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The first Blue Guide to cover both Rome and Florence in one book, as well as the attractive countryside and towns rich in art history in between the two.
6 responses so far ↓
Reader // Nov 18th 2010 at 6:34pm
We’ve just come back from a trip to Italy and your guide of Central Italy has been invaluable. I found one copy in the University bookstore in Urbino. We really appreciated all the cultural information and used your recommendations for hotels and restaurants. If it can be of any use to other travellers, here are a few comments. in Urbino the Hotel Bonconte is good value and very pleasant. The restaurant l’Angolo Divino was overpriced and the food was overcooked but we were early and the only ones there. However it is very friendly. We had THE MEAL of our trip in Urbania at the Osteria del Cucco - a dream of a genuine little Italian taverna. The fish restaurant Da Maria Ponte Rosso in Fano was delightful, cheap and very good. In Assisi we stayed at the Hotel Umbra, very well situated (except for getting to it by car) and well run. The Ristorante San Francesco was excellent and reasonable and the Trattoria da Erminio corresponded exactly to our expectations. In Lucca we stayed at the Hotel la Luna, which is ok but quite impossible to drive to, even the Satnav couldn’t handle the one way streets. We ate at the Trattoria da Leo and were disappointed. It is crowded (only tourists) so the service is hyper fast and you are in and out within an hour whilst you were hoping to spend the whole evening there. The food was rustic but not very good.
I hope the above will be useful. Congratulations for your excellent book and best regards from Switzerland where we live.
Judith Klinger, Aroma Cucina // Apr 2nd 2009 at 5:19pm
Umbria is an absolute gem of a region. Food, wine, scenery, mountains, plains, lentils, black celery, truffles, art and some pretty special medieval hilltop towns!
Blue Guides, Publisher // Jun 30th 2008 at 4:36pm
Umbria will indeed be in the new Blue Guide Central Italy, which, inevitably will be weighty at around 750 pages - as you know there is such a lot to cover. We did a new edition of Florence in 2004, a new Tuscany is being written now for publication Spring 2009, we have a Marche (2006) (the region is also in the new Central Italy) and will certainly review Umbria after Tuscany is out.
It is a constant dilemma that we face: more focused books to smaller regions enable us to provide information in the depth we would like but risk only being able to sell in uneconomic quantities. It is a challenge to make a book covering a larger amount of material maintain the level of information and erudition of a real Blue Guide.
We hope we have succeeded in the new Central Italy, which also incudes new material on Northern Lazio which hasn’t been in a Blue Guide since the 1950s.
Reader // Jun 30th 2008 at 4:35pm
Could you tell me whether you will be publishing a new edition of Blue Guide Umbria in the near future, or whether Umbria will now be covered in the new Central Italy edition? If so, a pity as I have Blue Guides for Florence and Tuscany and I think the new Central Italy edition will be too weighty to accompany sightseeing!
Publisher, Blue Guides // Jun 30th 2008 at 4:34pm
The two editions are identical (even the spelling), transportation from our European printers means that the books tend to arrive in the US a month later than the UK.
reader // Jun 30th 2008 at 4:32pm
The United States and British web sites give different publication dates for this volume (http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Central-Italy-Florence-Guides/dp/1905131224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199365166&sr=1-1 [June 2, 2008] and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Central-Italy-Rome-Florence-Guides/dp/1905131224/ref=pd_rhf_p_2 [April 2008-). Will there be any differences between the two editions other than spelling?
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