Lombardy Milan & the Italian Lakes (Cadogan Guides)

Rating:
Summary: entertaining, but lacking detailed info
Review: Facaros and Pauls have provided a fun and entertaining guide but they often forget to include essential information to make the book practical. For example, we are told that above Orta San Giulio there are several fetching towns and attractions but we are not told how far they are or how to get there. Is a car required? Any public transportation? Is the sanctuary a pleasant 2 mile walk or a challenging 7 mile hike? Perhaps if you are making a return visit such details are not necessary, but for the first time visitor they are essential. Also, anyone planning to visit this area will most likely include both Mantua and Verona on their visit, but only Mantua is covered here. (Yes, Verona is not technically included in the 'Lombard Plain,' but can you imagine a guide to LA that didn't include Disneyland because technically it's in Anaheim, not LA?) You'll need another guide for Verona. If the authors issue a revised edition including Verona plus more detailed info, this will be an excellent guide. Mr Pauls, can we hope for this?

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Bunch
Review: I bought 4 books for our trip to the lake region and this was by far the most useful. Granted it does not include specific information about hours and costs for museums and sites, but we found that most of that information in the other books was out of date anyway. Use it with another guide if you need that. This book gives detailed background information on each area with history and culture, which gives you a great head start on your appreciation of the places you visit. We also found that it included some out-of-the-way places not in the other guides and really appreciated the personal opinons. Restaurants we tried on their recommendation were excellent, compared to the mixed results when we picked on our own. No guide is perfect, but this one comes very close, and the coming 5th edition may be even closer!