Frommer's Tuscany & Umbria (1st Ed.)

These two brand-new guide mark a departure for Frommers, and tap into a market of sophisticated travelers seeking in-depth regional guides to Europe. These regions draw repeat visitors to Italy and France, who have already seen the major tourist centers and are now interested in soaking up the flavor of a smaller region in the countryside.From the beaches of St-Tropez to the Cannes Film Festival, the Riviera has long been a chic destination, and weve combined it with the rustic pleasures and rich artistic heritage of Provence, which has grown in popularity ever since the publication of Peter Mayles A Year in Provence.Travelers to Italy often concentrate on Tuscany alone, since its rich in artistic treasures, Renaissance architecture, unspoiled villages, wineries, and terrific shopping buys. Renting a villa in Tuscany or Umbria is becoming increasingly popular, and Florence ranked #4 on the list of favorite international cities in the Cond Nast Traveler 1996 Readers Choice Awards.

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If you have a week or 2 to spend in central Italy, buy and read the whole book before you leave, and carry it with you everywhere.

My wife and I spent a month in Italy, and 2 weeks in Tuscany and Umbria. We had Rick Steeve's, Eyewitness, and Frommers with us. In large towns with good tourist infrastructure (Assisi, Sienna, etc) we found most of the books comparable. In the smaller towns where we usually spent our nights (Spoleto, Montepulciano, Sovana), only Frommers was worth looking at. We consistently found their hotel rooms most closely matched up with the written descriptions in the book, and their recommended restaraunts, while not as cheap as Rick Steve's, were very good.

Particularly if driving (which is really the only way to see this region), the maps and directions far surpassed the other 2 books. Great maps of almost every town, no matter how small. The only deficiency was the lack of marking of the inbound and outbound roads on the map. Once I figured out where I was entering the town from though, the maps in this book could take me anywhere.

In the final analysis, all 3 books were useful, but we used each differently. We looked at Rick Steves and Eyewitness each morning, but carried only Frommers with us during the day. When we go back, this will be the only book we take.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

A Guide That Will Make You Feel at HomeNov 04, 2000
This was a wonderful guide with witty, opinionated, (accurate in my estimation) comprehensive comment on the many sights and scenes that Tuscany has to offer. We used this guide constantly and exhaustively in the one week we recently spent there. The restaurant and hotel recommendations were uniformly splendid and we were fortunate to discover a new town and a new pasta shape when we ate pici in the hilltop town of Montepulciano, where we would never have considered staying but for this guide. Although I would also have liked to have had a guide with pictures of the attractions, the attraction of this guide makes it well worth that slight quibble. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to the region and I will certainly use it, or a newer edition, upon my hopefully soon return.

do not leave your hotel without itOct 28, 2000
This book was extremly usefull and accurate. As an example we could visit the Brolio Castle because we read that you have to find a rope, hang to it and wait until somebody opens the door. Two tourist who arrived before us this not entered...they did not carried the frommers.... All the directions, tips, locations of hotels, rating of resturants, where hundred percent accurate. I will never travel without my frommers. Congratulations.

Frommer's TUscany & Umbria 2-nd additionMay 01, 2000
I found this book practical and usefull from the beginning - We havn't gone yet but the car rental information alone saved us $100 on a 4 day rental. It's a little heavy compaired to our other book but it looks like it covers Tuscany and Umbria thoroughly.