Living in Italy

Rating:
Summary: Brief, useful, on target.
Review: I've known about this slim volume for years and have used and recommended it to others succesfully. It is by no means a Lonely Plant -- in fact, it tries to avoid being your standard guide to Italy. It is geared to a people who have never been to Italy and contains all the basics and basic phrases which, despite what the other reviewer says, are necessary survival phrases. I recommend this little book, if you can find it, and want to point out that it is the underlying message of learning to observe to belong to a host culture that is important -- not whether or not it tells you exactly when the banks open and close. The goal of this series is to give brief introductions to people about foreign countries -- with the hope that they will learn to be astutue and senstitive observers of other cultures so that they don't end up acting, behaving or talking like the typical Ugly American -- or sounding like the previous reviewer of this book!

Rating:
Summary: Mis-named and a waste of money.
Review: This tiny book should not be called "Living in Italy". It's cover even goes on to say it's for vacationers and business travelers. It offers no insights into actually "living" in Italy. It further insults by tacking on at the end the most cursory and extremely limited list of the usual "helpful" phrases and metric conversions. It has to be the most worthless travel guide on the market. I will certainly be returning it.