Rick Steves' Florence and Tuscany 2007

Comment: Rick Steves could aim a little higher for the audience of his commentaries on cultural sights. Although we found the travel information mostly very useful, we gagged at his snickering description of the Donatello "David" in the Bargello--as the excellent description on the site points out, the femininity of the adolescent figure evokes David's humility, rather than being as Steves implies, a covert appeal to homosexual prurience, which is historically impossible in that period. Similarly, his dismissal of the early three-dimensional crucifix in the Uffizi as "crude" and cavalier attitude about the Cimabue and Duccio paintings of the Madonna in Majesty in the same room imply that the earlier artists are incompetent, which is hardly how they would have been regarded by contemporaries, rather than seeing these efforts as having their own artistic appeal and also as steps in a continuum toward greater realism. We think this juvenile attitude is destructive given Steves' huge influence and the fact that for many, his words will be the ones that stick in the minds of those just getting to know this art.

Comment: I'm going through this book in anticipation of my trip to Italy next year. I think when people write books like this they try to be all things to all people and the book comes out being an overblown mess. He probably could scale this book down by about 80% and give me a book that I could easily reference. I found it difficult to navigate through this book and find the essential info I need for my trip.

Comment: Book is great. Prices in October 2009 were already outdated. Would have been better to use 2010 edition.

Comment: Book is very well written, easy to follow and extremely informative. We plan a trip to Italy next year and as far as Florence, I feel we can follow the tours and tips in the book and cover easily the important museums, churches, etc. Also, Rick gives you some background and history of the places and treasures you are looking at.

Comment: I'm a big Steves fan and enjoyed the book, but it fell short on the kind of info I was wanting concerning the little hill towns of Tuscany. I used another travel book which also fell short in some areas but had more info on the hill towns. With the two, I had a successful trip.