Best of Italy Guidebook

What's the difference between this Best of Italy guidebook and Rick's complete Italy guidebook?

Rick’s Best of Italy guidebook is in full color, with big, beautiful photographs to help you envision your travel dreams. It focuses
on the very best Italy has to offer--for an unforgettable two-week trip. This book includes sights, walks, and day plans for Rome, Venice, Florence, the Cinque Terre, the hill towns of Tuscany, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast, along with the best day trips in these areas.

Rick Steves Italy, the complete guide, has a color front section and black-and-white destination chapters. It offers more in-depth coverage of more destinations--with more details, more extensive restaurant and hotel recommendations, and sidebars that add context--plus a fold-out color planning map. The complete guide covers all the destinations in the Best of Italy guidebook plus Milan, the Dolomites, the Lakes, and the Riviera towns.

Both books are packed with hand-picked recommendations and Rick's travel advice and tips for saving time, money, and hassle.

Should I get any of Rick's other Italy guidebooks in addition to the Best of Italy guidebook?

If the Best of Italy guidebook covers the destinations on your trip, that’s all you’re likely to need.

Our complete Rick Steves Italy, Rick Steves Sicily, and Milan and the Italian Lakes District Snapshot guidebooks provide coverage for destinations not included in the Best of Italy guidebook.

If you’re spending a week or more in an area, the extra information in a single-city/region guidebook can be worthwhile. Our full-length city guidebooks (for Rome, Venice, and Florence & Tuscany) offer our most in-depth sightseeing information, with extra walks and museum/sight tours, expansive restaurant and hotel recommendations, and full chapters on shopping, nightlife, and traveling with kids.

Although our Pocket guides to Rome, Venice, or Florence, and the Cinque Terre (and the combo Rome, Florence & Venice and Naples & the Amalfi Coast guidebooks) have slightly more coverage than Best of Italy, they’re not different enough to merit packing both. Keep it simple and pick one or the other.