Rick Steves' Italy 2009 (Rick Steves)

We value the Rick Steves guide books as an important part of our travels. We use them in planning the trip and also as a guide to sites, attractions, dining and hotels once we arrive at our destination. The city walks and guide to pertinent museums are also helpful. We like the fact that the books are updated yearly, at least in part. The other travel books out there don't do this for the most part.

I put "MAP REVIEW" in my title, as it seems that most of the reviews here are for the book? How does that make sense?

This map was good for us as it covered our itinerary - Venice, Florence, Siena, and Rome. The landmarks were helpful, as well as the designations for pedestrian areas and shopping areas. The map is fairly heavy paper, so it will last even if it's not laminated.

My main complaint is the map didn't have enough street level information. So if you're navigating by yourself, you may need another map if you're looking for a particular street location. Also, the maps are marked with the English version of the names of landmarks; for me, I find this confusing when walking around a city.

1/2 of the cities i visited were not on his book. took it to italy with me, left it in the bag most of the time.

Rick Steves is nerdy but he does his homework. Don't think about planning a trip to Italy without this book. Read the book before going to Italy and keep it in your carry-on when traveling. I'd like even more help with places to stay and to eat but the book still proved to be indispensable.

My wife and went to Italy in Sept. 2007, it was amazing to see how many people had the same book. We really liked the book for the suggestions for sites (rating system he uses for must sees) and suggestions for eating estabishments. I thought the suggestions for lodging were a little bit more then our budget could afford...there are great travel sites on the web that can offer lodging at reasonable prices, we did go to some of the dining places and they were great.