Blue Guide Central Italy with Rome and Florence (Blue Guides)

 (2 customer reviews)

The other reviews here are for the Blue Guide to Tuscany; this review is for the new edition, which is a guide to central Italy (Tuscany, Umbria, the Marche, Lazio) plus Rome and Florence. As such, it will probably be more generally useful to travellers, as most seldom stay within a single province, and multiple guide books make travel difficult.

I have always used Blue Guides - I'm one of those obsessives who actually wants to know who painted that altarpiece in a church I'm visiting or where some obscure museum is located. I have to admit that they're not for everyone, however. This could constitute too much information for many people, so be aware of how much information you like to have when you're touring. This new Blue Guide-Central Italy is much more reader friendly than the traditional Blue Guides. The print is larger (hurrah for middle-aged eyes!), color pictures are included in the text, and practical information (hotels, restaurants) is expanded. I'm not...Read more

As other reviews have said about the blue guides, the books are full of detailed background and interesting information about the places you could visit on your travel. It's easy to read, and it feels as a good conversation or a wonderful guided tour. It's perfect for planning your travel. It has maps of the building's interior (museums basically), with the main works of art and why you could or not be interested in them. It has some good regional maps and I would say it's a perfect companion for other guides that could be more oriented towards restaurants and hotels; the Blue Guide has information about that too, but it is not so detailed in that topic.
It's perfect for planning your travel, great for an imaginary tour, and an absolute must have if you take it with you on your walks all over the place you are touring.