.

Jean

Depending on your interests and after studying some guidebooks, you may find you haven't allowed enough time in Florence and/or Venice. If so, consider dropping Milan.

FWIW, I usually plan in the opposite order: decide what I want to see everywhere and then figure out how much time that will take.

IMO, travel guides are personal preference. For planning, I like Fodor's, DK Eyewitness and for some destinations Michelin Green Guides. For carrying, I prefer the Green Guides if we're driving and AAA Spiral Guides for various cities if we're not driving. Or as someone else commented, I remove relevant sections from a Fodor's guidebook and leave the rest at home.

You should always go online to check the open/closed times for sights in Italy. Don't trust any guidebook to be accurate.

I always arrive in a city with a map. Some people like to wait and pick up a free one from their hotel, but I prefer to be prepared. I like Streetwise maps.

mmagrojr

Thanks so much, everyone, for the advice! I appreciate it

caze17

I love the self-guided walking tours in Rick Steves, but would never, ever use his restaurant recs. I use the Chowhound forums for those, among other sources. But depends on your style, I suppose.

Have a great trip!