Rick Steves' Italy
This is an awesome book for newbies like us traveling to Italy. If you've done international vacation travel, you've probably heard about his series. This book is more than a guide book. It gives tips for making the most of your trip, such as where to find the information centers, days and hours of operation of the key sites, and even recommendations on ristorantes. It even recommends you rip out the sections of the book you need and not take the whole thing with you. I guess that sells more books to return travelers ;-)
Eyewitness Travel Guides - Italy
One of the quotes on the back of this book is the best description. New York Times Syndicate says, "Eyewitness Travel Guides are marvels of writing, color photography, and illustration. Plenty of bright colors and photos to make this jam-packed book easy to browse. It has cutaways and floor plans of all the major sites, walks, scenic routes, and thematic tours. We stuck little post-it tabs on the relevant sections, which made it easy to flip to areas of specific interest to us.
Eating & Drinking in Italy
This is a pocket-style book that is great for first time visitors to Italy. It is primarily an Italian to English dictionary of every food and drink under the sun. The book begins with an overview of tipping instructions, mealtimes, and an overview of foods and drink in each of the regions. We photocopied the pronunciation guide page. Learning that guide was one of the best things we could've done short of learning some phrases. We were able to pronounce words on signs and in menus even if we didn't know what they meant. :-) We also learned several of the Useful Phrases. They were indeed useful.
