Florence and Tuscany (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Most guidebooks are densely-packed with a lot of semi-useful information in a difficult to use format, but the eyewitness books are the exception to the rule. This book (and the series) are my favorite travel guides because they make it interesting and engaging to learn about where I am visiting and how best to see the sites: the most historically significant places, and why they are interesting, unique, and important. -As opposed to getting recommendations on so-called "locals only" restaurants, etc... that always end up just catering to tourists with the same guidebook. We used this guidebook for a trip around Florence, Sienna, and Lucca, and it was great reading on the trains between locations, and small enough to carry around. It was a little annoying to try to match restaurant and bar listing to the maps in the book, so we relied on phone apps and recommendations from our hotel, but despite this shortcoming, I still won't go back to using other guidebooks.

Just spent 10 days in Florence with a few day trips. This book covered everything we wanted to do. The maps are great and very easy to follow. The only negative is the little icon showing if a museum or activity has a fee but doesn't tell you the cost. I assume it's because ticket prices change but it would be nice to know if the entry fee was 3 Euro or 12 Euro. Would also be nice if there was a recommendation regarding booking ahead ie. the secret routes tour in the Ponte Vecchio. There was a three day wait in the middle of the week in October so I can't imagine you could take this tour if you didn't book ahead in the summer.

If you plan to visit Florence, this guide will be very helpful.Things that I liked about it:1-A brief history of the city with a "timeline" to track the events period by period.2-Introduction to the architecture and art in Florence which makes you familiar with too many terms and able to distinguish the architectural styles.3-The areas of the city are divided into very elegant parts. It is written also which bus you should pick from the main station to the area that is described in the chapter.4-The don't miss places are highlighted. It is mentioned also the opening and closing time of each place.5-List of the good restaurants and cafes with rough estimate of the prices.6-List of the good hotels with rough estimate of the prices.7-Very helpful pull out city map with a transportation map.8-Very helpful survival guide.

This book comes with an excellent map of Florence. It's probably worth getting just for that. I would not trust it for much else though.The hours were wrong on two of the museums that we went to. Several of the recommended restaurants were closed (one was out of business, one was closed for the summer, and two others were closed for all of August). This resulted in quite a bit of wasted time. This was a once in a lifetime trip for my wife and myself, so the time that these errors wasted was unacceptable.On the bright side, the historical information provided on a number of the churches and landmarks was much appreciated. It was nice to be able to just walk into a church that looks interesting, and be able to look up a brief history of it on the spot. It made a lot of our unplanned stops a lot more meaningful.

A beautiful, richly pictured little travel companion. Having been to Italy, almost anything about the country interests me, but the surprising detail, albeit in a small package, and the intricacy of this offering stand out above many other more imposing travel books. I'm also an artist, so the sidelights on art history from this region of the land of the Caesars are a plus. Message here: Don't overlook a gem just because it doesn't come in a deluxe size.

I bought my first Eyewitness book on the recommendation of a friend and have never been disappointed. I've gone into book stores and perused the other travel guides and always gone back to Eyewitness. We always start our trips with the walking tours they include so we get a good idea of the lay of the land in the new city. I also love the fact that the entire book is done in color so when they tell you about a specific site they include a picture of it right next to the discription so you always know you're looking at the right thing. By far our favorite travel books!

The clear maps, tidbits of information and suggestions were an important part of our daily planning during our nine day stay in Tuscany. As our own tour guide, we relied on the DK guidebook for suggestions after checking on them with our hotel's concierge. HIGHLY referenced for the day trips to Pisa and Florence, we sometimes read about a location while traveling there on the train. Better than an app downloaded, as we stuck in all the papers picked up during the trip and have that a great reminder of our fabulous trip. Well worth the investment!

I would recommend this travel guide to anyone wanting to see the Florence and Tuscany areas. It is a complete guide, and It certainly makes one wish to experience this lovely area of Italy. It was well worth the purchase and will be a great addition to my travel library. I look forward with anticipation to visiting Florence and the Tuscany region in the near future because of this book.

Attractive book to keep as a souvenir. Gorgeous photos and well written descriptions. As with all DK Guides, the quality of the graphics and layout is great - even if the print is a bit small. This guide's strength is the superb condensed art history. Was only in Florence a few days and so only dipped into the book a few times and on each occasion one or two of the facts were incorrect. Might have just been unlucky with the odd restaurant's closure, but the old pavilion tearooms/toilets facilities listed for the Boboli Gardens have been closed for over 10-years!

I bought this book as we were going to Tuscany and Florence, although I had a small book on Tuscany I thought this one would be in greater depth. Florence was certainly well covered but as we were travelling up the west side of Tuscany there was no or little mention of some of the places that we visited and were well worth seeing such as Castiglione della Pescaia, Massa Marittima and Volterra.

I bought this ready for a holiday to Florence and found it useful and reassuring in explaining how easy it is to get from Pisa airport to Florence (tip #1 - take the bus and not the train. You will get a seat on the bus, while the train is generally overcrowded with people standing in the aisles for the 1 hour journey) The book had enough information to help me plan our days in Florence, and will be useful again when we go back to Tuscany as we are now sure to do. (tip #2 - beware pickpockets if you go to Pisa, as I found to my cost on a city bus from the station to the Leaning Tower).

This gives a complex guide to Tuscany and is extremely heavy for carrying round a city. Therefore I would suggest anyone buying this reads before travelling (very interesting facts) and makes separate notes for pocket or handbag!!

Not too much info, not too little. Colourful pictures including photographs and cut-through cross-sections of important buildings. They set the standard for tourist guides in terms of accessibility and presentation.