Engineers love Venice – a completely man-made environment rising from the sea, with no visible means of support. Romantics revel in its atmosphere of elegant decay, seeing the peeling plaster and seaweed-covered stairs as a metaphor for beauty in decline. And first-time visitors are often stirred deeply, awaking from their ordinary lives to a fantasy world unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. –Reprinted from Rick Steves’ Venice, Italy

Pages: 352 pages

Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches

Weight: 13.6 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

In few places can it be claimed that the entire city is one panoramic work of art. There seems barely a building in Venice that does not contain hundreds of years of precious historical testimony. Of course, much changed down the centuries. A great deal of the city’s early Romanesque and Byzantine buildings were swept away to make room for Gothic splendours. – Reprinted from Lonely Planet Venice and the Veneto

Pages: 308 pages

Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches

Weight: 9.6 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: There are a limited number of photos.

The uniquely romantic city of Venice was built entirely on water and has managed to survive into the 21st century without cars. Narrow alleyways and canals pass between sumptuous palaces and magnificent churches, colorful neighborhood markets and quiet backwaters, unchanged for centuries. – Reprinted from Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide for Venice

Pages: 160 pages

Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches

Weight: 7.5 ounces

Maps: There are very small maps of Venice including one showing the vaporetto routes.

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

Venice is a city beyond description and compare.  Or as the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it in 1851: “Nothing is like it; nothing is equal to it, not a second Venice in the world.” – Reprinted from National Geographic Traveler

Pages: 272

Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches

Weight: 1.1 pounds

Maps: Regional Venice, Italy 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

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.

It is no mystery why Venice, Italy appears on many lists as the number one “dream destination” of people planning a foreign vacation. Venice is mysterious, romantic and well a little intimidating without some help from a guidebook. The canals combined with narrow alleyways create an extraordinary city.

Pages: 214

Dimensions: 8 x 4.7 x 0.6 inches

Weight: 11.2 ounces

Maps: Detailed street maps of Venice. A map of boat routes is located on the inside of the back cover. Venice is a very difficult city to navigate and I have yet to find a map that can get me where I want to be. I generally get around my taking note of landmarks on my route.

Pictures: Good pictures of most major sites