Rick Steves' Italy 2008 Book

America's best-selling guide to Italy
Rick's picks for sights, eating, sleeping
Freshly updated for 2008

Italy, home of the Vatican, is Catholic, but the dominant religion is life: motor scooters, soccer, fashion, girl-watching, boy-watching, good coffee, good wine, and la dolce far niente ("the sweetness of doing nothing"). The Italian character shows itself on the streets in the skilled-yet-maniac drivers and the classy dressers who star in the ritual evening stroll, or passeggiata. The language is fun. Be melodramatic and talk with your hands. Hear the melody; get into the flow. Italians are outgoing. They want to communicate, and they try harder than any other Europeans. Play with them.

In Rick Steves' Italy, you'll find in-depth Rick-tested information on trip planning, the best sights, hotels, restaurants, tourist offices, transportation, telephones, festivals and holidays, mail and email, weather, survival phrases, easy-to-follow maps, and great self-guided neighborhood and museum walks...
Cities and towns: including Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Siena, Assisi, Pisa, and Lucca
Sights Near Venice: Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Ravenna
Hill Towns of Central Italy: San Gimignano, Cortona, Orvieto, Civita, and more
The Cinque Terre: Vernazza, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, and Monterosso al Mare
Riviera Sights Near the Cinque Terre: Levanto, Sestri Levante, and Santa Margherita Ligure
Naples and the Amalfi Coast: including Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Atrani, Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Vesuvius, and Paestum
Other Sights: including Lake Como, Stresa and Lake Maggiore, Bolzano, Castelrotto and the Dolomites