If you get it right, traveling in Tuscany and Umbria is one of those rare experiences in life – like a perfect spring day or the power of first love – that cannot be overrated. Despite incessant praise, the bellezza (beauty) of this region continues to defy description, for Tuscany and Umbria, it seems really do have it all; extraordinary art and architecture; colorful festivals; a season-driven cuisine emulated the world over; and a never-ending landscape of olive groves, vineyards, and poplars. In few places do art and life intermingle so completely. –Reprinted from Lonely Planet Tuscany and Umbria, Italy

Pages: 444 pages

Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches

Weight: 11.2 ounces

Maps: The maps in the Lonely Planet books are the best I have found in any guidebooks. There are city maps, regional maps and a country map. You can actually use the street maps to find your way around a city.

Pictures: The Lonely Planet books have some photographs and sketches.

You finally arrive in Venice, Italy for your dream vacation. After the saving, the planning, the packing, the long flight, you are finally there. You decide to sit and savor the moment in the Piazza San Marco with your first real Italian cappuccino. Then you try out one of the first phrases of Italian you learned in your “Travel Italian” class. Il conto per favore! The cameriere brings out your check and you almost drop your nearly empty cup! 10€ for the cappuccino and a 20€ surcharge for sitting in the piazza. You have spent your daily food allowance in a 30 minute break.

Don’t despair. You can find less expensive places to snack (look for pizzeria’s and bars where you eat standing up) and there are a number of things you can do that are free and at least one that is inexpensive.

Palermo is a city that’s quite apart from the rest of Sicily’s urban spaces. Though it’s on the traditional end of the scale, it carries with it a sense of unpredictability and adventure: its streets are jam-packed with traffic; its markets are a hive of hollers, smells and countless gastronomic offerings; the winding, palazzo- strewn streets of the old quarter contrast with the wide boulevards and glam shops of the new town. It’s a European city with a chaotic nature and a penchant for rule bending. –Reprinted from Lonely Planet Sicily, Italy

Pages: 332 pages

Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches

Weight: 11.2 ounces

Maps: The maps in the Lonely Planet books are the best I have found in any guidebooks. There are city maps, regional maps and a country map. You can actually use the street maps to find your way around a city.

Pictures: The Lonely Planet books have some photographs and sketches.

Rome is an unforgettable city. Still, we sometimes need a book to jog our memories. “Four Seasons in Rome” is just that book.

And if you have never been to Rome? This is the book to get you to save your pennies so you can make the journey.

Mr. Doerr does a wonderful job of relating the feel and uniqueness of each season in Rome. This book is at times thought provoking and inspiring. The book manages to be all this in just a little over 200 pages.

I have started downloading podcasts of Italian lessons to my iPod and it is working very well. I can listen to the podcasts while I am taking a walk or traveling.  Of course, people look at me oddly since I am talking to myself while I walk. There are a bunch of free podcasts you can subscribe to at iTunes if you have an iPod.

Many sites other than iTunes also offer free and subscription based podcasts. I subscribe to the free ones and if I like them I either make a donation to that organization or if they have a higher level subscription rate that adds value I will buy that.

You could keep visiting Italy for the rest of your life and still not exhaust all it has to offer. It’s a treasure chest of art, a living tableau of human history, a culinary delight and a natural wonder with everything from craggy mountains and glistening glaciers to sparkling seas and golden beaches. –Reprinted from Lonely Planet Italy

Pages: 926 pages

Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.5 inches

Weight: 1.5 pounds

Maps: The maps in the Lonely Planet books are the best I have found in any guidebooks. There are city maps, regional maps and a country map.  You can actually use the street maps to find your way around a city.

Pictures: The Lonely Planet books have some photographs and sketches.

Brightly colored balls bounced down the Spanish Steps in Rome on Wednesday. Graziano Cecchini and several other supporters emptied bags full of red, green, yellow and blue balls down Rome’s famed steps and into the boat-shaped Barcaccia fountain in the Piazza below.

Passers-by took photos and gathered up the balls as souvenirs of their trip to Rome. Officials had to cordon off the Spanish Steps while they cleaned up the mess. Cecchini and three others were detained. Cecchini told Italian TV newscast TG5, that he uses “art – if we want to call it art – to stress our malaise.”

Rome is a city of popes, emperors, romance, sunny days, and fountain filled piazzas; a city filled with museums, galleries, churches, and glorious monuments to almost a thousand years of empire. – Reprinted from National Geographic Traveler

Pages: 272

Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches

Weight: 1.1 pounds

Maps: Regional maps, limited number of street maps. Since the book is too heavy to carry with you there is not really a need for street maps

Pictures: Excellent pictures printed on glossy paper

The best of Florence lies mostly on the north bank of the Arno River. The main historical sites cluster around the redbrick dome of the cathedral (Duomo). Everything is within a 20-minute walk of the train station, cathedral, or Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). The less impressive but more characteristic Oltrarno area (south bank) is just over the bridge. Though small, Florence is intense.–Reprinted from Rick Steves’ Florence and Tuscany

Pages: 408 pages

Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.5 x 1 inches

Weight: 1.1 pounds

Maps: Rick Steves includes hand drawn maps in his books which can be helpful in showing you the layout of an area but are not helpful in getting you to a specific place, especially in larger cities where more street names and landmarks would be helpful. You will definitely need a supplemental street map to accompany those in this book.

Pictures: There are no photographs to speak of

Rome is magnificent and brutal at the same time. It’s a showcase of Western civilization, with astonishingly ancient sites and a modern vibrancy. But if you are careless, you’ll be rundown or pick-pocketed. And with the wrong attitude you will be frustrated, by the kind of chaos that only an Italian can understand. On my last visit, a cabbie struggling with traffic said, “ Roma Chaos”. I responded, “Bella Chaos”. He agreed.

While Paris is an urban garden, Rome is a tangled forest. – Reprinted from Rick Steves’ Rome, Italy

Pages: 376 pages

Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches

Weight: 12.8 ounces

Maps: Rick Steves includes hand drawn maps in his books which can be helpful in showing you the layout of an area but are not helpful in getting you to a specific place, especially in larger cities where more street names and landmarks would be helpful. You will definitely need a supplemental street map to accompany those in this book.

Pictures: There are no photographs to speak of

Travelers to Italy may be surprised when they order a Pizza con Prosciutto to find that they have been given a pizza with boiled ham rather than what we normally think of as Prosciutto. That is because Prosciutto is Italian for ham so it includes several types of ham. Prosciutto cotto is the boiled light pink ham that is typically seen in the U.S.

The Prosciutto most Americans are familiar with is actually Prosciutto crudo. Prosciutto crudo is a dry-cured ham that is deep red in color and has a distinctive salty, gamey taste. Prosciutto is aged for 10 to 12 months.

Italy is the cradle of European civilization, established by the Roman Empire and carried on by the Roman Catholic Church. As a traveler there, you’ll see some of the world’s most iconic images from the 2,000-year history: the Coloseum of Ancient Rome, the medieval Leaning Tower of Pisa, Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Venus that signal the Renaissance, the Trevi Fountain, and the Italian city that preserves this legacy in a state of elegant decay – Venice.

Beyond these famous sites, though, Italy offers Europe’s richest culture. Traditions still live within a country that is vibrant and fully modern. Go with an eye open to both the Italy of the past and of the present. –Reprinted from Rick Steves’ Italy

Pages: 800 pages

Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches

Weight: 1 pounds

Maps: Rick Steves includes hand drawn maps in his books which can be helpful in showing you the layout of an area but are not helpful in getting you to a specific place, especially in larger cities where more street names and landmarks would be helpful. You will definitely need a supplemental street map to accompany those in this book.

Pictures: There are no photographs to speak of

Caffé Latte in the morning, espresso in the afternoon and evenings is the Italian way. Americans often drink caffé latte, shortened to latte, and cappuccino all day long which is fine, but don’t expect Italians to do the same thing.

In Italy, breakfast is generally a quick stop at a coffee bar for a small cup and I mean a very small cup (no venti’s in Italy) of coffee. Your coffee may be accompanied by a sweet pastry. At most coffee bars you pay first and take your receipt to the counter to get your order. You then eat and drink standing at the counter. The slow food movement in Italy does not apply to breakfast, which is a fast meal eaten on the go.

A caffé latte is a coffee with hot milk and is similar to French café au lait and the Spanish café con leche. Caffé latte and cappuccino are very similar, the main difference is that cappuccino has more foam and less milk. Espresso is hot, black, strong coffee. It is delicious and will give the shot of caffeine you need to get through the day.

La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind, Review submitted by Susan Willey Spalt

La Bella Figura Field Guide to the Italian Mind is a fascinating exploration of Italian life as told by an Italian author as he takes his readers on a ten day “tour of Italy.” Severgnini is also the author of Cioa America, which humorously chronicles his family’s time in Washington, DC.

Severgnini’s observations are as funny as they are true. The quirks and glories of Italia are explained: Why it is immoral to drink cappuccino after 10 AM; why one never puts cheese on clam sauce; why one does not eat meat and pasta in the same course. He also explores such topics as the art and confusion of Italian conversation, Italian holidays and the perils of Italian traffic.

Rome is over 3,000 years old: that’s a lot of history. Ruins from ancient Rome are everywhere. You will be walking down a street and see an ancient column roped off right next to a very modern parking meter. Churches, ruins, fountains, piazze and the Vatican are all popular places for visitors, both local and foreign.

Pages: 192 pages

Dimensions: 7.5 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches

Weight: 5.6 ounces

Maps: There is a map of Rome, but it is very small.  You will need a supplemental map of Rome to help you get around the city

Pictures: These books have pictures though because the books are small, most of the pictures are small