There is no shortage of Italy travel guide books. Indeed, there is such a huge number Italy travel guides that trying to find a good travel guide to help you tour Italy’s top attractions is no easy task.
Luckily though for Italy guide book hunters, people planning to travel to Italy soon, or thinking about updating that old dog-eared Italy travel guide dated 1985 which they found lying about the house, can visit Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, search and see what’s popular on the Italy travel guide front, and then look at the comments.
Well, I’ve saved people a little time but trawling through the Italy travel guide book results to create a top ten list of best seller Italy guides on Amazon.
It’s also interesting to see which Italy travel guides American’s tend to go for; as you will see, Rick Steves’ name crops up rather a lot; and which guides those in the United Kingdom tend to go for. The choice of guides also gives some insight into the destinations people tend to aim for when heading towards Italy. Rome and Venice are the evergreen destinations for travelers from both this and the other side of the pond.
Those over the Atlantic tend to favour (favor) Florence and Tuscany, whereas travellers from the perfidious Albion have a preference for Venice. Dare I say that my American cousins are a wee bit unadventurous Italy-wise? One saving grace, adds he snottily, is the 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go Italy guide, which I have reviewed and liked (aside from the bit about Forte dei Marmi) and which provides a 360° view of all the attractions Italy has to offer. Another aspect which puts those from the US of A in a good light is the existence of an Italian phrase book and dictionary in the Amazon.com best sellers list.
The UK, on the other hand appears to have discovered the delights of Italy’s deeper south, and it’s interesting to see the enchanting Amalfi coastline features, and Italians from Naples will be happy to see that their beloved city – despite the garbage problems, forms part of the Amalfi coastline guide. Naples does have a lot to offer, but you may need to dig a little to find it all, and this is where a good guide can help – it can point you in the right direction of all Naples’ attractions so you don’t miss the unmissable.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Here goes with a guide to the Italy guides, or something like that:
Top Ten Best Selling Italy Guides on Amazon.com
1. Rick Steves’ Italy 2011 with map
2. Rick Steves’ Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary
3. Rick Steves’ Rome 2011
4. Rick Steves’ Florence & Tuscany 2011
5. Streetwise Rome Map – Laminated City Center Street Map of Rome, Italy – Folding pocket size travel map with metro map, subway
6. Italy (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)
7. Rome (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)
8. Lonely Planet Italy (Country Guide)
9. 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go (Travelers’ Tales)
10. Rick Steves’ Venice 2011
Top Ten Best Selling Italy Guides on Amazon.co.uk
1. Italy (Lonely Planet Country Guides)
2. Rome: City Guide (Lonely Planet City Guide)
3. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Venice & the Veneto
4. The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto
5. The Rough Guide Map Rome (Edition 2)
6. Venice: New and revised Edition
7. The Rough Guide to Naples and the Amalfi Coast
8. Sicily: Regional Guide (Lonely Planet Country & Regional Guides)
9. The Rough Guide to Rome
10. DK Eyewitness Pocket Map and Guide: Rome
What’s your favourite guide to Italy? And why? What do you think a good guide should contain? And finally, who has dumped their paper books for electronic versions – seeing as some of the above guides are available for the Amazon Kindle, it seems that some people tend to prefer electronic to traditional books.
As a matter of interest, the Kindle ebook app works very well on Apple’s iPhone 4 – I know, I have several.
See you in Italy!
