Rating: 
Summary: Love it Cheap
Review: Lonely Planet Italy (3rd Edition) is definitely the book to get for a tight budget tour of Italy. I went on a round trip tour, starting from Milan, to Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Beaches on the West Coast and back Milan, simply based on the book. <grin> And the most interesting part got to be that I spend a total of not more than £300, having visited most of the places featured in Lonely Planet <Big GRIN>. The advices on safety given in the book might be a little over the top, but back to think of it, it's worth the precautions.... <smile> Love it Cheap.
Rating: 
Summary: Great comprehensive guide for Italy
Review: This book is great for travel in Italy. The background information is interesting, the maps are superb and the LP writers do an excellent job of highlighting the most interesting sites. I highly recommend this book to anyone going to Italy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Lonely Planet edition
Review: This is not a travel guide. A travel guide is something that you take with you when you travel to help you figure out what you are doing.I had my lonely planet. My wife had her small Japanese guide. We stopped carrying mine after a while. Lonely planet has lots of good historical and cultural information that you can study on the plane or at home before you leave, but it is way to big and heavy to carry around.
Also, it is not very comprehensive regarding restaurants and hotels. How much did these places pay to be listed and to have their competetors left out? There are hundreds of hotels and restaurants in Rome (for example) but only a fraction are listed. We got much better information for free on the Net. There are lots of guides that only have the tourist information you need to have on you. This book is good for the heavy reading only.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Heavy
Review: This is not a travel guide. A travel guide is something that you take with you when you travel to help you figure out what you are doing. I had my lonely planet. My wife had her small Japanese guide. We stopped carrying mine after a while. Lonely planet has lots of good historical and cultural information that you can study on the plane or at home before you leave, but it is way to big and heavy to carry around.
Also, it is not very comprehensive regarding restaurants and hotels. How much did these places pay to be listed and to have their competetors left out? There are hundreds of hotels and restaurants in Rome (for example) but only a fraction are listed. We got much better information for free on the Net. There are lots of guides that only have the tourist information you need to have on you. This book is good for the heavy reading only.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is the first time I've been disappointed with a Lonely Planet publication. I found this guide to Italy superficial and not helpful. It didn't contain information about some quite large towns, information about reaching destinations in scant and maps are not easy to read. And I preferred it when Lonely Planet put all the general information in the front of the book followed by the specifics region by region.
Rating:
Summary: Why didn't the new edition come out earlier...
Review: We traveled in Italy in March 2000 and had the time of our lives. The only grouse I had was that the 4th Edition of LP Italy was not out yet. We took along Fodor's 2000 Guide but relied more on LP's older edition throughout the journey. LP is definitely wordy, but it's worth the read. Plan early--don't leave the reading to the flight to Rome, especially if you have no clue what you want to see/do.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: We visited about eleven cities in northern and central Italy and we carried both the Lonely Planet Italy and the Rough Guide Italy with us. I had the Rough Guide Italy and had no problems looking up information. My companion had the Lonely Planet Italy and she eventually gave up on it. She found the LP to be lacking in basic information and basically a book better left at home. We would recommend the Rough Guide instead.
Rating:
Summary: Better books are available
Review: We visited about eleven cities in northern and central Italy and we carried both the Lonely Planet Italy and the Rough Guide Italy with us. I had the Rough Guide Italy and had no problems looking up information. My companion had the Lonely Planet Italy and she eventually gave up on it. She found the LP to be lacking in basic information and basically a book better left at home. We would recommend the Rough Guide instead.
Rating:
Summary: Pays for itself
Review: We've just returned from 2-weeks in Italy and found this book to be full of great places to stay and eat. We ran into problems right away with a place we were going to stay for 4-nights that we had booked before we purchased this book. Left with no option but to find another place to stay, we consulted the guide. So many beautiful places. Plus points for giving addresses, web addresses if available, and accurate descriptions of what to expect. The sightseeing suggestions were also terrific. We stayed at 2 and 3 star hotels and pensions, got away from the crowds, and suffered no lack of amenities. A must have for your italian vacation.
Rating:
Summary: WELL-DETAILED, BUT SOME SECTIONS ARE BORING
Review: With close to a thousand pages, this edition of "Lonely Planet Italy" may be a heavyweight to lug around, but its information is complete. It explained Italy: one bit at a time. But, for a traveller who is more interested in hopping around than in devouring endless pages, this book may become a burden. I would suggest that intending travellers (and holiday-makers) should regard it as a home reference, while embarking on their trip with a lighter text.
This book is generous with all that concerned Italy: from the ancient Roman Empire to the Renaissance, and down to twentieth century secular state. It provided sumptuous info on the 'dolce vita' lifestyle of the 'Azzuri': including their high alps, old cities, and the Vatican enclave.
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